Kreinik thread gauges etc

Isn't 'gauge' an oddly spelled word?  (Aren't many English words??)  I always want to write 'guage' instead.

Anyway...

Sorry for the quiet spell.  I've actually had a nasty bug all month (hoping this has been my 'flu month for the winter, so I've already got it out of the way), although I was better than usual with them and was able to stitch and blog and so on.  Over the last week I've been either busy catching up with domestic stuff, being away in Wales or just plain wrecked!  However, partly thanks to Megan down under, I've put my copyright thingy-whatsit in a template so I no longer have to keep scratting around to find a © each post!!

The roses project has been taken out of the hoop, pressed and the small back flower re-drawn in and then mounted as you can see here.  I've rolled up the other part and paper clipped it out of the way (using plastic coated clips just in case of staining) as you can also see, but it won't stay like that for long, as it should be done soon.

As the fabric has a very slight give in it (NOT really the ideal embroidery canvas!) I was glad that I took it out of the hoop before I put in the spider's web!  Had I not, then the long, straight stitches would have hung loose once it was let out.  So, I'll put that in holding the whole thing semi-taut in a plastic snap frame instead.  And that brings me on to the business of thread gauges.

I decided against using the prescribed Madeira #40 thread for the simple reason that I don't own any and the nearest stockist I know of is two counties away in Ripon.  That's too far to go to see if there's any real difference between that and Kreinik Cord!  I don't want to buy in new stuff anyway, I want to use the enormous collection of threads I've amassed over the 9 years I've been stitching.  One commenter suggested using the Madeira over the Kreinik, leading me to wonder if it was commonly known how fine Kreinik 1-ply Balger Cord actually is. Now this was a very hard photo to take, so forgive the gaps and the diagonals etc, but here's a comparison of some Kreinik thread gauges.

You can see at a glance how relatively thick threads like #8 Fine Braid and #4 Very Fine Braid and/or Cable (which is 3 plies of Cord, I think) are when put alongside Cord and Blending Filament.  Bear in mind though, that this photo is showing them all larger than life and I've noticed that the Cord looks about twice as thick as it realistically should!!  For this kind of thing (the web), I prefer to use Cord as it's more 'unified' than BF, which easily separates into it's two elements - the colour and the cellophaney bit.  Anyway, Cord is very fine gauge and this shade here should knock up a fairly decent web.  I've gone for 105C, a black and silver blend.

I like the corded types of Kreinik braids as well.  Here you can see a reel of regular silver 001 Very Fine Braid alongside it's 001C, corded version.  The finish is more even and the colour is often stronger.  Some of the 002 golds look OK in their own right, so to speak, but once you compare them with 002C in the same gauge of braid, they seem  very scrappy and patchy indeed!  The photo doesn't really do the difference justice in the silver, but I only had a dog end left on my current reel of 002.

I've been working a bit more on the poppy petals and have got half way through the third one.

Gail asked what I was doing with my old needlecase after moving my everyday supply to the new hardanger one.  Well, it's still in use housing the overflow.  I still need it really, and I can't think of how better to use it and have no idea of throwing it away.=)

Finally, here's the my tool section of my main workbox, which I cleared out and tidied up yesterday.  Let me know if you want me to take out all the things and explain what they are - as best I can anyway, as I've had some a while and not really used them yet....

© Elizabeth Braun 2011