My mother was keen on embroidery and crochet. When she died in 1995 I inherited a bag of stranded cottons, all mixed together haphazardly.
Tangled threads
On the odd occasion when I’ve wanted a particular coloured thread I’ve pulled it out of the mix, adding to the confusion. Until now I had no incentive to sort them properly. Next month I’m planning a project that needs various coloured cottons, so I sat down and sorted them out. Many still had the little paper labels with a colour number on them. I’m familiar with Semco stranded cottons, but these are mainly the old Clark’s Anchor cottons, with a few DMC as well. I suspect many of them are older than I am. I got most sorted out into a basket, with just a small pile of tangled threads left over to be discarded.
Sorted strands
I’ve thought of giving the cottons away to a craftperson, but keep hoping that maybe one day I might do some more embroidery. I wonder how many other women have similar collection of tangled craft cottons?
“Coloured cotton, many strands
could be transformed by crafty hands.”
could be transformed by crafty hands.”
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Hmmmm I have a small quantity Ruth. I’ve just used some embroidery cotton to crochet a small flower to go on a wee knitted (in bamboo/wool yarn!) tunic for my new granddaughter.
These cottons tangle so easily once the circles of paper come off. Winding the cotton onto strips of cardboard can be helpful my mother found.
I remember looking at Mum’s collection when I was a small child and loving all the beautiful colours and the sheen of the cottons.
You never know when you might need these in the future. I am finding that with grandchildren now.
OG, a few of mine are wound on to strips of cardboard. It’s a good idea and one I might follow up on.
I’ve got a collection just like that! In fact, I pulled it out over the holidays because I was doing a bit of embroidery while the rain poured down. The thing is, how do you stop them interacting and retangling in that basket when you’re not looking?!
He he Juliet is right they do seem to manage to get together when unobserved!
Happy stitching.
Oh Ruth, How wonderful to have a basket of thread. Did you really discard the left over tangle – I’m sure you could catch them all into a flower decoration for your hat – lay out the tangle in the shape you want on top of some backing fabric then machine sew over the tangle to catch the threads down – trim the backing fabric.
Such a precious treasure
Cheers
Joy
Joy, lovely to hear from you! I’m afraid I did discard the tangle – just didn’t have your creative inspiration. xxx