Celtic Wolf - WIP post 14

Monday I had made a bit of headway doing the mouth and ended up on a total of 5340 stitches.. Yesterday regular readers of my blog will have read that the Kreinik #4 very fine braid "finally" arrived. I had been waiting for it so I could do the other part of the braid in the neck before moving my hoop. As metallic thread doesn't like to be squished I am trying to limit the number of times I move the hoop so putting it off as long as possible was high on my list. This was the first time I was going to do any real amount of stitching with Kreinik braid - the last time I'd used it was for an ornament and that was a mere 20 odd stitches, stitching hundreds is a whole different learning curve.

If you don't take your time, let the thread untwist and work with it correctly then the above happens - every time - which wastes many inches of thread. It was quite the learning curve for me.

Thoughts on the use of Kreinik as a result of my first real stitching experience:

• Speciality threads have instructions of use - read them.
• Kreinik suggests threading the needle using a strip of paper - it works brilliantly!
• Threading the needle with the loose end of the spool of thread means you use the thread in the right direction, like sewing thread it twists less like this. I thread the needle first then cut.
• Use short lengths - I measure across the diagonal of my tablet to get the length, which is approx 10,5 inches.
• Like any braid it unravels when cut and not fixed - just think how fast your hair unravels if you don't fix it in place with an elastic or ribbon etc. - a fix is to tie a small knot on both ends (after threading the needle) if you pull the knot tight enough you will barely notice it's there AND you have less issues with it unravelling.
• As Kreinik suggests - use a bigger needle as it results in less wear and tear on the thread, you don't really see the difference afterwards either.
• Drop the needle every 5 - 8 stitches to let the thread unravel. With the little knot in place the needle will not fall off!

Using all of these things I learnt while stitching I have gone from wasting a good 5 -7 inches to as good as no waste at all. This is a good thing as I really hate waste, although I might still have to get a second spool as the waste from my learning curve means I might not make it with the one spool I have.

I was good and finished the gold of the mouth after completing the first section using Krenik 001L. The thread is so sparkly! It's has a full rainbow in the sparkles and is so pretty! While the learning curve did slow me down with stitching I still managed to do 520 stitches yesterday, so I'm pretty pleased with my progress.

Stitches done: 520

Total stitches: 5860
Total backstitches: 42.76 inches

See you tomorrow!