At the recent needlepoint market, Gloriana introduced a new Cashmere and silk thread called Pashima. It has four two-ply strands so it can be divided. It is packaged in 6 yard skeins. The thread is 70% cashmere and 30% silk,available in 40 colors. The plan is to make this thread available in color families.
Previously Gloriana had a silk/cashmere blend called Kashmir (reviewed here). While that thread is also a Cashmere and silk blend, they are different threads. Kashmir is only available in white and grey and the thread is in limited supply. It is a single-strand thread, made up of four loosely-twisted two-ply strands.
The construction of Pashima makes it very flexible. The individual plies, which can be separated if you are careful, are the same thickness as a strand of a strand of Gloriana’s silk floss. This means that one of the four strands equals two strands of silk floss. This makes it so easy to figure out how many strands you need to use for good coverage. Use two for 18 mesh and three for 13.
According to the folks at Gloriana, the thread is very strong in spite of being very soft. They were able to cross stitch over one on rough linen and the thread held up. In my tests I certainly noticed no problems with shredding or weakening.
I tested three different colors of the thread on two canvases and found it easy to use and easy to ply.Two strands covered well on 18 mesh. I also tried four strands and had no difficulty with it fitting.
I love the softness of this thread and found it to feel sturdier than Kashmir. Although hand-dyed, two of the colors I tested had little variation in color. The blue used on the sample above had more variation but it was still very subtle. Even so, treat this thread like an overdye and do not stitch in diagonal rows.
I’m looking forward to using Gloriana Pashima in more projects.
About Janet M Perry
Janet Perry is the Internet's leading authority on needlepoint. She designs, teaches and writes, getting raves from her fans for her innovative techniques, extensive knowledge and generous teaching style. A leading writer of stitch guides, she blogs here and lives on an island in the northeast corner of the SF Bay with her family
Martha says
It sure seems like a winner. I think the color variation within a skein good be very interesting. I wonder how a blank piece stitched up with only one skein or two would look? I would like to see that.