Park It Like It's Hooot! Park It Like It's Hooot!

I'm pretty sure that when Snoop (Doop Doop) Dawg was singing this song, he really meant cross stitching. Some of you may say, "No, no VanaQB. That's not what the song was about at all!" But I implore you, just listen to the song one more time and you will realize how related to the Parking Method (PM) in cross stitching it really is.

Dance on Snoop Dawg, dance on.

Just recently, I re-watched a video by Carolyn Mazzeo on her PM Method and a few more things clicked for me. As you now know I am currently working on my under the sea project (Sebastian would be proud) for my sister who is a hard core marine biologist. Seriously, she is. You can read all about it. 

I'm doing this new piece and I thought, "Hey, why not try that PM thingy? It should work!" So I work on a square, getting all the pretty colors alinged and everything, place them in their correct holes....and find that its hard for me. 

Whuuuuuuttt?! I thought. 

This was supposed to be easier and help me with this.

Finish the square and decide, "Ok, I'm done with parking." Then I fiddle around on my Instagram, VanaQB (with the fairy picture), and find one of my all time lovely cross stitchers had re-posted her video on the PM method. And I thought, "Hey! I watched this before (not knowing it was her, my bad girl)! Let's watch it again!" 

Cuz in the back of my mind my artistic voice was being all picky and saying things like I did something wrong. 

Ssssshh, artistic voice. Ssshhhhhhhhhhh.

I end up watching the video and notice that the little voice was right. I had been doing it differently than she had explained it! Let me reveal it to ya: instead of doing little square by little square, I would go the entire row that had that color. That simple! And let me tell you, it made sense to me....but I don't and didn't like how my threads looked when I Single Ladies handled them, and prefer completing entire rows instead. 

Also, little known secret, PM helps with having to re-thread threads all the time. Can you imagine having to resew in a specific color just because it starts in a new box? Don't imagine. 

I already did it. 

So lessons learned and had! It's not the project that I'm working on (though most PM methods were shown in large scale HAED designs) that makes the difference, its really how I use it and whats comfortable for me. In the end, I do a knot at the back of my stitching and complete columns more than rows. I'm pretty sure I will end up altering some of my methods as I go, that's what growing is about, and using whatever I can to help with my work. PM is just one of the many. 

Have you parked it like its hot?

Toodles!

-VanaQB