Planet Earth Fibers is a maker of silk knitting yarns who is now packaging two of their yarns for needlepoint. Both of these threads are lovely for stitching and I enjoyed using them both.
The silk is a fat single strand silk thread, similar to Vineyard Silk or Silk & Ivory in thickness, which works on 13 to 18 mesh. It is a fairly lofty thread and is available in 152 colors. There are many softly shaded colors in the range with some color families having four shades in them.
The six strand silk can be plied and recombined to work on all mesh sizes. It comes in 125 colors, with six semi-solid overdyes. The remainder is dyed to match the colors of the silk. This too was a lovely thread, a smooth silk that was easy to stitch with.
One thing which is unusual about these threads is that many of the color families have values which are quite close. This makes them outstanding for needleblending and shading. So if one of their families works for you, this thread is perfect for those techniques.
I’m looking forward to using Planet Earth 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
I have been carrying the Planet Earth 6 strand silk in the store since last year and my customers really love it. Although I always strand this fiber when stitching on any size canvas, we have found that when stitching on 13 or 14 mesh it still looks good without stranding.
This is very encouraging to beginning stitchers who moan at the thought of plying the fiber. Also, by plying it up to 4 strands, rather than the suggested 3, on #18 mesh, it provides excellent coverage for most colors on a painted canvas – great for color changes. This fiber is really a winner!
I have a needlepoint canvas that calls for DMC thread. I own a lot of planet earth silk fiber. Can I substitute the DMC 6 thread requirement for Planet earth?
Yes.
Keep stitching,
Janet