Who would have guessed?

The fun canvas shown “Medium Stones” by Zecca was a request by a customer after having bought Large Stones just a few weeks prior. She left with a popular thread for use on 18 that doesn’t require plying. After several tries she tells me how disappointed she is in the thread in that its shredding and looks awful. It could be in part because she “sews” or does the continuous motion stitch rather than poke and pull. Also could be from using strands longer than my recommended 12-15″. Unless a customer asks to re-learn I’m not one to tell them they are doing something wrong but rather try to find materials that work well with their own personal style, assuming it is within reason. So for this one she said she just has to try something else or she’ll resort to perle cotton. Having just gotten in nearly every color of the crewel weight wool from Renaissance Dyeing I remembered they had a strong pink and wondered if I could actually pull colors from their palette that could come close to the intensity and saturation of color in this piece. And I have to say I came pretty darn close. The turquoises are a bit quieter but not finding all the colors spot one within one manufacturer is not all that uncommon. My customer hasn’t come to take a look yet but I hope she is pleased. She wanted a thread that would last and hold up as best as possible for a pillow with kids and pets in mind. Wool is a good answer to this criteria. The Renaissance Dyeing crewel weight wool is lovely for embroidery, crewel and lace knitting. Its my replacement to medici but I think the colors and hand are superior to medici. But the best news of all is that this wool is naturally dyed. It has a soul that few other threads have. Just today on Kathy’s blog “the unbroken thread” she talks about the human quality of stitching and goes on to talk about the Renaissance Dyeing wool. If you read on she includes an email from RD with a little background on how the wool is dyed. Its extraordinary that other people care enough to produce this for our pleasure, similar to fine wine or delicious cheese. Read it here.