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In my quest for a replacement the ultimate cross stitch needle (Permin ) I have just brought myself some of these



Inspection under the microscope shows the eyes look ok. Sadly they only go down to size #25 which is bigger than I prefer to work with.

I will report back on my thoughts of them when I return to my Fall Fairy

Jo

I have been using John James Petite Needles size 28 for quite a few years. They seem to last a long time and are perfect when working on my HAED projects on 28 count fabric, especially when stitching 1 over 1. I thought about going back to some of the larger needles (I have all kinds of sizes in my stash) when I started the afghan (18 count fabric) but regular sized (not petite) needles now seem cumbersome to use. It's a little tricker to thread two strands, but I have a few good needle threaders I can use.

Carole

Yes I have both John James and Prym sizes 28 and 26 and some of the shorts, they are not bad For some reason the needles Permin supply with their linen kits just hit the spot for me but they break easily

I find no problem threading needles using the technique I posted a month or so ago even the 0.3mm beading needles were easy. I use the needle threaders to enable me to re-thread a needle when I have a short end which has escaped and needs re-threading to be sewn under.

Jo

Just been browsing this thread - further to the earlier posts about lots of different colours/skeins, right now I'm stitching Vincent's Fishing Boats , which uses 90 colours, some with only a couple dozen stitches.
Well, after lots of needle rethreading, I laid out all the skeins and grouped the similar ones, and have reduced the count to 33, without any noticeable difference (1/4 of the pattern completed) Far less rethreading,
Which is one reason why I love stitching scenes of the Bayeux Tapestry - only 7 colours, all they had at the time.
On a similar theme, which has no doubt been covered before, I find the gold plated needles much more difficult to thread, the eye is obviously reduced by the plating.

I'm not too keen on the gold plated needles either.
Not only is the eye reduced with the plating but some of the needles have rough eyes too.
I keep meaning to chuck the 26 that came with a kit as it's !!
Also the gold wears off and so it's useless whereas a steel needle lasts much longer.
I've used Bohin needles but they aren't any better than cheaper steel needles.
I guess we all have our favourites.

I always wonder why more things aren't coated in TAIN (Titanium Aluminium Nitride). It's a nice, decorative gold coloured coating with a pretty low coefficient of friction and it's so hard wearing it's used on carbide insert for unbelievably high speed machine tools (CNC lathes and the like). I have some lathe tools with it on, and they were so cheap you'd never believe it (26 pence each) I think I'm on only my second carbide insert in 15 years, and I have made hundreds of pens in that time.

The coating would make goldish coloured needles last until the eye snapped or a lifetime , whichever is the shorter.

Odd really. I have tried to find a coating company in the UK, and there is one, they have a minimum order of £50, which unfortunately would make domestic scale coating prohibitive. It's annoying how some grand ideas are killed off by reality. Hrrumph.

Regards,

Richard.

Perhaps you could take orders from other stitchers until you reach the minimum amount? That coating sounds good!

Personally I love Prym's betweens ("Halblang") - I've tried lots of others including Tulips but in a blind test (albeit an inadvertent one) the Pryms came out tops!

I’m hoping to get back in to beading, and picked up a few things. Also, thread for a stocking. I didn’t realize the feathers were connectors…not sure what I’ll do with them now.

The feathers can sit in your stash until it becomes clear what they will be for. I have quite a few bits like that in my stash...

If you want, use side cut snips and a tiny file to cut off the ring at one end to make feather danglies when used with a jump ring around the necklace cord.

Otherwise use jump rings at each end to make them part of the load bearing thread of the necklace with beads threaded on the stringing on attached to the jump rings on either side. I know Tracy has done things like that, and it doesn't look bad at all.

Or use a silver coloured chain and silver jump rings between each to make a nice understated necklace of feathers connected by jump rings.

Lots & lots of things that can be done with them.

Regards,

Richard

richardandtracy wrote: Mon Nov 07, 2022 9:52 am
Or use a silver coloured chain and silver jump rings between each to make a nice understated necklace of feathers connected by jump rings.

I love this idea.

I must agree. It's the sort of thing Tracy's done quite often. I'm not the jewellery maker in the family, but I think something must have rubbed off. Tracy also does a fair bit of stuff with Precious Metal Clay (PMC) and then cooks it in her kiln up to yellow hot. It's something I find utterly amazing, she puts in something made from a slightly gritty clay and out it comes, transformed into metal.

Regards,

Richard.

Ordered in November and finally today Royal Snail has delivered:



Yes it is second hand but it is all there and other than someone pinning a short needle in the evenweave in place of what would have been a needle in a plastic wrapper it is all there. The needle has now been put safely in a small bag.

It does rather remind me of the birdies being taught how to use the bird bath this last summer.


I think my new year resolution needs to be: I must not buy any more cross stitch kits (or sock wool) for my stash

Jo

Good thing you bought this before your New Year's resolution then

Very pretty. New Year's resolutions are made to be broken.

Carole