The sky above, the water below

I began stitching Jeffrey's Hook lighthouse with the sky, needle-blending again! The photos I've been working from show a somewhat hazy sky, typical of what you'd find in a big city, so I selected lighter values within a blue family of DMC floss to convey this look.

Turning the canvas upside down and beginning at the horizon, I used two plies each of DMC floss #3756 and #775 in basketweave, staggering the bottom row every other thread. The recipe for the rest of the sky is as follows:

Row 2: One ply DMC #3756, three plies DMC #775
Row 3: Four plies DMC #775
Row 4: Three plies DMC #775, one ply DMC #3841
Row 5: Two plies DMC #775, two plies DMC #3841
Row 6: One ply DMC #775, three plies DMC #3841
Row 7: Four plies DMC #3841
Row 8: Three plies DMC #3841, one ply DMC #3325
Row 9: Two plies DMC #3841, two plies DMC #3325
Row 10: One ply DMC #3841, three plies DMC #3325
Row 11: Four plies DMC #3325

Moving on to the water, I used DMC floss #3755 and #334 in a slanted gobelin stitch over two threads, which gave an indication of movement within a very small canvas space. The darker shade of blue at the shoreline also provided the illusion of depth to the water.

When incorporating six different values of a blue family in one canvas, a DMC color card is an invaluable reference, as the ascending values aren't numbered in a predictable numerical sequence.