And the dopamine hits just keep coming!

Yes, friends . . . it’s another new project! I’m still knitting away on the test knit I “teased” last week, but in between knitting sessions, I’m picking up this charming little embroidery kit to work on. It’s an Alice Makabe piece, and as soon as I saw the design and the colors I knew I wanted to stitch it. (I can’t remember where I ordered this particular kit, but it was either Brooklyn Haberdashery or Snuggly Monkey — my two favorite needlecraft shops. Both shops carry Alice Makabe kits and books.)

I love Alice Makabe’s work. She is a Japanese embroidery artist, and I find her designs to be just exquisite. I love the simplicity, the clean lines, the colors. If you haven’t heard of her and you like to embroider, I suggest following her on Instagram. Most of her posts (and all of her kit instructions) are in Japanese. But the stitches transcend the language, y’know? I don’t find it a barrier at all. I just look at the pictures. (She does have a website, but it mostly just directs you to her Instagram account.)

I recently purchased one of her books, Beautiful Botanical Embroidery (which is entirely in English, by the way). Whenever I need a quick pick-me-up or a moment of inspiration, I flip through the pages. I really do love Alice Makabe’s style. And I especially love the green “forest” bag pictured below. (If you click on the picture, you can see the simple – yet very effective – style of stitching on the trees.) I think it would be so fun to stitch. I’ll be keeping my eye out for a lovely piece of green linen for the bag. Here are a few of my favorite pages/projects from the book . . .

             

             

My embroidery piece is quite small, so I’ll probably finish it up soon. Maybe even by next week?

How about you? What are you working on these days?