Playing with Overdyed, Post Two

Thanks for all your comments on my last post! I knew I wasn't the only one to have these ideas, but I was sure there was a person or two who might not have thought of it. Today, I have done some really boring stitching on your behalf. To achieve these examples, I used whole lengths of overdyed (WDW Sugar Plum). I started with the thread at the same point to improve comparison. Without further ado, I give you the results.

This topmost sample is our starting point. I've crossed each ex as most designers prescribe. I worked left to right then right to left and back again. Lots of striping.

This second rectangle shows what happens to the stripey-ness when you stitch with the Danish method (half crosses all the way across then complete the cross on the return journey). You can see that the result is a tweedier effect. There are still some stripes as I think the color "reads" as the color of the top leg no matter what is underneath.

Now, what if we go really crazy? What if we strip two threads from the length and instead of aligning them "correctly," we place them ass-end to*? (I think this might produce similar results to what Denise suggested, using the loop method.) I realize I probably should have stitched one ex at a time as well as Danish method in this sample, but I went with the quicker Danish. Here, we achieve the effect of tweeding much better because many of the stitches have both colors in them. It really seems to tone down the fuschia. Still, there's a whopping stripe of lavender that shows up in the same place in each sample.

I think this experiment also might suggest that crossing each ex doesn't actually use that much more thread. There are 95 complete crosses in the first sample, 93 in the third (with seven half stitches, or 96.5 total) and 92 in the third (with eight half stitches, or 96 total), but YMMV there.

Another idea for floss-play would be to use a less stripey overdyed. Your tweed effect would be even more muted. In this project, I knew the blue thread was overdyed but somehow missed that the red was. The blue is crossed individually but the red is stitched Danish method. In the right light, you can tell the red isn't all one hue but not nearly to the extent of the blue.

So next time you're holding some overdyed floss in preparation for stitching, you might want to think about what effect you want to achieve.

Have you stitched overdyed flosses in a "different" way? Be sure to put a link in the comments so we can see the many possibilities of floss play!

*Crazy 50s slang, just one of the many services we provide.