A different way of storing floss for projects.

I love mine! In fact, I just went and bought a second one as I'm now
working on two rather complicated projects (The forest area of MLI's
Queen Anne's Lace and Noah's Submarine (140+ Colours!!!!!!)) I can
spend a half hour or so at the start of a stitching session and thread
needles for all the colours I'm likely to need, then just stitch away
without having to stop and rethread. On good days I can even get dh
to thread my needles for me... and he winds bobbins.... I've got to
remember to get him something nice as a surprise thank you!
Heather


Jenn Liace wrote in message . ..
On Sun, 9 Nov 2003 13:30:23 -0600, "Patricia Rogers"
wrote:

I'm sure this has been discussed here before - what is a needle caddy?

Perhaps the Pako organizer? I finally saw one "live" yesterday = it's
about 5 inches wide by about 12 inches long. It has 50 small foam
squares, 25 on each side (and no I did not count, I'm trusting in
truth in advertising LOL) to poke your threaded needles into, and then
a paper insert to write down the color number or symbol or however you
organize. I can see this being very helpful if you're the kind of
person who likes to get every possible stitch out of a length of floss
and reuse long tails, or if you've got a piece with blended colors.
But having younger kids and knowing the messes they can make, I'm
hesitant to obtain one for myself. I'd imagine thatcertain household
pets could create similar probems as my 6 year old with that kind of
temptation laying around!

Jenn L.
http://community.webshots.com/user/jaliace
http://sewu9corn.blogspot.com
Current projects:
Fall Harvest (Brittercup Designs)
Lady of the Flag (Mirabilia)

Hmm! I have tried various methods over the years as well. I recently
bought a bunch of DMC Stitch Bows. I was intrigued :-) I have a sewing
basket filled with unused floss, but they just seem to get a mixed up.
I thought I would use the stitch bows for these skeins. I have a box
full of bobbins as well - I usually wind floss onto bobbins after a
project is done, not before. Just don't feel like winding a whole
bobbin!

That needle caddy sounds like a great idea and something I could make
myself. I had a 15% off coupon at Lewiscraft and didn't know what to
use it on - kind of a shame - but I bought a plastic DMC needle box
along with some floss and stitch bows. Hopefully I won't lose my
needles now. I went all over the house gathering them up. I recently
sat on the wrong end of a needle that was in the couch cushion and it
hurt!

Best,
Christine

For all you that say you hate winding bobbins, how do you do your
winding? I have a bobbin winder that slips over the edge of a Darice
box and with a bit of spinning on my part I can wind a bobbin in about a
minute (probably less). This is the method I used when winding my
collection of all the regular DMC floss. I did between 10 and 20 every
night before I started my regular stitching. I got my winder at AC
Moore for just a couple of dollars.

Anne (in Ellicott City, MD)

Am I the only one who doesn't use bobbins?

Never could understand why anybody wants to kink up their floss.
I have all my DMC in 5 Loran wallets looped on to cards and you just pull one
thread at a time. No mess no fuss no rewinding .... simple
Carol-Ann
10 miles NW of London England

Anne Tuchscherer wrote:
For all you that say you hate winding bobbins, how do you do your
winding? I have a bobbin winder that slips over the edge of a Darice
box and with a bit of spinning on my part I can wind a bobbin in about
a minute (probably less). This is the method I used when winding my
collection of all the regular DMC floss. I did between 10 and 20
every night before I started my regular stitching. I got my winder
at AC Moore for just a couple of dollars.

Anne (in Ellicott City, MD)

I used to get annoyed at the floss tangling, but when DD wanted to help,
I flopped an open skein around the neck of a glass iced tea pitcher. She
could wind them in a minute or so with no tangling. The pitcher is wide
enough that the skein doesn't drop down further than the neck, the glass
is smooth, and the skein spins around as you wind.

