Gumnut Yarns, Stitched

This is the week, my friends!! We will start the Cornflowers Stitch Snippet stitch-along just a little later this week, giving everyone as much opportunity as possible to receive their kits in the mail. If you haven’t had a chance to explore this new stitch-along, you can read about it here. We have more materials kits available, too!

Since we’re not quite ready to launch into the Cornflowers project, though, we’ll take another look at wool threads. This time, we’ll follow up on my previous introductory post to Gumnut Yarns, looking at them stitched up.

I discovered some interesting points about the threads while stitching with them.

I started off by working some short stem stitch lines with each thread: Blossoms, Daisies, and Poppies.

In the photo above, Blossoms is the top thread in a range of rose colors, 100% wool, crewel weight. Daisies is the middle thread, greens, 100% wool, fine weight. And Poppies is the last group, in blues, a 50/50 mix of silk and wool.

Blossoms is definitely the heavier of all three threads, and it stitches up into a pretty bold, thick line. Out of all the crewel-weight wools I’ve demonstrated in this series so far, Blossoms is by far the heaviest weight thread. It creates the thickest line.

Of the three wool threads, Blossoms is also the “rougher” stitching thread. It’s not as smooth to stitch with as Daisies (much finer) or Poppies (with its silk content).

It has a lot more bounce to it, too, compared to the other threads. It seems much more “springy.” When it’s under tension, you tend to notice a greater difference in the un-tensioned thread and the tensioned thread. The tensioned thread sucks in, to a finer line, but still not a fine line. When I was stitching with this thread, I found myself thinking I’d be more inclined to use it for canvas work, due to its thicker fill-factor, than for surface embroidery.

The thread also seemed to be a bit more rough as it pulled through the fabric, even though I was using a rather large crewel needle. There was more drag on the thread, compared to the other Gumnut threads.

The finished stitches were less consistent compared to the other threads, too.

I really loved stitching with Daisies, which is the fine weight 100% wool thread. This thread would be excellent for delicate wool embroidery.

It didn’t seem to have the same type of “drag” feeling to the thread, and the resulting stitches were more consistent and smooth.

This is the finest of the three threads and it creates a very delicate line. While the coverage is certainly not as heavy, it is still a nicely covering thread.

I really liked stitching with Daisies, much more so than stitching with Blossoms. The coverage was not as good, but in every other respect, it struck me as a much nicer thread overall.

And then there’s Poppies. This thread fell between the two previous, as far as weight goes, producing a slightly heavier line than the very fine Daisies, but not nearly as heavy as Blossoms.

There was no drag on this thread. It slid through the fabric like a warm knife through butter, thanks to the silk content: very, very smooth!

And wow. So pretty! That extra bit of twist and the sheen of the silk really dresses the thread up quite a bit!

This thread is so pleasant to stitch with!

I would really like to do a sampler with all the Gumnut Yarns, just to see how the different textures and weights would play off each other. Maybe some day!

Of course, I had to try them with a little satin stitch, and this is where you really get a better sense of their respective coverage of the fabric.

For the satin stitch blocks, I used the intersections of the fabric weave to dictate where the stitches would go.

The Blossoms really packed the small square full – the resulting satin stitch coverage is quite dense and the stitches, in some areas of the weave, felt like they were a bit tight, when fitting them into a one-stitch-per-hole-in-fabric scenario.

The coverage from Daisies was much, much lighter – too light to cover the fabric adequately. Normally, if I were satin stitching a space and really wanted to fill the space with solid stitching, I would have to split the fabric threads to get a good, solid coverage with Daisies.

This probably wouldn’t be necessary with every stitch, but it would be necessary several times throughout the process of filling one of those blocks.

For the most part, Poppies was right on target to fill these blocks with one stitch per thread. The fill was nice and solid, without any cramming or overlapping. For the most part, it made a beautiful satin stitch coverage on this particular linen fabric.

There’s an exception only here and there, where a linen thread in the fabric is a bit irregular.

Of course, the fill-ability with all of these threads will change, depending on the fabric you’re using, the thread count of the fabric, and so forth.

But on this particular fabric, Poppies was the best filling weight for the satin stitch in those small little blocks.

Keep in mind, the blocks are only about 1/4″ high and 3/8″ wide. They’re small!

In a Nutshell

If I had to choose what threads I’d enjoy stitching with most, it would be Daisies and Poppies. If were stitching a wool piece (not with a blend), in surface embroidery, and I wanted a delicate look to it, Daisies would be my choice.

If I were stitching a piece where I wanted heavier coverage, and I wasn’t shooting for a 100% wool piece of embroidery, I’d choose Poppies over Blossoms, because Poppies provides such a lovely stitching experience. It just feels good to stitch with it.

And if I were going with a traditionally larger crewel design, and I wanted to stick with 100% wool – or if I were embroidering a larger design on a wool blanket or something to that effect – Blossoms would be a good choice.

I liked all thread threads, but I preferred stitching with Daisies and Poppies.

More Wool Thread Talk

If you’re keen to learn about other wool threads and to see them stitched and compared, you can check out this recent series of articles on wool threads, which covers all different brands and weights.

And now my mind is toying with the idea of a Gumnut Sampler…. *sigh* I might have to ferociously pursue that idea…!

Don’t Forget!

Cornflowers!! This week!! I can’t wait! I’m very excited about this project – and I hope you’re as excited to start it as I am!