As you can see, I am keeping busy.

I started the yellow double running step voiding behind the lower half of the motto, as promised. I will alternate between that ultra-speedy fill and the long armed cross stitch (LACS) behind my monsters, just for the variety of doing so. But the LACS is not going to be done quickly. Too many nooks and crannies. Plus the thread is less cooperative – very slubby and inconsistent in the splitting. But I will make it work.

And I am more convinced now that I will be designing some small motifs or initial/date holders to go at either end of both upper and lower motto strips, so I won’t be filling in the yellow all the way to the left and right edges until I know what I will be working around.

In related project news, I have indeed re-mounted this piece on my shorter side stretcher bars – the easier for carrying it along with me tomorrow and working on it next week. I’ve also kitted up my Pirate Lunchbox with everything needful, including unbroken skeins in the tangle of magnetic cable ties on the lid; a box for spooled/bobbined thread; a box for orts; extra wax; halfie-reading glasses to overclock my walking-around bifocals (a precaution); a needle case; extra beeswax; and (unseen) a small metal cigarette case that I use to hold cut lengths of thread so they don’t tangle until they are used. Plus my chatelaine, of course, which isn’t shown here in the box because I am wearing it.

And speaking of the chatelaine, there is a modification. A while back I bought a magnetic backed micro needle threader, shaped like a bee. It wasn’t a chained accessory – just a free standing piece. In a Great Mystery it went missing about three years ago when I took my big coif project on a road trip to visit family in Buffalo. Then it mysteriously re-appeared seven months later on our back porch in Arlington, Massachusetts. I’ve used it ever since. Until Sunday, when I dropped it and heard it rattle through the springs and metal struts under my favorite reclining chair.

We searched and searched but eventually gave up, thinking it was irretrievably stuck in the guts of the chair. And having moved the heavy recliner, did an opportunity vacuum under it. The vacuum must have found it and shredded it because I found wreckage. The decorative bee part was gone, leaving only the stinger/hook. I was sad but not intending on replacement.

However, last year I had bought another threader specifically made for chatelaine use because I found chained/worn tools to be more convenient. It worked nicely for about a month, but the fancy filigree casing enclosed a very fragile wire loop style dime store threader. One really good pull and the wire loop parted with no way to replace it.

Threader hook intact but orphaned? Fancy threader top end intact but useless? A bit of careful excavation to remove the old wire end and hot glue; some gentle prying to insert the hook from the bee threader; some more glue; and we have a new, more sturdy and useful hybrid. Just in time for me to take and use tethered, with little to no chance of loss.

Questions

From my inbox or private mail.

Did you do all those little orphaned squares and bits inside the monsters in double running stitch?

Nope. To terminate for each and every one would have been madness. Instead I tried to path-plan to avoid skips longer than one horizontal or vertical unit, wherever possible. There are a single-diagonal skips if unavoidable. To prove it, here’s a snippet of the back side.

Are you doing this totally double sided? Are you using waste knots to start?

Nope, to both. as you can also see from the photo above, I’m a heretic. I use knots, but I do not depend on the bulk of the knot to anchor the thread. If I am not doing a loop start, I pierce my thread/threads just above the knot as a faux-loop start. And I knot/anchor onto existing threads, then run down the line a bit for extra security to terminate.

Will you post a video on how you are separating and finger spinning the reeled silk?

I apologize, but I must disappoint you. I have none of the equipment, time, talent, nor extra set of hands to venture off into video land. There will be no videos from me on this or any other technique. But I can try to describe it.

My stash-aged slubby Tied to History Allori Bella silk is quite robust. I can’t blame the vendor for the surface fuzz. It might have gotten roughed up in my rather casual storage drawer rather than having emerged from manufacture that way. I will give them benefit of the doubt.

The thick single is composed of four constituent multi-ply strands, but they are often stuck together. I cut a length – usually no more than 15 or so inches (about 38 cm), and try to cleanly tease it in half into two multi-ply strand groups. To do this I employ the smooth tip of my laying tool, and not a sewing needle. Once I have the two in hand, I set one aside and work on the other.

In theory, each of these halves SHOULD be divisible again, to yield two more smaller strands, making up the four specified on the label. One would think that there would be two smaller components to make up each of those. For the entire thread thickness that would logically deliver eight strands for stitching, with each of those made up of two even skinnier reeled components.

But not. Those eight are not always uniform. Some are thicker than others. Some are composed of three, not two reeled sub-elements. And teasing them apart is particularly difficult because when they get this fine the slubs and surface lint that joins them is quite evident. Still, I try to get even thicknesses. Separating out that third sub element if present, and using it doubled if need be, or mixing and matching the others as best I can.

As far as the finger spinning, it’s just twisting it between fingertips. Sometimes under a thumb on top of some rather solid beeswax. The goal is not to coat the thread, make it feel waxy, or shed dandruff – just apply enough to make the surface fibers hold the spin and resist snagging as I stitch.

Health Update

Off to the hospital tomorrow. You may not see posts here for another week. Or you might. I can’t bring the laptop, but I will have some other tech with me. Updates are not impossible, but will be highly dependent on ambient circumstances and available energy. I do wish to thank everyone for their well wishes and support. It’s comforting to know that almost three decades of dedicated babbling on line about stitching, knitting, and other niche pursuits has turned up such a pleasant community of the co-minded.

See you all on the flip side. May your threads and yarns stay untangled, and your stitches true.