Having been held hostage for a week by Customs (don’t get me started on the extortionate Royal Mail handling fee!) my two parcels from Margaret at the Little Thread Shop arrived yesterday. Unfortunately work doesn’t stop just so I can play with new threads, so it had to wait until the evening. I’d sent Margaret two rather long lists of Caron Watercolours and Wildflowers, and on the invoices it said how many of each she was sending but not which particular numbers, so although I knew that one Watercolours and about five Wildflowers weren’t available, I didn’t know which ones. The first thing to do, then, was to sort through them, a very pleasant occupation and one that my husband thought deserved a photograph (apologies for my bad posture).
And here is the complete haul, in numerical order. Already I’ve identified some very promising combinations, like Old Brick with Turmeric, and Caramel with Almond (apart from the Old Brick it’s beginning to sound like a recipe! Mind you, some of them do look good enough to eat). The parcel also confirmed how good Margaret’s customer service is – one of the Wildflowers she didn’t have was Parfait, but she sent me a skein of Blossom at no charge saying it was quite close to Parfait and might work (it does).
One of the things I did notice while having my little thread feast was what a difference dye lots can make. I have two skeins of Watercolours Caramel (one I bought in Holland because I didn’t remember it was part of my order from Margaret) and they are really completely different colours, one more golden brown, the other almost with a reddish, brick-like cast. The pair at the bottom are Watercolours and Wildflowers in what is meant to be the same shade, Sunglow, but you can see from the picture that although they look good together, they are definitely not the same. No fault of Margaret’s at all, but it is another reminder that there really is no substitute for seeing the threads in the flesh (or in the fibre), and also that if you’re going to need more than one skein for a project you’d better make jolly sure they’re the same dye lot!
Now all I have to do is wind them all on bobbins …
I’ve noticed the difference between Watercolours and Wildflowers before, but it never occurred to me that the dyelot was the culprit! What a difference in the Caramel, though. Golly! They’ll tone together ok, but that’s about it. I wonder if Caron, being a US company, has to pay attention to EU restrictions on dye usage since they are exported to Europe?
What a fabulous selection Mabel, very interesting about the difference in dyelots. As you say there’s nothing like seeing them ‘for real’. I’m afraid I’m becoming a bit of a thread collector so must visit Margarets shop.
Louise, it would be lovely to visit Margaret’s shop but I’m not sure she has a bricks-and-mortar one, and unfortunately she is in the process of closing down her business for health reasons.
Serinde, I think there is usually some difference between WC and WF, probably to do with the sort of thread they are (quite shiny versus quite matt), but I doubt that can be the whole explanation, not to the extent shown in these to Sunglow threads. Next time I’m in a shop that sells them I must see if WC and WF with identical dye lots are a better match!