While shopping at Fat Quarter shop about a month ago, I noticed they had some Weeks Dye Works cotton embroidery thread on spools. It was
It is two strands – 45 yards for $4.98 per spool. Regular Weeks Dye Works floss is 6 strands, 5 yards for $2.48. Doing the math, it seems there’s 30 yards of floss for $2.48 or 90 yards of floss for $4.98 or about 8.3 cents per yard on the 6 strands or 5.5 cents per yard on the 2 strand.
But, it isn’t the cost savings that intrigues me – it’s that I terribly dislike stitching with two strands of floss and either having to “railroad” to keep the strands from getting wonky or having to keep messing with them while stitching. The 2 strands on the spool are tightly twisted and may not offer quite the coverage as two strands separated but I think I’d like working with them a whole lot better.
As I was searching, I even found three strands of Weeks Dye Works on a spool and the cost there is 3.9 cents/yard if the three strands were separated and used individually. Shepherd’s Needle seems to have a large selection of it.
I’m wondering if this would work for punch needle where three strands are often used. Once I start doing punch needle, I may try one spool of three skeins vs. three strands of the typical Weeks floss and see how it works. I did see on several shops that carry it that they say it works great for punch needle, as well as for wool applique.
I’m assuming that the strands could be separated and used as regular single strand embroidery floss. Anyone know anything about that?
I don’t think it would be as convenient for storing as is the 6 strand floss but maybe that’s because I like how I store the 6 strands and haven’t tried storing methods for the 2 or 3 strands yet.
The main advantage I see for the 2 strand is not having to use two separate plies but the I wonder how it would look on a project if I used this and then 2 separate strands of DMC because sometimes, you mix brands. If the 3 ply works well for punch needle, that would be great and a cost savings but again, what happens if you mix DMC and this . . would there be a visible difference. I’m going to ask that question in a punch needle group.