I get the kinks out by cutting a suitable length, stripping out individual
threads, and running them over a wet clean sponge (kept in a film canister).
They dry over the edge of the couch in minutes. I think I first read about
this 'ironing' of the floss here in RCTN from Martha Beth Lewis. Her pages
are a great resource:
http://www.marthabeth.com/needlework.html

--
Beth Katz

On 11/10/03 4:38 PM, in article
, "Beth Katz"
wrote:

Anne Tuchscherer wrote:
For all you that say you hate winding bobbins, how do you do your
winding? I have a bobbin winder that slips over the edge of a Darice
box and with a bit of spinning on my part I can wind a bobbin in about
a minute (probably less). This is the method I used when winding my
collection of all the regular DMC floss. I did between 10 and 20
every night before I started my regular stitching. I got my winder
at AC Moore for just a couple of dollars.

Anne (in Ellicott City, MD)

I used to get annoyed at the floss tangling, but when DD wanted to help,
I flopped an open skein around the neck of a glass iced tea pitcher. She
could wind them in a minute or so with no tangling. The pitcher is wide
enough that the skein doesn't drop down further than the neck, the glass
is smooth, and the skein spins around as you wind.

I get the kinks out by cutting a suitable length, stripping out individual
threads, and running them over a wet clean sponge (kept in a film canister).
They dry over the edge of the couch in minutes. I think I first read about
this 'ironing' of the floss here in RCTN from Martha Beth Lewis. Her pages
are a great resource:
http://www.marthabeth.com/needlework.html

Thanks for the link! tons of good stuff there!
Cheryl

Nope, but I am uniquer insert winky here than you two: I write the
symbol on a piece of cardstock, write the number/s under that, and
then put the lengths of floss (pull the skein apart, fold it in half,
fold it in half, fold it in thirds, and cut the loops) in a floss bag.


On Sun, 09 Nov 2003 19:29:07 -0500, Meredith
wrote:

Hey, I do the same thing! And here I thought I was being anal in a
completely unique way...

Meredith

Nerak wrote:
I have tried various methods of keeping floss for a particular
project, and have yet to find a way I find completely satisfactory.


In addition to a bobbin for each color with the correct number (cut into
lengths which are 1/8 of a skein) and stored in numerical order. I use a heavy
cardboard bobbin for each SYMBOL on the chart. I write the color number on the
body of the card and draw the symbol on the corner ears. I then put a length
of floss on each symbol card. If it is a blended color I put a length of each
color on the card.
As I work, I only have to look for the symbol and can ignore the color numbers
until the symbol bobbin needs re-filling.




Darla
Sacred cows make great hamburgers.

On Sun, 9 Nov 2003 15:46:05 -0600, "explorer" wrote:

Am I the only one who doesn't use bobbins? They've never seemed necessary
to my personal style so I never got any.
No, you're not. I tried them. Didn't like them, and got rid of 'em.
Darla
Sacred cows make great hamburgers.

On Sun, 09 Nov 2003 21:59:01 GMT, "Dr. Brat"
wrote:

How do you store the
skeins when you're not using them in a particular project? Isn't it a
pain to go through them all to find the ones you want for the next project?
They're in those nice parts cabinets available in the guy-stuff
department of Wally World and similar places. I use the 60-drawer
kind and put one DMC number in each drawer. They're not *quite* long
enough for the skein to lay flat, but close enough, and I'm a sponger
in any case, so extra curls are not an issue for me. I have another
filing system for my "specialty" fibers, including the Anchor
collection.
Darla
Sacred cows make great hamburgers.

"Tia Mary-remove nekoluvr to reply " wrote in
message ...
Of course, with projects the size of your maidens that use 90 or so
colors,
I don't think there *is* an easy or really efficient way to organize that
much
floss! I would probably arrange them in color number order and then sort
them
into appripriate sections (all 200's together, 300's together, etc.) and
put
them on the larger rings. Then you would llikely have 3 or 4 rings to
deal
with!!!! OY -- I get a headache just thinking about it! I would be
tempted to
put the hinged rings onto a piece of dowell that is suspened between the
backs
of two chairs or something like that but that would have it's own
problems!


TIA MARY!!! How could you be so cruel to unsuspecting cat owners (or
slaves, as it were)! Think of one (or more) cats on the prowl for those
pretty little bags--think of the havoc they would wreak! The Horror! The
Horror!
--
LittleBit

In a cat's eye, all things belong to cats.