Elegance – Thread of the Month

This month, I’ll be devoting Mondays to threads. Today we’re looking at Rainbow Gallery’s size 8 silk pearl, Elegance. Earlier this year there were notices in many places that it was going away.

Those rumors are not true. In fact last month Rainbow Gallery came out with 11 new colors that are mostly bright. I haven’t used #8 pearl in either cotton or silk much in my stitching up until now, but I was inspired by these wonderful colors to use them on two canvases, one each on 13 and 18 mesh.

Elegance on 13 Mesh

Conventional needlepoint practice would have you use #3 pearl on 13-mesh canvas. I don’t like that for a couple of reasons. First, the scale of this thread makes the stitches look too thick and bulky. Second, #3 pearl cotton is becoming difficult to find, In silks #3 has been almost impossible to find for many years.

Some designers suggest using #5 pearls on this mesh and often I do. But I think the coverage looks a bit thin.

In stitching this Associated Talents ornament (pictured at the top of the article) I decided to use two strands of Elegance. I loved the look. It was used throughout as were a few other threads for comparison, in several different stitches.

I found that it covered the canvas beautifully whether the color was an almost perfect match, lime, or different in shade, turquoise. even when I chose to ignore the shading on the canvas, it covered.

Elegance worked well in all the stitches I tried and it slipped through the canvas easily. The smooth surface of the silk meant that even doubled over in the needle I didn’t have difficulties. Basketweave, normally a stitch I do slowly, went so smoothly I was finished with this wide stripe very quickly.

A couple of the stripes used more challenging threads, metallics and wide ribbons, or stitches, Byzantine, and I could really feel the difference as I stitched.

If you like larger-mesh canvases, try this. It’s now going to become my go to thread for this. In fact I like it so much I have another canvas I’m going to do to use the two new pinks.

Elegance on 18 Mesh

In the past I had always used Elegance on 18 mesh for overstitching. On this “A” by an unidentified designerI used it for the stitching. I used it in a variety of stitches. mostly Tent variations.

I liked the coverage for these small stitches. Perhaps it’s my age. but I like thinner threads for Tent. They sit just a bit lower on the canvas. The thread pulls through more easily and I think my tension is better. I doubt if I’m going to switch to #8 cotton pearl, but this #8 silk pearl is fantastic for small stitches on 18 mesh.

When it came to larger stitches, I tried several here. There are two sizes each of Scotch and Diagonal Gobelin, and one Cashmere Stitch. While the coverage is good, with longer stitches, each individual stitch is slightly separate from the ones surrounding it. You can see this clearly if you do some comparisons. Looking at the two orangish stripes, the top stripe is a #5 pearl cotton, while the bottom is Elegance. The #5 fills the space more completely.

Look at the two areas with light blue. The upper left is Carolyn’s Tiny Stitch, a Tent variation, while the lower right is Scotch Stitch. Elegance fits beautifully for Tent. The Scotch has separated stitches.

This separation is not, I think, necessarily bad, but it may not be to your taste. It seems to be characteristic for longer stitches in Elegance, at least for me.

If this happens and you don’t like it, pick other stitches or thicker threads.

Mixing and Matching

Rainbow Gallery makes several silk threads that use the same color numbers. Splendor (stranded silk). Grandeur (#5 silk pearl), and Elegance (#8 silk pearl) are all coordinated. While only a selection of Splendor colors come in the two pearls, the subtle texture of the pearls means that you could easily substitute matching colors in the other threads for the longer stitches with no problem.

That gives these silk pearls a flexibility that’s greater than that of cotton. You have the advantages of color matching with both fibers. But pearl cotton has a strong bead-like texture. Combining pearl and floss can be noticeable because of this. Rainbow Gallery’s silk pearls have a more matte finish and a much less pronounced texture. That means the difference between stranded silk and silk pearl is minimal, making them great to play together.