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#1
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WayToo Many Colors
Need help. Working on a beautifull wolf piece, but it has a lot more floss
colors than I am used to. I find myself spending most of my time changing needles and snipping ends. ( I have a needle parker and thread about 30 at one time with the different colors, but I am getting frustrated). I once read here about "parking" the currently used needle on the side of the fabric and picking it up when the next x-s come up using that color ( am I making sense ?? ). Maybe I dont understand the system, but it seems my threads get all tangled in the back of the piece. Can anyone share some insight ???? As always, thanks for all the info. |
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#2
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I routinely park my threads while working on projects. Generally speaking, I
bring the thread up to the front away from the stitching area, then park the needle in the extra fabric allowance. If I need the needle, I just leave the tail on the front. No tangles on the back and I don't have to stop and start threads as often. I hope this helps. If it doesn't, I can take some digital photos of my current project and put them on my website for you. Just let me know. Mellissa ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair." ~Kahlil Gibran My home on the Web: http://www.zillwood.com/muddles ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
#3
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I think you are asking about the line-by-line method. In this form, you
work straight across a line of cross-stitch doing each color as it comes with a complete cross-stitch. When you get to the end of the line, you work back the opposite direction. I generally bring the thread to the front by not finishing the final leg of the last stitch of that color and parking the neeedle. Then when the color recurs, I finish the last stitch, bringing the thread to the back. If the next stitch is very close to this one, I just start there. If it is 1/2 " - 2" away, I hide the thread on the back by running it through previous stitches or leave it to be covered by stitches. Does this help? Pat in Illinois " |
#4
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) writes:
Need help. Working on a beautifull wolf piece, but it has a lot more floss colors than I am used to. I find myself spending most of my time changing needles and snipping ends. ( I have a needle parker and thread about 30 at one time with the different colors, but I am getting frustrated). I once read here about "parking" the currently used needle on the side of the fabric and picking it up when the next x-s come up using that color ( am I making sense ?? ). Maybe I dont understand the system, but it seems my threads get all tangled in the back of the piece. Can anyone share some insight ???? As always, thanks for all the info. Let me try and give some thoughts in considerable detail. This message is going to be long, so if you are not interested, just skip it. I can claim some expertise, as I have spent most of the last 4 years stitching computer generated patterns of my maidens. These days I always call for the maximum number of colours my software allows, namely 90. The most important aspect, IMHO, of doing "confetti" stitches, is the philosophy and one's state of mind when doing all those widely scattered stitches. I assume you have not completed such a picture yet, and so have not had the advantage of seeing stunning effects that are produced by stitching the confetti stitches *precisely* the way the computer says that should be stitched. I remember my first maiden, La Source by Ingres, where I started at the top, and stitched background for several weeks. Then I did the maiden's face down to and including the eyes. When I was stitching it did not appear at all out of the ordinary. I put it on a chair back, stood back a few feet, and looked again. WOW!! I will never forget how stunning the effect was. I looked up close, and all the detail disappeared. I stood back again, and the detail re-appeared. Even the background becomes stunning when the picture is completed. Since this, I was told quite seriously by one person, my Ariadne ought to be in a museum. Another show I had her on display, I found myself talking to one of the ladies who had helped organize the exhibition. I told her about Ariadne, and she remarked that when she first saw it, she was very annoyed that someone had allowed a painting into an embroidery show. Once you have completed one piece, you will see the wonderful effects produced by confetti stitches, and they all become worthwhile. There is a problem that some of the confetti stitches, e.g. in the background, may not be worthwhile doing *exactly* as the computer indicates. However, I can never work out when accuracy is important, and when it is not, so I *always* try to stick strictly to the pattern. Occasionally, when it is background, I will fudge around mistakes. As many people know, I am a scientist, and I like to quantify things. When it comes to confetti stitches, I have invented two measures of scattering. The first is how many different symbols are there in a 10 by 10 square defined by heavy lines on the pattern. Typical numbers for designer patterns are numbers between 8 and 12, in my experience. Complicated squares on my patterns run in the mid to high 20's, with one occasionally in the low 30's. I heard from another stitcher she had squares in the low 40's. When you remember we are talking 100 stitches, this means the average number of stitches of each colour in the square is just over 2. The second measure is how large a square