As you can see, I have gotten a bit more done on the center motif this past week.  As I am stitching with the black again, I am having trouble mis-counting again but this is coming to an end now and I am enjoying filling in various other colors.  I will be very pleased once I am able to fill in the first half of the middle completely and begin on the second half.  
​This week, I am looking after my 2 year old grand daughter so won't get much stitching done. It is fun though because I haven't seen her since Christmas eve, due to the lockdown.  It is wonderful that she still remembers me!

This past week, I have been having a lot of fun working on the middle sections of the rug.  I have decided to work from the corners towards the center.  The main corner I am working is the bottom left, but if I have a lot of thread left in a color I won't be using close by, I have been ending the thread and working the opposite corner.  This is why the opposite corner has a lot less finished.

You will notice that there are a couple of threads that are still attached to the little motif on the left side near the halfway point of the side.  These threads lead upwards, away from my stitching and are placed outside the stitching area of the rug.  This method is called "parking" your thread and is used when you are going to be using that color again soon but don't wish to count to the next place you are going to use it.  I often make mistakes if I have to count too far without other stitches close by for reference, so I do this to save the thread until I have done some more stitching close by and can count easier.  It saves me having to end off my thread and start again. I keep the end of the thread far away from my stitching area so that I don't accidentally stitch the end in with my work. 

​Sometimes stitchers will leave the needle threaded with the color and "park" the needle on a magnet they have attached to the side of their frame (or if using foam core, they can poke it into the foam on the side).  This way, they have multiple needles in use and don't have to keep re-threading their needle when switching to different colors.

I will also "park" threads if I am using a dark color and have a light color to stitch between the dark color and the next dark area.  This is because if you carry the dark thread across before stitching the light color, it will show through.  If the dark color runs across the light area after the light area is stitched, it won't show through.  Ideally, it is best to run the dark thread under another equally dark thread to get to the next dark area, but sometimes this isn't possible.