Tuesday night special

Starting tonight, every Tuesday evening I'll be working on Niek's anniversary present. Tonight I selected the fabric - a surprisingly hard choice - after skipping downtown this afternoon with the kiddoes to pick up the required DMC flosses. Yep, I'm actually going to follow the rules this time. Will wonders never cease?

This is a pretty big project for me: 230 stitches long by 100 stitches wide. I'm doing it on a 32 count Silkweaver opalescent lugana I got in my "Celebrations" packet (three stitcher's half yards of hand-dyed fabric). It's called Jubilation, which seems very appropriate for a 5 year anniversary gift. I've only laid down the first stitches in the upper left corner (I am being smart this time and doing the border first, no matter how dull it is!) so the photo is pretty dull. The first page of my working copy of the design is also shown. The chart is "Good Things" - an oldie but goodie from Birds of a Feather.

Niek plays chess every Tuesday from about 8 pm to 1 pm, so if I am reasonably disciplined about this, the progress should be pretty good. The trick will be to keep the WIP package secret from him - not exactly an easy task as it's a big bundle and we don't really have any good hidey-holes around here. I am curious how this rotating system will work out.