or rectangle can I find where every stitch is a different colour. The most I have found is 14, a rectangle of 7 x 2. However, numbers between 6 and 12 are very common indeed. This may tell you how scattered are the stitches your pattern has produced. Now for techniques as to how I tackle confetti stitches. The first thing to note is how cheap floss is. I pay 75 cents Canadian per skein. This means that a single strand of floss one meter long costs about 2 cents. So a inch of floss costs about 0.05 cents. Thus I have no problem "wasting" these amounts with reckless abandon. I like to have, as I say, many "arrows in my quiver". That is I know all sorts of different ways of doing things, and I can choose the one that suits me at the time. With confetti stitches, you can do the area concerned with those colours which comprise the largest amount, leaving lots of holes behind. Then it is easy to see which colour goes into which hole, and finish these off quickly. You can also do the confetti stitches first, particularly if there is only one background colour. Then you can stitch away with this one colour, without referring to the pattern, watching TV, etc. Both ways have their advantages and disadvantages. Now as to how I deal with the floss. With 90 colours, I find bobbins in one of the plastic (Darrice?) boxes is best. I cut "standard" lengths of floss, and attach them to the bobbin with a lark's head know through the hole. When I am doing just one or a few stitches, I count how many stitches there are and cut off an appropriate length of floss (more later). The first time I separate one thread, cut off the "right" amount, and replace the rest of the thread with a lark's head knot. Subsequent times, I just cut off how ever much thread I need without undoing the knot. When I get down towards the end of the thread, I usually take a generous amount to finish off the end; I know the money I am "wasting" is negligible. I *always* use loop starts. The "right" amount of floss is something I can now eyeball. At first I used to solemnly measure how much I needed, but I rapidly learned that I could guess without "wasting" too much floss. The amount you need, of course, depends on what size canvas you are using. Another technique I use is not to finish off the last stitch that I am doing with that colour; or if it only one stitch, I just do the loop start, and bring the thread to the front of the work. Naturally I find myself stitching with a veritable "forest" of ends at the front of the work. I know one lady at our Guild who simply cannot work that way, and it does take a lot of practice, and occasionally frustration. However, when (and believe me it is not if), I make mistakes, it is very easy, usually, to undo the mistake and stitch it right. If you have finished the end off, this becomes much more difficult and frustrating. For me, the difficulty of having all those ends at the front is much less of a nuisance than putting mistakes right when ends have been finished off. When the ends are a "significant" distance from where I am stitching, then I finish the ends off. This can lead to problems. It is quite normal to have a stitch where two different colours are in place to do the completion. There is only one way to do it right, and I have often done it wrong. Then you need to know how to finish off very short ends using a loop of cotton, but it is much better to learn to look carefully before you finish the end off. But there is another advantage to leaving loose ends at the front of the work. With confetti stitches it is *very* easy to miss one. You search the pattern, counting how many stitches there are of the symbol concerned, and sure enough you miss one or more. If you have fairly long ends left, it is quite likely one of the right colour is there to finish off the stitch. Otherwise it just becomes another single stitch you need to do. I know this has been longwinded, and you will not find all the ideas to be useful. But hopefully a few of them may be. -- Jim Cripwell. The gods do not subtract from the allotted span of one's life, any time that is spent in stitching. Adapted from a sign on The Cobb, Lyme Regis, England. |
#5
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F.James Cripwell wrote:
I find myself stitching with a veritable "forest" of ends at the front of the work. I know one lady at our Guild who simply cannot work that way, and it does take a lot of practice, and occasionally frustration. However, when (and believe me it is not if), I make mistakes, it is very easy, usually, to undo the mistake and stitch it right. If you have finished the end off, this becomes much more difficult and frustrating. For me, the difficulty of having all those ends at the front is much less of a nuisance than putting mistakes right when ends have been finished off. Oh, my goodness. I do this. Now, I don't normally cross stitch, but in other types of embroidery, I do this commonly. I'm currently working on a drawn thread little mat, in very dark red/brown color. It's not an evenweave and depending upon the light, I can work one end when the light is bright, and another side when the light is dimmer. Plus there were other problems (because of the idiotic way I decided to work this to begin with), so it was not uncommon for me to have 3 needles going at once. If I'm not sure of a color, I'll start an area, leave the thread hanging, and work around the area - sometimes with several colors. It's really a good way to figure things out rather than have to "undo" finished ends. I probably don't have all the ends hanging that Jim is talking about, but this really *is* another way to approach something. Question for Jim: Do you allow the computer to choose the colors for you? I was trying