Cross-Stitch

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How Old is that Thread Anyway?

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Not too long ago I cleaned up my cross-stitch floss (which was desperately needed, I assure you) and it got me wondering about the age of some of the threads in there.

I’m not a consistent cross-stitcher by any means, so I assume some of the thread might be from when I first picked up the craft in junior high or high school. Some will date to each time I picked up the craft again in the intervening 25 years or so since I left home.

In general I don’t think it matters to me how old my thread is, but I know some people are curious about how old their thread might be if, say, they purchased it at a garage sale. You might also be stitching a vintage project or finishing a project someone else started and want to try to use thread that would be contemporary to the design.

Lord Libidan has a great post with a lot of pictures all about how to estimate the age of DMC floss based on the label. For example, the oldest DMC threads were sold as spools, and the oldest skeins of floss, which were produced beginning in 1910, were 7 yards long instead of the 8.6 yards used today. (It was an update to the metric system, where 8.6 yards is equivalent to 8 meters).

The post talks about and shows in photos where applicable the different ways the wrap labels have looked and what information is on them so if you have these wrappers you can estimate how old your floss is. Check out the post at Lord Libidan for all the details.

You might also wonder if it matters if you use old floss or combine old and new floss in a pattern. From what I’ve read there’s not necessarily a degradation in quality from using old floss, but it’s a good idea not to mix really old floss and new floss in the same project because they will look quite different because of the differing dye methods or treatments that might have been done to the floss in different production eras. Also of course dye lots will be different so even if you have the same color from different eras it’s unlikely to match perfectly.

[Photo: form tyrsa on Reddit via Lord Libidan]

 

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Comments

  1. My mom had a notions store where she sold fabric, thread, zippers, and embroidery floss ect in the early 60’s until 1966. All her supplies were carefully packed away in layers of tissue paper. After she passed I kept all her old embroidery floss – over 500 DMC threads of various color and have finally got into the thread to see how sturdy they were. Believe it or not they are still very strong, do not fray and stay intake when washed. I still say they made things sturdier back in the day! The fabric she had in the store – now considered vintage will simply not rip even after washing and drying a few times! I use the fabric for my journals and stuffing amigurumi animals. Thanks for the interesting article.

Have you read?

Do You Park Your Cross Stitch Thread? Try The Royal Roads Method

I have not done a lot of big cross stitch projects, but sometimes even with small projects it can be hard to decide exactly where to begin and how to work through the chart if you’re working with multiple colors. The general categories for the possible methods are known as cross country and parking. 

Cross country means that you’re working one color at a time, moving around the chart (or the section of the chart you’re working on) until you’re done with that color. Parking means you’re working in a smaller section and doing all the colors in that area, “parking” the threads by leaving them attached to the canvas but out of the way while you finish each section. 

Royal Rows is a specific way of parking named by Alison Royal, which is explored in detail on a post on Stitching Daily. 

The idea is that you’re working one “tower” of stitches at a time (she uses a section of 10 stitches across by 20 down, but you can do whatever makes sense to you). You work all the stitches of a color at a time, starting at the top left and working your way down. When you’re done with a color you can park it where needed in the section below your current tower (known as the dungeon) or in the “east tower,” which is the section to the right. 

There’s also a specific way of dealing with thread ends when you’re done with a color. This is a super simplified version (head to the blog post at Stitching Daily to get all the details) but the basic idea is that you’re working from left to right and top to bottom across the work, parking the threads in the next section when you’re done with them and systematically choosing which color to work with next. 

The whole idea of parking is kind of overwhelming to me though I will admit that it makes a lot of sense. I guess I need to try it on a smallish big project and see how it goes. Do you use the parking method of cross stitch? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo via Stitching Daily]