Hand-dyed Floss

[Ernie2jess]

Can someone tell me the best way to stitch with hand-dyed floss. I've never done it and I only have a few skeins of it. So, I want to do it right the first time.

[Serinde]

Hand dyed floss is wonderful stuff, and the results can be astonishing. However, the larger the variation in colour along the thread, the more careful you need to be.

Broadly, there are two rules:
1. stitch entire crosses as you go along. The result otherwise isn't very pleasing (IMHO).
2. try to keep the colour sequence going. When you stop one thread, try to begin the next one at the colour section where you stopped before, and going in the same colour 'direction'. You may waste a bit of thread, but it looks much better.

Something else I discovered when I was doing an Ink Circles design: don't do long lines of stitches and then return underneath in long lines of stitches like this
aaaaaaa ->
bbbbbbb <-

Instead try to do something like this (imagine stitching from a to d), which will keep the colours together:
bcbcbc
adadad

Experiment with a length and you will see what I mean. Have fun!

[Genevieve]

That's really useful, Serinde. I didn't know that - thanks.

[lacemaker2004]

Serinde gave you great advice. The only other thing I found with them is to kind of run your x's in a circular motion. It will also help keep the colors most effective.