The Crafting Thread
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Crafter woe: I have no choice but to finish sorting floss today, along with the housecleaning. I have too much weird random stuff to not bite the bullet and just do it.
The vast, vast majority of what I have is some weird brands I bought from amazon or have picked up over the years. Since I'm working from my own charts or concepts usually, that they're mystery colors or not going to mix in with each other tends to not be a big deal, but it does mean I need to sort out each brand into its own space as they don't mix well texture-wise.(1) For instance, the tie-dye fabric piece a few posts up, I'm just using a cheap rainbow color pack from Michaels' home brand. 40% off $18? Pfft, worth a shot for 100+ skeins in a simple rainbow with enough duplicates of each to get pretty far on stuff where I'm just fucking around.
Worse - awesome, but worse for this sorting fiasco - my mother saw I needed a ton of floss for a crochet thing(2), bitched at me that I was getting the more expensive DMC, and did a 'THIS IS ALL THE FLOSS YOU WILL EVER NEED IN YOUR LIFE' and ordered a shit-ton from amazon for me, which was SUPER SWEET OF HER AND I LOVE HER FOR IT, but she, uhm, got 12 packs of 300 totally random skeins each (they were incredibly cheap). It took two days to sort it all into baggies(3) and it fills like... 6 shoeboxes? They also can't be sorted just by number, because the dye lots vary wildly, so I had to go by number and then by dye lot and... yeesh. Sad fact is, I actually really like the quality of them, so while they'd only work for my weird stuff, I do like using them! Some stuff we've gotten over the years has been much worse quality and cost a lot more, they'd just be awful for dye lot consistency or knowing you can get more of a specific color period.
Pulling one skein from each sorted baggie to card and box is something of a challenge, though, no lie. The one box of 'red-purple-pink-peach' took a day.
I may just chicken out and do the 'ooh so fancy!' box of weird DMC stuff today. I can never resist their fancies ever.
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...and one of them has a zillion textures and finishes from just the one brand. Supposedly the 'nicest' amazon brand, no less. Definitely one of the pricier ones among the cheapies. This is great if I feel like varying textures, but if I wanted uniformity, dye lot consistency, or even labeled colors? I WOULD BE SO PISSED.
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I love the yarn that's made from multiple threads connected at different points to build gradients. She bought me a bunch of thread for this, but it is HARD to work with and super fine, embroidery floss works better for smaller items.
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Tooooooootally not kidding about that sorting thing! That was weirdly soothing.
Oh fucking well.
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I have a bunch of 'nfc what this is' floss and I use it for embroidery since all my embroidery is just by feel/color. Whereas my cross-stitch is (so far because I have not yet ventured into making my own) by charts and other peoples' designs and I need set sizes for aida and... yeah, need DMC.
(That said if you ever want to get rid of some non-DMC... cough.)
DMC I'm set. I think, in the group I'm in, I have the 2nd largest collection. I inherited my grandmother's cross-stitching supplies, so I have DMC older than I am! (There is a girl in our group who just last month proudly announced that she now has at least one skein of EVERY DMC COLOR THERE IS. It's kind of stunning, really.)
But yeah, non-DMC isn't a bad thing if you do non-cross-stitch.
If you do just cross-stitch it's maddening because some of it just does not play nice with aida.Saying the quiet parts out loud since 1996.
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@Auspice Avoid the 'Le Paon' on amazon, in that case... they're the 'WTF is this texture even?!' one, unless you like mixing them up. The '300 mystery skeins' one is Caydo -- I was surprised by how nice they work up. 300 skeins and some floss bobbins for $17 prime, definitely a good deal. They have a nice kit with a light box I'm looking at, too, since I've needed a light box just generally for a while and it comes with all manner of stuff for the typical price of a decent light box.
I suspect they're not reeeeeeally 100% cotton and have a small amount of poly in them, because they tangle NEVER, when even DMC tangles on me every so often. It's not DEAD ON for sheen with DMC, but if I had a color or two in the Caydo that's some mystery dyelot weirdness that filled a gap in DMC colors I'd definitely at least try it to see if it stands out as an issue. (DMC colors have gaps, and they're ALWAYS OMGWTF gaps that are things I need, and it... is totally why I'm just gonna dye shit eventually.)
