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.
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!
Stitches done: 520
Total stitches: 5860Total backstitches: 42.76 inches
See you tomorrow!
