What?
To be continued.....
Samplers-and-Santas
Jun 30, 2011
Pear with me...
Hiya. I'm making some progress on Pears Two but as always, two steps back also. I decided to use the silks I inherited and matched colors with the DMC. Not sure I like them. No. Wait. I'm sure. I don't like them. I can't even pronounce them. And they shred with every little frogging movement. And I think they're fat. One strand, 36 count (AUGH!), no problem on the large Eyes. The over one is what's bothering me. First of all, the silk I have is YLI and it's smoother, thinner, and less twist than Soie d' Alger. YLI is the ABC and gold border. Soie d' Alger is the over one letters. It's too fat. I found some Au Ver à Soie and decided to try that instead. Seems smoother, less twist, looks a little better, still don't like it. The letters are so bunched with floss that they are almost unreadable, to me anyway. Obviously there is a big difference in brands of silk and dummy me thought not. Wrong again. Seems I'm learning a lot since picking up a needle again, but why is it always the hard way? Lack of a local shop!! Here's a few pics of my mess.
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Can you see the difference in the YLI (gold)? It lays better in the border and is thinner. Look how fat the little letters are. This next one is with the Au Ver à Soie (recommended thread) on the right and although the picture doesn't show well, it looks a little less bulky but I still don't think you can see the letters. I tried removing the Soie d'Alger and it's impossible. It's shredding and I can't get under it to pull out - not even the Lift 'n Snips are working. So now I have two different greens and will waste a lot of time removing what I can't remove. I'm a determined old fart. I'm going to do a few stitches with one strand of DMC to see how thick it looks for future 36 count silk thread projects that I'll never do. If I like it, is it wrong to mix silk and cotton? Do I care? So tell me, can you look at a framed sampler and tell if it's silk or not? You can?
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I decided to take a break so Bud and I had a donut. I fried mine. Bud #2 was not happy. She's the prettiest of the bunch with her silver coat.
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It's too bad I don't like the taste of alcohol. A glass of wine might do me good. But another two Advil and the sound of a second donut sizzling in that hot pan will work too.
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5 comments:
My girlfriend and I have had this discussion many times - can you tell what is DMC and what is silk in a project. And we came up with a resounding no and we've done projects where both are incorporated (Chatelaines). I guess it just comes down to what you like to stitch with. I'm in pig heaven with NPIs, but I use DMC most of the time and my friend will always ask, "Are those silks or DMC?" So I guess it's up to you.
I don't think you can really tell if something is stitched with silks or cottons. You would think it would be more obvious, but it's not for me. I like DMC actually, and if something calls for it, I use it. I basically use whatever the model in the pic used. lol! Your stitching looks pretty colorwise! Hope you get it figured out.
Just a thought....have you tried sticking with the silks that seem fatter and just doing the tent stitch (going one direction only) and see if this isnt good coverage without being too "fat"....might be worth a try...I have had to do that before....And as for mixing
dmc and silks, do it some and really is not noticable...I agree with both Deb and Margaret on that... Good luck, Faye
Nothing original from me after reading the other comments, but I like silk because of the way it feels when I pull it through the fabric. DMC has more colors though. If I were using silk on the over-one letters, I wouldn't do the full cross, I'd just do the tent stitch (one stitch left to right). As far as mixing them, why not? Are the police going to come arrest us? No shop? I'd have to move. Although your yard is gorgeous, so maybe it's worth the tradeoff. Besides, I'm sick of DC traffic.
Ditto on using tent stitch for your small letters. I'm working on a repo sampler with areas of over one on 40 ct. Even the instructor told us to outline in cross, but fill with tent when the stitches were packing in so close as to distort the linen. I've done others using tent for small letters, and I mostly use it to sign my name over one on finished projects.
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