December 7, 2009
No More Filament…
Well, I seem to have a problem with running out of supplies. I finished all the colors with metallic blending filament, except for the wings, and then discovered I was just about out of the Kreinik pearl filament. It’s hard to tell how much is on those spools until you begin to see the core of the spool underneath…. Since the majority of the wings use that color, this presented a problem, especially since I hadn’t been able to find any Kreinik filament for sale at the local craft stores earlier. So I went ahead and ordered some online, from EverythingCrossStitch.com. They had one of the best prices I could find, plus cheap shipping. I went ahead and ordered some of the #4 braid cord in gold and silver as well. I need a small amount of those for the cross-stitch angel, but had been planning on just substituting a few strands of the blending filament. This will be better though. So now, the only substitution I’ve made is using citrine filament instead of star yellow filament for one color. I expect my order to arrive this week sometime, so I guess I’ll go ahead and start on the outlining until it arrives.
The blending filament colors have been more difficult to work with, as the filament does not pull straight the same way the embroidery floss does. Combining the two sometimes (often?) leads to tangles, difficult to unravel without breaking the filament. The filament does tend to break more often than the floss, so it’s better to use shorter strands. The pattern calls for 2 strands of floss and 2 strands of filament for each color, and I have found that threading my needle with just one strand of each, and then placing the needle at the halfway point and folding the floss/filament in half works really well. That way, once the thread combo is secured and I start stitching, I don’t have to worry about the thread coming out of the needle, and it’s easy to pull it taut and straighten it out when needed. You just have to be sure to stop when you still have enough thread left over to weave it through the back without too much trouble.
I thought I’d attach a picture of the macrame wall hanging I made a few years ago. It took me a few years to make, due to pregnancy, and then it was a while before we finally got it hung up, but it has really warmed up our all-white living room walls. I designed the overall pattern, using smaller knot patterns/instructions from a book called The Macrame Book, by Helene Bress. The book has lots of different diamond patterns you can mix and match. It’s hard to tell from the photo, but the wall hanging is about 4.5 feet by 8 feet, so it’s pretty heavy. After finishing the knotting, I then wove in various types of fancy yarn to add some color. Some of the strands hanging down still need to be straightened, but since it’s hanging so high up on the wall, I just haven’t gotten the ladder out to fix them yet.
