The whole kitting caboodle*

* Someone once pointed out that my name is an anagram of "bad line". I feel, therefore, that I am allowed, nay, obligated to pun.

Ah, amazing what a little stitching can do for my (admittedly tenuous) sanity! I got to stitch for about an hour last night while watching the Sharks-Avalanche game. I unfortunately had to do a wee bit of frogging - picked up the wrong shade of flesh because I misread the symbol beside the needle. Fortunately I didn't get too far before I discovered the error, so it was only a small frog. Hopefully I'll get a chance to stitch more tonight, preferably during the Lightning-Habs game.
GO BOLTS!

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Stitcher's Five - 4/26
1. Which do you prefer, Kits or Charts?
Usually charts, though for some designs I will get prepackaged accessory packs of specialty threads or embellishments if available.

2. Why?
I like to be able to substitute fabric or threads. When I first started stitching on evenweave, I'd get kits because I didn't know where to get the fabric otherwise. Now I know places to get my fix. So, I will usually get the chart instead of the kit unless the materials are very hard to find or too expensive to acquire individually.
There's also the issue that many kit flosses are of inferior quality.

3. How do you organise your materials before you stitch?
I use holepunched strips of cardboard or cardstock to organize my floss (in numeric order). If the designer has approved a single-use copy, I make a copy and put each page in a sheet protector. (I shred the copy when done). I then store the floss, design, material, and any other extras such as beads in a manila envelope.

4. Do you do anything to the sides of your fabric before starting?
I used to tape the edges, but I got a tiny serger about a year ago that I now use for securing the edges. Some online stores pre-serge fat quarters of fabric, so if my design is already large enough to take up most of the fat quarter, I don't bother cutting the fabric down.

5. What do you do with the leftovers when your done?
I usually save them in a box, unless it's cheapo kit floss. For pieces I've kitted up myself, I've used a whole skein of DMC for each color when kitting, so for future kittings I can go back and use the leftovers. After all, it can take one quite a number of pieces to use up a skein of fleshtone :)

And now that I think on it, maybe cheapo kit floss could be useful for children's crafts...