A Fourth finale--sort of

I finished Eldred Rock lighthouse, or so I thought, until I took this photo and discovered two missed stitches! But with a houseful of guests and Fourth of July festivities to occupy me, I decided to run with the photo anyway and pop those two stitches in when the dust settles!

For the water behind the lighthouse, I needed a low-profile, horizontal stitch for an area only five threads wide. Fitting the bill was a horizontal interlocking gobelin stitch, for which I used three plies of DMC floss #3755.

The grass was worked with Wildflowers "Jade" in a diagonal mosaic stitch. I used two strands, cutting the lengths as they came off the skein, then reversing the direction of one so streaking of the variegated thread would be minimized.

The rocks had me stumped for a bit. I knew I wanted to use a diagonal vertical cashmere stitch, but the shade of Burmilana I'd planned on using was too brown and the gray Burmilana I had on hand was way too light. Scouring through my stash, I found an unopened skein of gray Medici which, had it been a human, would probably have been old enough to drive. The Medici was almost identical in weight to the Burmilana, so I combined one strand of each to produce just the color I was aiming for. French knots of Sheep's Silk "Camouflage" formed the vegetation growing in the rock crevices. It's the outcropping just right of center missing the two stitches!

I used the same horizontal interlocking gobelin stitch for the water at the base of the rocks, increasing to four plies of floss for a more solid look. Less than ten minutes of work, and this lighthouse will join its scores of buddies!

Happy Birthday, America!