Last time I told you I’d had a reply from Treenway Silks – I’d asked for some advice about their colour range. They do a variety of gorgeous silks, but the ones which are most useful for Hardanger are their 8/2 Reeled Silk and Fine Cord. The latter is a tight buttonhole twist which gives a beautiful texture to Hardanger when used instead of a #8 perle. According to the Treenway website, the 8/2 is equivalent to a perle #3 but I have successfully used it as a substitute for perle #5; as it is not so twisted it doesn’t have the texture of perle, but it more than makes up for that by its lovely lustrous sheen. You can see the effect of these threads in two little experiments I did some time ago; the first one uses 8/2 combined with 20/2 (a spun silk about the thickness of perle #8), the second uses 8/2 and Fine Cord.

Treenway’s threads and silk ribbons (did I mention they do silk ribbons?) come in 53 solid colours, which are very beautiful, and a number of variegated colours, which are stunning. Unfortunately, although the Fine Cord comes in all 70-odd variegated colours, the 8/2 doesn’t. This made it a little difficult to find a pair of shades for the Stitch-Along, especially as I had previously bought threads in the shades St Thomas and Daylily, and for preference I’d like to buy shades that would go with one of them.

There was an added difficulty: how do you decide on pairs of variegated shades when you can only see them separately on a computer screen? So I wrote to Treenway explaining what I was looking for and what I already had, and their reply was a model of customer service. Susan went far above and beyond the call of duty – she put together all the colours I mentioned, plus several which she thought might work, and photographed them side by side, with several skeins of the colours I already had interspersed so I could see how they looked together!

I have just sent in my order; with the cheapest postage option, so it may be a while until they’re here, but when they arrive I’ll post a picture. Which shades do you think I’ve gone for?