Penance

I must have been very, very bad. How else to explain why I find myself only halfway through the counted cross stitch project that seems like it will never end?

A very sweet friend asked me to help a friend of her friend who was in need of a surrogate stitcher. Coming off my big finish of Chaos, Flow, Meanders, I guess I felt capable of anything. I said yes, sure, no problem.

The best I can say is that it has turned out to be a humbling experience. I have confirmed my lack of aptitude for counted cross stitch. I also don't read Hebrew, so the letterforms mean zilch to me. I have to pay attention to the pattern, and even when I think I have, it turns out I made a mistake of one stitch ten letters ago and the whole thing needs to be taken out and redone. Uurrrgghhh.

The panel is to be part of a large project that will reproduce the entire Torah in cross stitch. I won't say specifically which project lest the Almighty smite the finished work due to the bad attitude of one of the 800 participants.

**UPDATE** https://www.timesofisrael.com/it-takes-1400-strangers-from-around-the-world-to-cross-stitch-a-torah