Started my First ever HAED

Well - I did it!!! I took the plunge! This is the beginning of my first ever HAED! It's a design called "Boulevard of Dreams" and it's a picture of the Las Vegas strip at dusk. So the sky is all sorts of blues and purples.

I gridded just the horizontal lines (except for the left hand edge) because I figured as long as I could find the four corners, I could "make" the square out of it. I was too anxious to start, so I only gridded the first ten lines (the pages are 98 stitches long, so ten rows gives me the first pages going across.

The pattern calls for 2 threads on 25 count - I can't imagine how you would begin to do that. I'm doing 1 over 1, and the coverage is fine. I have another picture, which will show just how small this portion is in comparison to the whole picture. However, I've been struggling to get the pictures to post in Blogger. I finally got this one to post by going into Picasa and choosing the "Blog This" option. However you can only do one picture at a time that way.

I also have been keeping track of my time. Since this is a stitch at home project, I've built an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of the time, and I've been counting full squares as "done". Obviously, I cross over into other squares, so the time I've spent and the number of completed squares aren't REALLY a clean match. So far, there are 24 completed squares, and I've stitched for 32 hours. But I don't strictly stitch - the television is always on, and the computer is next to me so I am periodically "distracted".....LOL

Anyway, thanks for checking it out....I think I'll post the other picture on a second blog post. Or maybe I'll see if I can edi this and add a picture. We shall see!