Hello everyone, It's been a while since I've posted but I'm back. (I've been lurking though.) I followed the thread about Perfection in Embroidery with interest. It took me years to try something other than CS on Aida.  I finally used evenweave/linen about 8 mos. ago.  I love it.  I also tried silk and perle cotton for the first time last year. Over the holidays, I started doing small projects in Hardanger and look forward to doing more. But the real reason for this post is to encourage anyone who's on the fence about trying stumpwork.  Go and try it!  It's fun! Mostly from the posts here and buying and reading Inspirations #37 (also from recommendations here) that I decided to try stumpwork.  I just loved the trinket boxes on the cover of Inspirations.  So I went and bought a kit (Introduction to Stumpwork from Nordic Needle). Here's what I learned: 1.  It's not easy but not horrendously difficult either. 2.  I need to practice long and short stitch a lot. Before this I only knew XS, Satin, backstitch. 3.  Use cotton floss for your first attempt. (The kit had silks.) 4.  It's fun. (O wait! I already said that ) Now I am off to try to learn needlelace from Dianne's website.  I recently purchased Jane Nichol's first book on stumpwork and she has a lot of needlelace in there. So I'm going to buy some muslin to practice and keep trying.  Let this be encouragement to anyone who's been wanting to try this and has been nervous.  Don't be.  Even if your first attempt is lousey (like mine is so far) just shove it under the bed and start over. This isn't to say I'm giving up XS.  I still love it and will always do it but it's been fun trying new techniques and I hope to continue. Chris K. Vital stats: Male, 30, single, live in US