This 2″ x 1″ section of knots is one skein of embroidery thread. A skein is 8 m (8.7 yards). This marks the 127th skein used so far in the Tree Quilt. If I have the time to order online, I do, because it’s a substantial savings at 49 cents per skein. The times I have to pick up what I need at Joann’s, not so great, because the cost per skein there is 70 cents to 1 dollar per skein.
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That’s a big difference, on the other hand, not unexpected because the retail shop and logistics are often the biggest individual takers in many goods.
127 skeins (I feel like pronouncing it “skeenz” with a fake Irish brogue) now, 256 to 512 in the end?
The colour of the thread is a bit more “earthy” in the quilt than in the skein.
Ice Swimmer:
Somewhere in there, I’m sure. Knots use a lot of thread, so the number will go up on the bit I’m doing now, and when I get back to the tree itself.
The colour often looks different in stitching then it does in the skein, and the light hits stitching in interesting ways.
Noticed just now the answers.
I’d guess that has bitten inexperienced embroiderers in the ass sometimes.
I remember from an old TV program about the restoration of and old piece of art that they changed the shade of blue of smalt pigment (ground cobalt glass) by making it coarser or finer.
Ice Swimmer:
It bites the experienced, too. It helps a lot if you’re a regular play with paint type artist, too, because that gives you a good background in colours. Working with thread, though, is still different. I’ve spent time under intense light, holding two colours together, then out of intense light, in this kind of light, that kind of light, then pulling thread and laying it down on the cloth to see, but in the end, you just have to trust your own sense of colour and go with it.
When you’re working a kit, it’s a bit like painting by numbers, the colour stuff is all decided for you. I can’t stand that, I like doing my own thing.