“Seeing red” is an idiom in English that means “annoyed” or “irritated” or even downright angry.

Hand embroidery rarely makes me see red. I always figure there’s no point in getting angry when embroidering, even if I make a major mistake – after all, what’s to be angry about? It’s just embroidery. And mistakes in embroidery can always be solved in one way or another. A few snips with the scissors in a good case scenario – chucking it in the bin, in a bad case scenario. But nothing worth getting angry about.

On the other hand, Slightly Irritated is another question. I can be slightly irritated with my embroidery, especially if I think it should be moving along faster than it is, in the amount of time I’ve been working on it. I mean, really! What nerve! You’d think an embroidery project would speed itself up now and then.

And that’s how I’ve been feeling about the Hungarian Redwork Runner project.

Haven’t I been working on this thing for Ten Ages? Haven’t I put about a gazillion chain stitches and Hungarian braided chain stitches into the thing?

Shouldn’t it show a little gratitude and finish itself up?

But then… but then I look at pictures…

This is the last time we visited the project…

… and this is what I’ve done on it so far.

No, it’s not a lot. But… it is progress. And as my Great Uncle Ernie always says, Progress is Progress.

(I don’t actually have a Great Uncle Ernie.)

With this project, it’s difficult not to see (literally) red.

It’s a good thing I like the color!

After all, things could be a Whole Lot Worse.

If you want to follow along with the Hungarian Redwork Runner project from start to finish, including set up and how-to along the way, visit the Hungarian Redwork Runner project index, where you’ll find all articles related to the project listed chronologically.