This week we’ll stitch the larger dusty rose pumpkin. I used two hand-dyed threads, Weeks floss and JL Walsh silk/wool (no longer made. The pattern used is called Wonky Squares below,. It takes a square and divides it up into four parts. The neat thing about this pattern is that even though it looks completely different when stitched. It becomes hard to find the squares.
Hand-dyed Threads
I love using hand-dyed thfeads, especially ones like these where the color is almost solid. I call these. “semi-solid.” It’s a knitting term that we’d be well to distonguish these colors from multi-colors. Several companies specialize in these colors, Gentle Arts for one, and most companies that make hand-dyed threads make some semi-solids.
When you look at a semi-solid thread in the package, you may not be able to tell that there is much variation, That’s the idea. Gentle Arts describes the effect that they “give your needlework a faded, antiqued look.” To me that’s a perfect description because the subtle color change gives additional texture toyour stitches without drawing attention to itself.
That is in almost all circumstances. If you stitch in diagonal lines with a semi-solid thread, color changes will jump out and be seen as diagonal lines. Stitch in straight lines and the colors change so that you hardly notice.
In this piece, where i used two semi-solid threadsi can’t even see color changes in sunlight. I could see them last night under bright artificial light. And that’s exactly the effect I want.
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
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