Finally, finally, finally, after several failed attempts and MUCH effort I have learned to make letters and pick-up designs!

One thing that helped a lot was to have the pattern threads much thicker than the background. The white is crochet cotton, and the black is some worsted-weight cotton I had lying around.

When picking up pattern threads that are on the bottom, be sure they go between the proper background threads.

Never mess with the background threads.

I found it helpful to constantly doublecheck and make sure I had all the proper background threads up -- whether heddle or open. You don’t want to drop any accidentally.

Letters with vertical strokes that are two columns (rows?) wide look best. The “Y” in “Henry” is a bit funky, and all the letters in my name are too narrow, but “Chloe” and “Dan” turned out remarkably well.

I used these instructions (pdf): http://www.weavershand.com/aahlatvianinkle.pdf

YAY ME!