way out of my comfort zone

i have just spent 3 days learning some Reticello embroidery skills - after my experience with blackwork i felt almost prepared to tackle this - but i had not bargained with how long the basic preparation would take, although i had realised that the stitching required is rather more precise than my usual style

as a cut-work technique there is a sequence of counting and cutting threads before some very precise stitching followed by more cutting of threads: 

the squares are 10x10 threads and it's surprising how hard it is to count to ten, keep your place and snip thread #11, even after several attempts

after all that, the fear of cutting the wrong thread is almost overwhelming 

next there is even more (more) precise stitching ....into thin air!

phew!

not sure how much more of this i will do, but as i also prepared a grid of 3x3 squares i feel i should complete it with some interesting "fills" . . . . . . . . but don't hold your breath!