DMC's site has one of their 'every solid color' sets for like... $290. I want it. Badly. But, uh. Having $290 doesn't happen for me very often.
I WISH the Sullivans site took paypal (I do everything through paypal except things on amazon) because they have their full color set for $113 and it's supposedly all the same colors and on par for quality with DMC, it's just not imported so it's a lot less $$. (MyNotions.com for them if you want to peek. Hate hate hate they don't take paypal, my heart broke totally.) Their normal skeins price is $0.25 each, which is pretty frickin' great by comparison.
My one mental bookmark with the DMC is that if I do get into dyeing the stuff -- they have a 1/2kilo cone of white available on amazon affordably I wanna order next month to experiment with -- is that they do do wholesale, so if I did start dyeing the stuff to add to the yarns and such for shows and whatnot, I might be able to set up a wholesale account with them that would make things a lot less bonkers. (Sullivans has 1lb cones as well, but the price comes out to be about the same for both companies retail, and people know the DMC name more, so.)
DMC suckers me badly on their fancies, though. I LOVE the Coloris colors so much. They had a '20% off first regular price item order' coupon if you signed up for their newsletter a bit ago, so I picked up one of each of those. (Tragically, that wouldn't have applied to the big set... otherwise I would have been hella tempted.) They're also evil in that they put out these sets of 'here's a special collection of colors you can't get regularly, hahahahahahahahahahahahaha! in the fancy types that... welp. FML on that. Sloooooowly building up a collection of 'I'd like to at least have one of each of those to just have it in case I for some reason NEED something that glows in the dark/is neon orange/is metallic lime green/etc.' My goal is to organize that box today.
I did luck out and got a tin of the etoile ones for 40% off at Michaels, though OMFG still $painful$ at 40% off. Amusingly, my husband has totally fallen in love with that tin for whatever reason, so I told him he was more than welcome to send me cash to buy another one for him.
(I am horrified that he even seems to be considering that.) I have to admit... I kinda love their tins. We got one of the 'new colors' ones with a 50% off Michaels coupon a ways back, too -- $15 for 35 skeins and a nice travel-project tin and some decent patterns is pretty good -- and I have those set aside as 'this is for travel foo, no stealin' for bass gear!'I may also just be amused that he'd have a floss tin for small bass guitar parts, but it's kinda endearing as hell, too.
ETA: https://www.dmc.com/us/etoile-collectors-tin-bundle-9007363.html -- still not cheap, but I wish I had seen this before I got the one at Michaels. Comes out to about the same as what we paid at Michaels, and has all the nice extras with it. I dunno how I feel about their 'stitchbow' things -- they seem like a good idea but part of me is like... they're kinda ugly and I bet I could make something nicer that's similar with stencil vinyl if I ever set up the damn cricut machine.
Oh fucking well.
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I haven't actually looked at the tin... but I don't doubt you. The girl leading our cross-stitch group gave out a bunch of that etoile at our last meetup because she was keeping the tin. Soooooo.
I ended up buying, one of my last trips to Michaels, a scrapbooking case that I discovered is the perfect size for traveling with cross-stitch. It was $2 after sale + coupon. It's a snap-case, deep enough (just!) for q-snap. So it fits my project, my notions bag, and a baggie of bobbinated floss. It had everyone going !!!!! WHY HADN'T I THOUGHT OF THAT.
Shit, I didn't think of it until I saw it. All along I'd been stomping around Michaels thinking 'you bitches why don't you have project bags.' (All along, all of us had been using gallon ziplock baggies.)
I wanna go back and buy a couple more of these. They stack amazingly.
Saying the quiet parts out loud since 1996.
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@Auspice That is awesome. I ended up getting a couple of their 'multi-section' not-actually-floss-boxes recently to wrangle all of this stuff. I think they were about $5 each? They're almost twice the size of the typical floss box, and have the little adjustable dividers in them. Not so much travel friendly, but super handy for sorting things.
Also, when in the fucking hell did generic floss boxes in the old traditional style get to be $5+ each?! They used to be perpetually 99 cents a piece all the time not even 10 years ago or so.
Oh fucking well.
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@surreality said in The Crafting Thread:
@Auspice That is awesome. I ended up getting a couple of their 'multi-section' not-actually-floss-boxes recently to wrangle all of this stuff. I think they were about $5 each? They're almost twice the size of the typical floss box, and have the little adjustable dividers in them. Not so much travel friendly, but super handy for sorting things.