to follow your explanation. Dianne Dianne When the ends are a "significant" distance from where I am stitching, then I finish the ends off. This can lead to problems. It is quite normal to have a stitch where two different colours are in place to do the completion. There is only one way to do it right, and I have often done it wrong. Then you need to know how to finish off very short ends using a loop of cotton, but it is much better to learn to look carefully before you finish the end off. But there is another advantage to leaving loose ends at the front of the work. With confetti stitches it is *very* easy to miss one. You search the pattern, counting how many stitches there are of the symbol concerned, and sure enough you miss one or more. If you have fairly long ends left, it is quite likely one of the right colour is there to finish off the stitch. Otherwise it just becomes another single stitch you need to do. I know this has been longwinded, and you will not find all the ideas to be useful. But hopefully a few of them may be. -- Jim Cripwell. The gods do not subtract from the allotted span of one's life, any time that is spent in stitching. Adapted from a sign on The Cobb, Lyme Regis, England. |
#6
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F.James Cripwell wrote:
I count how many stitches there are and cut off an appropriate length of floss (more later). The first time I separate one thread, cut off the "right" amount, and replace the rest of the thread with a lark's head knot. Subsequent times, I just cut off how ever much thread I need without undoing the knot. I'm having difficulty picturing this. Do you cut the appropriate length from what's on the bobbin? Or is that what you put on the bobbin? Is the lark's head knot on the bobbin, or is it on some other floss keeper, like my DMC horse head? And how do you "cut off how ever much thread I need without undoing the knot"? I *always* use loop starts. I did a google search for that, and found this wonderful website that answered a lot of my beginner questions: http://www.lysator.liu.se/~offe/kors...al/cross3.html And I will for sure be doing a loop start from now on. But there's one thing it didn't answer - how do you do a loop start with one, or an odd number, of threads? ...Or do you only work with even numbers? Thanks so much, Ruthie in Colorado alowan doodad earthlink doodad net Currently working on "peace" from JCS Dec. '02 |
#7
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Dianne Lewandowski ) writes:
(snip) Question for Jim: Do you allow the computer to choose the colors for you? I was trying to follow your explanation. Dianne Sigh!!! If only I had the ability to select colours, and have the end product come out looking stunning!! Yes, the computer software selects my colours. -- Jim Cripwell. The gods do not subtract from the allotted span of one's life, any time that is spent in stitching. Adapted from a sign on The Cobb, Lyme Regis, England. |
#8
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Ruthie ) writes:
F.James Cripwell wrote: I count how many stitches there are and cut off an appropriate length of floss (more later). The first time I separate one thread, cut off the "right" amount, and replace the rest of the thread with a lark's head knot. Subsequent times, I just cut off how ever much thread I need without undoing the knot. I'm having difficulty picturing this. Do you cut the appropriate length from what's on the bobbin? Or is that what you put on the bobbin? Is the lark's head knot on the bobbin, or is it on some other floss keeper, like my DMC horse head? And how do you "cut off how ever much thread I need without undoing the knot"? snip But there's one thing it didn't answer - how do you do a loop start with one, or an odd number, of threads? ...Or do you only work with even numbers? Thanks so much, Ruthie in Colorado So many questions. Let me try and answer them. My bobbins have the usual place to wind the floss onto, and a hole at either the top or the bottom; I consider it the top. I cut the standard length and knot the thread through the hole, having first stripped one thread off. Then I cut what I need, tying the rest through the hole with a larks head knot. The next time I need a short length, I simply cut as much as I need from this single thread. As to loop starts with odd numbers of threads, this is controversial in that the way of doing it may be considered more trouble than it is worth. I use standard lengths, so if I am using three threads, I select two such lengths. The first is looped in the usual way, and the second cut in half; one half to use this time, the other next time. Thread the needle so that the ends of the standard lenght (the one with the loop) are even, but the third, half length is uneven, leaving a long tail beyond the loop. Do a loop start with all three threads. Unthread the needle, and take the long end from the half lenght, and finish it off under back thrads. Do *not* cut it. Gently pull the thread at the other end until there is just enough buried to be safe. At the needle end the three threads will now nearly match. Snip if you wish, but I wait until much of the thread has been used. I often get mismatched threads when I get to the end of the thead. HTH. -- Jim Cripwell. The gods do not subtract from the allotted span of one's life, any time that is spent in stitching. Adapted from a sign on The Cobb, Lyme Regis, England. |
#9
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So many questions. Let me try and answer them. Thank you, Jim, it's now clear to me! Ruthie in colorado, currently stitching Bull Terrier Christmas ornament of my own design. alowan where earthlink what net |
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