Hi there! I have been looking around online all evening for where I might be able to buy dove gray and steel gray Aida.

The only place that I can find these, is in Dimensions brand kits. However, I have several patterns that call for these colors of fabrics.

Ideally, I need a 16-count dove gray and a 14-count steel gray. Since my projects are fairly large, I will need them to be a minimum size of around 18w x 22h so that I will have enough space to frame the finished pieces.

This is my first time working from a pattern without a kit, so I would be very happy to hear some suggestions on where to buy my materials.

That would all depend on where you are located.

In the UK.. SewandSo is a popular site. Or you could try Quality Needlecraft since they advertise here.

In the US.. 123stitch is a popular site. Or Nordic Needle (although I'm not sure how much aida they have)

Try a google search for those colors, that may find an online shop that stocks it.

Happy Shopping

Hi Maggie! Thanks for the quick reply. I am in Canada, but am willing to order from anywhere that will ship to Canada.

I checked all the sites you mentioned, and the closest I found was a dove gray linen.
I believe I may have found them on ebay, but I was hoping to find a needlecraft website to buy from.

I'm not much of an online shopper- I am sure someone else will soon point you in a better direction than I have.
Oh and welcome to the forum.

Edit: When I did a yahoo search for dove grey I got some Ask site.. it said when DMC bought out Charles Craft fabrics, dove grey was one of the colors they dropped.

But heres a link to Stoney Creek that has the steel grey. Ask them.. they probably know of a substitute for the dove grey.
http://store.stoneycreek.com/aida-14ct-steel-grey-p12200.aspx

Thanks again, Maggie, for your help!
I have to resort to online shopping since my local store has pretty bad Aida selection.

I don't even know what brand of Aida I should be looking for. I find very elusive references to a dove grey Aida in the Zweigart brand, but apart from the Dimensions kits, I cannot find anywhere to buy some. I am starting to think that maybe this is now called pearl grey.... Perhaps someone will be able to confirm this?

In case this will help anyone identify the Aida I am looking for, the two patterns I have are these ones:
Dove grey: http://www.123stitch.com/cgi-perl/itemdetail.pl?item=10-1642" target="_blank
Steel grey: http://www.123stitch.com/cgi-perl/itemdetail.pl?item=09-1113" target="_blank

I would like to do the autumn scene in 16-count, and the birds on 14.


Edit: Thanks for the link Maggie! I will check into it!

I have had pretty good customer service with a little shop in Louisiana. Ships quickly and very helpful online and on phone.

They have a Pewter Gray in both counts. if you have a DMC #415 you can see what the color is.
www.acadiancorner.com

both of these are charles craft fabrivs, both have been discontinued. I have both in my stash.
dove grey is darker, whilst steel grey is lighter.

you will probably have to look on ebay or contact online shops direct to try and source the end of the stock.

I looked at the designs & it looks like they are both "full coverage", where all of the fabric is going to be covered anyway. If you can't find exactly the color specified, you could just go with something that looks close, regardless of the name. Good luck, they are both very nice pieces!

I have had very good service from Needle in a Haystack. They are good to talk to and maybe able to match the cloth to what you are looking for.

http://www.needlestack.com/

Wow! Thank you all for your suggestions and for your help! I learned some things, and bookmarked all of the webpages mentioned as Favorites. When I decide which Aida to get, I will let you know. Thanks everyone!

this piece was done on steel grey, its close to dmc 415. Its 14 count but the kit came with 16 count dove grey which i never used as it was 16 count. As you can see it is pretty much fully stitched. Its called European Bistro. If you google it you will see that the lighter shade made very little difference to the fully stitched piece.

Go back a few pages and look for the wolves, you will see the same fabric...

This is the fabric i still have a huge amount of.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6923&start=700" target="_blank

and this one is done on the original 16 count dove grey that came with the kit. good shot of the fabric here.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6313&hilit=european+bistro

Thanks Barb! The images and extra information are very helpful.

Your finished Bistro piece is very beautiful.

I manage to acquire a piece of the retired Charles Craft Steel Grey Aida (infinite thanks to the person who helped me with this. You know who you are. ) In case anyone is interested, it is similar to Zweigart's Confederate Grey and also to Ocean Kiss Aida by Nora Corbett. The steel grey is slightly "cooler" in color than these, but it is a fairly close match.

For some reason I have just caught up with this thread and been down to my stash cupboard and yes I still do have a chunk of grey aida

I've checked its ct against a count ruler I have and its either a large 16 or an 18 ct
and its sort of soft grey. I guess I would have bought it from Sewitall years ago to redo my big eagle kit (Dimensions) but never used it. It is a full metre by 36 " - in other words 1 m x 93 cm - not sure which measurements are used in Canada.

You are most welcome to it if it is of use to you. Looking at the colours on screen from Sewitall this grey is much lighter than their "Dove Grey".

Thanks, Squirrel, for the very generous offer! I think I am pretty much set now. The steel grey that I was given is enough for my one project, and I also ordered some other assortment of grey Aida so that I could compare them with the steel grey and find suitable substitutions.