Klosterstitch Concerns

I am having second thoughts about my Klosterstitch project. When I finally pulled the yarn out to start work on it on the weekend, I realised how thin the yarn was. I worked on it for 3 hours and seemed to make very little progress. I realise part of this could be because of the area I am working on, the very longest part done in a single colour. If I was to work on say the flowers or the black outlining, which will work up quickly in stem stitch, I'm sure I'd be more motivated.

But even taking that into account, it's going to take me several hundred hours to get this one and I don't know that I want to spend that much time on a project that really isn't going to be of much use then it's finished. Right now, I am considering changing the type of yarn I am using. I love the Renaissance Dyes yarn, but they are just too thin. I'm thinking of Appletons, which when pulled tight, is only slightly thicker but enough that it could save me the need to do two or three lines of sewing on the same amount of pattern. The other alternative is to go one size higher and use something like Paterna. I want something that will work up fast but still allow me to work the very small details. Either way, I am going to loose a weeks sewing time before I can get to the shop to check out if Appletons have the right colours.

Added to which, the stitching looks like crap, Racaires is so much nicer!! ;-)

Racaire, do you keep a record on how long you spend on a project? Even though yours is configured slightly differently to mine, they are about the same size (in height anyway). How many hours to you think you've worked on yours so far??