How Many Steps Does It Take?

  

Hi There

How are things with you and how was your week? Have you been stitching away in front of the Winter Olympics, cheering on your country in Biathlon, speed skating, curling or any other of the interesting sports? Or maybe, if you’re from the USA you made the most of the loooooooong Super Bowl football game to get some great progress in your WIP’s??

I have been busy this week hand dyeing a few custom fabric orders and enjoying every moment of it. It’s a totally different process than hand dyeing the thread range, so the change did me the most of good! Talking about process, I’ll be talking you through the different steps I take for hand painting my threads and I’ll also be announcing who has won the spontaneous contest I launched a while back.

Spontaneous Contest

Around 10 days ago I shared a Did You Know post on IG and FB about how long it takes to produce a hand dyed thread from A to Z! Did you know that…

That’s right 35 hrs!!…There is a period of about 24 hrs soaking time though so it does seem really long and impressive!! I then asked everyone to try and guess how many steps there are in my thread hand dyeing process and in doing so created my spontaneous contest!

14 Step Dyeing Process

The correct number of steps to follow is 14…14 main steps as there can be smaller ones along the way that I didn’t include. I can’t go through all of them right now otherwise this article would be never ending and you’d get very bored, but I’m going to highlight 2 or 3 of them as they make up the most important ones to get right!

The first critical step is the powder mixing stage. This is when the future colour begins and the result depends on quite a few different variants at this early stage. An obvious one is the weight or the right quantities used to make up the mix…if I put in too much of one and not of the other the colour result will be different. The temperature of the water I use to mix the colours with, the amount of salt or even what the weather is like outside can all alter the final result.. and that is just a few of the variables!! 

The next stage ( not in order) that is crucial is the fixing stage. This is done once the colour is absorbed and has been rinsed. It can be one of the most annoying depending on the colour that you’re working on. Some of the colours (historically made with red pigments) can be a nightmare to fix and will require several baths. Sometimes you have to start the whole process over again because the thread has lost too much colour! 

Another stage I enjoy is the sorting stage. This is the time I can sort through the large skein and separate into 8 strands that’ll make the final thread product that goes on to the card. I usually do this stage (often every night) in front of the TV or Netflix and I enjoy this downtime and getting the threads ready. It’s also a family affair as my husband Gilles often gives me a hand, or Jessy my aunt and even my mother in law when they come over for lunch! Instead of doing the washing up, I give them threads to count!!!

October Thread Pack Contest Winner

So there were only 3 people who found the exact number of stages (14)!! I asked my daughter to pull out a name from the three pieces of paper that I held in my hand and she pulled out this name!

Congratulations Sophie! I’ll get in contact soon to send you your prize!

February Fabric Subscription

This months fabric pairs up really nicely with the February thread colours and was sent out on the same day. Here are some photos of the different fabric I chose for the Winter fabric subscription season

February Subscription Fabrics

As for the December and January monthly fabrics, the February one is shiny and festive. The fabric categories were 18 CT Sparkly Aida, 28 CT Sparkly Brittney Lugana and 32 CT Sparkly Linen, this time in a lovely mousy grey that I call SOURIS. This is the last colour in the Winter trio and I find it’s a lovely way to finish off winter before embarking on Spring!

I’ll be showing the Spring trio in the next few weeks! I wonder if you can guess which colours will make up the Spring Trio??

If you’d like to find out more about the monthly Fabric Club please follow this link:

http://bit.ly/FabricClubSubscription

I hope that you enjoyed this quick behind the scenes article today and small insight into what a creative business is like? Maybe it got you thinking about the processes you use at work or at home to achieve tasks? Or made you realise how time consuming each stage of creating, producing, promoting and selling creative hand made products can be?!

I'll be back next week..to share the February pack threads (another lovely romantic pack if I don't say so myself ;) ) that I'm very proud of and that is already very popular with my subscribers!!

Have Fun Stitching!

Melanie