Pete takes shape: stash-busting again!

Pete the Penguin now has a body!  Like every other character in my Penguins on Parade series, his outer body has been stitched in basketweave with black Petite Very Velvet.  I've said it before and I'll say it again:  you can't be too rich, too thin, or have too much black PVV in your stash!

I decided to switch threads, however, for the white sections.  Sometime prior to 1998, when we moved to Texas, I bought half a hank of white Medici wool from my then-LNS The Village Stitchery in Wilton, Connecticut (which closed nine months after I moved, a coincidence not lost on DH).  Since the original Medici hasn't been made in years and I couldn't use it for a model,. the thread has languished in my stash.  But I always thought it to be the "whitest white" of threads, so decided to use it here. 

Pete's eyes were worked in Smyrna crosses with Kreinik #12 tapestry braid #005.  Silk & Ivory "Pumpkin" was used in an upright gobelin stitch for the beak and a satin stitch for the flippers.

Only the red areas remain, which I hope to finish in the next day or two!