An Original Finish: Clitarita!

I feel pretty proud to introduce a preview of this design here at Grimalkin Crossing: Clitarita, a counted cross stitch project stitched on 28 count black monaco, using two strands of DMC cotton floss “over two.” This is fresh off the hoop, I haven’t soaked it yet to plump up any of the fibers — but that coverage is already f’n fabulous.

Clitarita was inspired by the magnificent, magical, infinitely perfect design of the human clitoris, and by my love of Art Nouveau colors and curves.

I designed it because I need a new bag in which to keep my favorite deck of tarot cards + book, and because I want to make it myself. It was pretty important for the new bag to feature something I’d stitched, but the more I looked at designs that I thought might be appropriate, the more I realized that I really just wanted to stitch a clit.

A pretty clit.

So, here we are. The world could do with 100 more pretty clit designs for counted cross stitch, so like, now there’s only 99 to go.

The story behind the name is as follows: The WTFYW Cross Stitch fb group has had stitch-alongs (SAL) every month this year, and we’ve featured themes for beverages (alcoholic and otherwise), and for the sexy bits of the human body, and in a group chat I sort of recklessly (well, actually drunkenly) promised something along the lines of a mojito backed up by a vagina — Vagito — and I never could get anything right that I liked.

Then there was that depressive relapse, and I lost interest in just about everything, again. Anyway, when my current tarot card bag began to unravel at the bottom seam and I needed a new design for it, I spent about a week getting this down on paper, then reached for colors that were meaningful to me.

• The pink is not only because some of my favorite clits are pink, but also because I made peace in my decades-long war with the color pink just generally, and wanted to commemorate that I got my power back out of it.
• The blue is for a pair of eyes I will never see in this life, and…
• the green is kind of margarita green so I can touch back to Vagito, anyway.

So, there you have it. Now I have to solve the ever-looming, long-delayed software issue at my workstation, because I MISS DESIGNING these things and I don’t intend to be thwarted on this any longer!

Thanks for reading along. If you are interested in stitching a version of Clitarita for yourself, stay tuned. It’s coming!

Festive Mermaid Ornament

Keeping with the stitching to preserve what’s left of my sanity. My niece reached out to me after the election and we’ve been able to reconnect and catch up a bit in the days since. She’s one of the few younger folks in the family who’ve spoken up to say that she likes my stitching – and that she had a couple of kids who’d appreciate receiving hand-stitched ornaments. 🙂 I hope it’s true.

I took the template for this from a summer mermaid chart from the Snowflower Diaries and had a ball making changes based on what I’d been told of her preferences. What fun.

Looks like a party to me!

This is 28 ct light blue monaco, stitched over 2 with cotton flosses. The flower stem is a variegated green from The Gentle Art. The rest of the flosses are DMC. 

I’m still mulling how to finish it. There’ll be another pic when the get that part sorted.