I’m planning to post at least once a week. Possibly I will be able to bring that up to three times soon, but currently, the Monday morning post is the target. That said, here we go!I love thread. Thread of all kinds. Big fluffy boucle thread, wiry strands of metallic gold, tiny strands of filament silk. I have been known to spend copious amounts of spending money on thread. Not necessarily on fabric or patterns, but on thread.
As such, my thread stash is, according to my friends and family, staggering. I wouldn’t know. I still haven’t figured out how to organize it in a manner where it can still be used. Truthfully, much of it is tossed into drawers labeled “miscellaneous thread.” The Yarn Harlot would say my stash isn’t even a stash yet: after all, I’m not storing yarn in the pots and pans yet. There is still space for books in the bookcases (barely). To this I say,”Give me time. My knitting habit only recently began to catch up with my embroidery habit, and embroidery thread is easier to store: it fits in the medicine cabinet…”
Try stitching with something different than the standard DMC or Anchor threads. Splurge on a skein of overdyed silk at your local needlework store. Experiment with Weeks Dye Works and Sampler threads. Just remember that from dye lot to dye lot overdyed threads can vary DRASTICALLY – like one being blue and the next green: in the same colorway! Buy enough at one time for any project you plan, or be prepared to be surprised and flexible: it inspires creativity (really!), and you’ll do fine.
Then prepare to be overwhelmed. And watch out. Unless you live alone, spouses and parents have this annoying habit of wanting to know not only what you bought, but how much you spent (cats don’t generally care, unless you forget to buy the cat food). When you come home with a little six by seven inch bag and say, “I got SUCH a deal! The real gold purl and the overdyed silks, and 17 skeins of DMC only cost me $70!” they tend to look at you a little funny.
Note: I have not yet jumped into the depths of depravity: I generally do not dye my own thread, (although if you want to see the depths to which this can lead, you should see Sharon Boggin’s collection of overdyed threads here: ) I figure it’s only a matter of time before I fall into that abyss, too!
