The Perfect Palette

I have decided to kit up Primitive Needle's Black'd Skie as part of my participation in the Crazy January Challenge ... I love this chart in spite of the rather problematic faux antique spelling ... in fact, having done my graduate work in early American literature [which is mostly documents, letters and journals], I can actually make a case for spelling being as diverse as the sum total of individuals doing the spelling ... trust me on this, I spent the better part of two years in the rare book room of U.Va. in Charlottesville ... turning ancient pages ever so carefully while wearing white cotton gloves.

I am running into one small problem, though, the chart calls for fibers from a company called The Perfect Palette ... a company completely unknown to me and to the staffs of several LNS's I have contacted. Some of the colors I will be using should I ever locate them are named Bailey's and Dry Martini and Spanish Coffee [is that anything like Irish Coffee?]. I suspect I will be consuming the real thing long before I locate the threads.

If anyone knows of a source for this fiber, I would appreciate it if you would share the information. Even googling didn't help! I figured if I could find a color chart on-line, I could make substitutions from within my existing stash. But no joy!

A True Sampler: The Final Installment

Having finished Debbie Draper's Spots of Fun, I can now report on the last few fibers I have used:

Dinky Dyes Silk: another very lovely silk and one I will certainly purchase again. Easy to strand, smooth to stitch and easy to maintain a proper lay on the fabric.

Caron Watercolors: a three ply hand-painted pima cotton, this is a rather needy fiber but well worth the care. Once plyed down to one ply, what the stitcher has is a very loosely twisted perle which requires a larger eye needle, a shorter length strand, and a very light tension. When stitched on 28ct over two, this fiber sits very high on the fabric making it ideal for lettering, tracery [such as vines, snowflakes or delicate lacy motifs]. On the other hand, it is really too bulky for solid area stitching giving an over-crowded and bunchy effect. See the lower right hand motif of my Spots of Fun for an illustration: the tracery looks great but the solid areas do not show this fiber to advantage. I imagine that this fiber would work well on needlepoint canvas and on 11ct Aida or 10ct tula but have yet to test my theory. I do have some needlepoint canvas on hand but don't have any Aida or tula at the moment, so it will be awhile before I can check this out.

Crescent Colors, GAST & WDW Cotton Overdyes: I used several of these overdyes in this sampler ... mainly to expand my color range. Almost all stitchers are familiar with these quality cotton overdyes and know that they need to be stranded, used in 18" lengths, and stitched one x at a time. It may just be me, but WDW feels coarser in my hand than GAST and I will always choose a GAST fiber over a WDW if the colorways are comparable. That being said, I do use both and have a fairly deep stash of the WDW and a very deep stash of GAST. As to Crescent Colors, I find their overdyes to be very soft in the hand, the colors to be clear and true and, though I have only begun to acquire much of a stash in this line, I can see it growing in the future. It does seem to me that the CC line has colors more suitable to contemporary designs. If I were to try to define how this is is so, I would say that the colors seem brighter and clearer but that doesn't quite express the full sense of what I am getting at. Also, it seems to imply that the WDW and GAST are inferior in some way which is not what I mean at all, at all. I think what I do mean is that the WDW & GAST appear to use more natural or vegetal dyes and CC appears to use more man-made and chemical dyes. I do not know if this is actually so but it is the way I see the colors.

I am wondering now if I wish to fill in a few of the spaces left in Spots of Fun with some beaded motifs like an acorn with the cap done in matte copper beads or some silk ribbon embroidery like a sheaf of wheat using the Japanese seed stitch ... would it add interest or just make the whole thing too busy? I shall have to live with the piece a while before I decide ... meanwhile, I think I'll order the beads and the silk ribbon, just in case!

A True Sampler, the Sequel

I have been working on the Spots of Fun SAL again. As I said in my post of August 31 [A True Sampler], I am using this project to play with fibers. I am rediscovering just why I love some old favorites like the Caron, WDW & GAST lines and am discovering some new-to-me fibers that I know I'll be adding to my stash in great depth like the Belle Soie and Thread Gatherer collections. I am also making a list of moderately priced workhorse type threads that are to specialty threads what DMC is to cotton floss, like the Rainbow Gallery and Kreinik products. There'll be no picture today because I need to do some frogging. I have two skeins of WDW Sedona which prove dramatically how diverse dyelots can be: one skein shades from golden browns>gold>golden yellow and the other shades from purplish browns>maroon>coral. Since I have used both color ways in this piece I thought it would be interesting to do a motif in each of the Sedonas. Well, it simply didn't work ... on this particular fabric, the second Sedona, with its preponderance of the purplish brown, becomes a garish muddy purple and a very unpleasant pink. And, of course, I chose one of the larger motifs for this floss: the bunch of grapes. Once I pick it all out, I'll re-stitch in Belle Soie Buttercup silk.

So, to reporting on a few more fibers.

--Belle Soie Silks [Colors: Pumpkin Carriage, Lasagna, Buttercup, Carrot Cake] These are exquisite silks, easy to strand, with a lovely soft sheen, rich colors and a high loft on the fabric. And a delight to stitch ... no snagging or knotting ... and, even though I never had to dangle my needle when using an 18" double ply strand, the silk continued to lay beautifully and neatly.

--Caron Waterlilies: a 12 ply silk that remains one of my favorite silks with which to stitch. It strands easily, stitches smoothly and lays beautifully. I love the range of overdye colors ... a great palette ... and reasonably easy to find and order on line and through my nearest LNS.

--Caron Wildflowers: a very fine cotton perle overdye, one strand beautifully covers 28ct and up stitching over two. This floss picks up light a little differently than smooth flosses and adds interest and texture to the piece. And, again, the palette of colors is extensive.

--Catherine Jordan Cotton Overdyes Comparable to WDW amd GAST in quality. Generally speaking, Catherine Jordan's palette tends toward the more muted and subdued tones of soft vegetal dyes. I don't know whether these are commercially available as I came by mine at a CATS class taught by Ms. Jordan.

--Kreinik Silk Moire: This silk feels a little coarse in my hand. It's not one I would use again.

--Rainbow Gallery Fuzzy Stuff: A fussy thread that requires patience, care and a short length ... but is oh so much fun once stitched ... it adds texture, weight and catches the light differently than any other thread on the sampler ... it was a joy to use for a small motif in Spots of Fun but I am not sure I would have the patience to stitch larger areas of hair or animal fur with this fiber in other designs ... not unless I were using a much lower thread count fabric like a 10 ct tula.

--Rainbow Gallery Mandarin Floss: I wrote about all the reasons I love this floss in my August 3 post.

--Rainbow Gallery Splendor A perfectly acceptable silk, less expensive than Thread Gatherer, Caron, Belle Soie and other "carriage trade" silks. Wide range of colors. Relatively easy to stitch with though the needle should be dangled frequently to avoid twisting and to ensure a proper laying of the silk on the fabric. A good choice when price is a consideration.