Also, when in the fucking hell did generic floss boxes in the old traditional style get to be $5+ each?! They used to be perpetually 99 cents a piece all the time not even 10 years ago or so.
hell just earlier last year they were only like, $3.
who tf knows.Saying the quiet parts out loud since 1996.
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@Auspice If it's tariffs on Chinese imports, I'm going to be extra mad. One does not fuck with craft storage and get re-elected.
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Saying the quiet parts out loud since 1996.
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@Auspice It needs a pinterest one with some glorious cu$$$tom-made artisan cabinet that is full of literally everything, flawlessly wound, with an assortment of things you haven't been able to get since 1930 artfully assembled in front of it.
Probably with a link to 'ideas to store your supplies on a budget', just to rub in the comedy factor.
Oh fucking well.
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@surreality said in The Crafting Thread:
@Auspice It needs a pinterest one with some glorious cu$$$tom-made artisan cabinet that is full of literally everything, flawlessly wound, with an assortment of things you haven't been able to get since 1930 artfully assembled in front of it.
Probably with a link to 'ideas to store your supplies on a budget', just to rub in the comedy factor.
or just a stack of printed-out patterns
Saying the quiet parts out loud since 1996.
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@Auspice Or the bill for all the patterns.
ETA: lottery dream house would have to have a sign somewhere that reads 'I blame pinterest for most of this'.
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My hat in progress!
Idk why it is sideways
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@tek I love that yarn.
Also:
for the nail polish color. (I am addicted to greens and blues and greys for nail polish.)Oh fucking well.
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@surreality it's Noro Kureyon color 397
And these are my nails
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@tek Looks like Noro? I'm guessing... Kagayaki or Silk Garden? Maybe Kureyon but it doesn't look thick enough.
lololol I was posting as you updated.
I know Noro too well. -
@tek You totally had me at 'Noro', period. SO MUCH LOVE. I don't think they've ever made a yarn I don't like. (My budget hates this, but it can go shut up and sit in the corner.)
Oh fucking well.
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I have ... 2? skeins of Noro I bought just because it's Noro.
I know people who hate Noro because 'it has sticks and stuff in it'
Oh you mean because it's obviously handmade
fuck you I'll keep my noro over here.
and I love the fact that holy shit I saw a picture of something Noro and was like 'hmm it's clearly Noro and one of these three particular types' AND I WAS RIGHT.this is a strange thing to be proud of, right?
Saying the quiet parts out loud since 1996.
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@surreality I love colorful, highly-saturated hand-dyes and Noro is the closest I will get to a mass-produced yarn. I'm a snob.
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@Auspice Not strange in the least.
@tek A lot of handspun comes out like that, or similar. Or it's not impossible to manage. If you ever consider that craziness, feel free to poke. I have a little automated "wheel" that's about the size of a toaster, fits on the desk. I used to spin yarn between poses back on Reno1. (No, really!) It wasn't a cheap gadget, but if you really like that look and think you'd be interested, definitely look into one of those. Company is Hansencrafts; they have a range of options. It is weirdly soothing and meditative to do, and with that thing, did not take over a ton of space or anything.
(ETA: https://www.ravelry.com/people/surreality/handspun/tdf-2014 -- if you can pull that page up, it has pics of some of the yarns and of the machine, too. Is tiny!)
Oh fucking well.
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I don't mind some mass-produced yarns.
In fact, there is an ACRYLIC I like. But then, I crochet a lot of blankets and blankets need to be washed and I will never doom anyone (including myself) to handwash a blanket (well, okay, I mean, I am working on a madelinetosh blanket but there are always exceptions).
Stylecraft Special DK: https://www.woolwarehouse.co.uk/yarn/stylecraft-special-dk-all-colours
(I haven't found a US seller with it, but this shop has amazingly affordable shipping to the US.)
It's affordable. The color selection is AMAZING. And for an acrylic? It's as soft as cotton.I highly, highly recommend if you're making, a) something that has to be washed often, b) something for someone who might be stupid about handmade stuff.
ETA: when I say affordable I mean I bought enough for a blanket for $32 shipped.
Saying the quiet parts out loud since 1996.
