Easter Grass Braid – Thread Review

Challenging.

That’s the word I’d use to sum up the new thread from Kreinik. Made from several strands of their Easter Gras braided together, this thread comes in several sizes (Blending Filament, #8, #12, 1/16″ ribbon, and more).

I tested these threads in several of the sizes on two different canvases. First some general reflections about the thread, then the test results.

This thread is very stiff. It doesn’t straighten easily and tends to curl up on itself. The usual methods of straightening did not have much of an effect on it.

I found that its stiffness made it kink on the back, so the back of the work is uneven in thickness. This does not appear to affect the front, but might be a concern in some finishing.

It frays at the tail. The thicker versions of this thread are worse because there are more strands, but every size I tried frayed.

To avoid these problems use shorter strands.

Although not really transparent, it can still be hard to see where you have stitched. Tilting the work so the thread catches the light helps here.

The material, while not colored, has a strong sheen to it, mostly blue-green. This color can fight with your canvas color, so some color combinations don’t work as well.

You may not like this harder, modern look; it isn’t for everyone. I would take this into consideration before using it. If your tastes run to more traditional looks, this thread isn’t for you.

Easter Grass Braid attracts attention. It will be the first thing you look at in any piece because its texture is so unusual. Do not use it where you don’t want people to look first.

The Tests

I tested the thread in two ways. On the “E” canvas I stitched stripes. The left stripe is blank canvas, my control. Next to it is #12 braid. This is followed by 1/16 Easter Grass for comparison. The last stripe is 1/16″ Easter Grass Braid.

In all three cases you can see the color through the thread, although it can be seen more clearly through the plain Easter Grass. In all cases the yellow/violet of the canvas fought with the green of the thread. The thread would be better used on a more harmonious color.

If you want transparency, use Easter Grass. If you want some color showing through, use Easter Grass Braid.

The second test, above, I used #8 Easter Grass Braid on a far more detailed canvas. The canvas is only partially stitched so you can see what the canvas looks like unstitched.

First I tried stitched solid Tent to see if it was transparent. It’s not. Where the canvas was dark at the base of the tree you can see it’s darker. Where there is low contrast, in the background, the detail is lost.

In order to preserve some of the detail, I tried T Stitch for the tree. With the more open stitch details can still be seen. If you want to use this thread to stitch something detailed, pick thinner threads and open stitches to preserve the details.