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How on earth do you manage these huge long threads whose numbers seem to have no relation to one another and which get into a heck of a tangle as soon as you look at them?

Any suggestions most welcome as the mess is driving me nuts.

Life is too short to waste it on taming those threads. In some kits they may be of unknown origin, so I just open my storage boxes and use my own DMC from bobbins.

I know that some people do wind them on bobbins, I braided them all and when I needed a new strand, cut one off at the top and carefully pulled it out of the braid.
As for the numbers, I found I'd get used to them quite easily while stitching.
Which Dimensions kit are you planning on starting?

Sally, with every kit I get I always put threads on a piece of card, eg cornflake packet back/front, tea bag box outer card, etc. I have a hole punch & I punch holes all round the 4 sides, 2 long sides & 2 smaller ends.

I number the thread numbers on the chart, 1 to 20, or 1 to 46 whatever, then number each of the holes in the card, If it is large piece like cornflake box I add symbols & colour of symbols by their side too as there is plenty of room to add what you want. As you know some symbols are in black some in red, green, others in blue/turquoise.

I find corresponding threads from No. 1 on chart all the way down to the end, I cut threads off Dimensions kit thread holder & then cut all that colour in half. Sometimes if there are a lot of a threads in a particular colour it will take up 2 holes in the punched card. You work that out before you number the holes on card as you can tell which will need to go into 2/3 holes.

I know they (Dimensions) hang like jellyfish tentacles but once on card they are easier to handle. I am going to do that with my kit in next few days when finished gridding. I do it automatically with DMC kits, Anchor etc. so it doesn't seem a chore to me. I have holed my large piece of card which this time is the back of a strengthened envelope I received an Orchidea chart, the other week. Still have 2 nights gridding, maybe 3 if it is too hot to stitch as much as I would like to.

Over the years sometimes in charity shops I have found, as well as complete untouched kits, a part stitched kit or ones which have had threads got ready & chart enlarged & they have done the same with the threads, carded them. One lady had done one of the 3 Jalynn cottages kit & 2 were left to do - She had put holes in card & threaded all colours through so it saved me a job. Charts were enlarged too, so a good find Once stitched & framed they were given as gifts.

Hope you get the gist of this, I'm not good at explaining things.. If not I will take pics of what I do & put them on here for you & others to see if required. Why didn't I think of that first of all!!! Now I've typed all this will put it on here. Don't want my effort to go to waste

The thread is the worst thing about the dimensions' Italian Vista I'm doing. It's all twisty and awful, but it came on cards already sorted and numbered. I cut them in half, and put them into bags on a ring. Since I started running out of their floss I found a dmc conversion chart and use my own threads. I wish I'd done that from the beginning.

Thank You for the suggestions ladies and I will definitely give them some thought too.

Thinking about it all Sally the neatest way seems to be small bags & the ring. I forget they are available. Not heard about them until I looked at storage/working solutions on here. At the moment I will be using card as I have some stored away:)

Thinking about it all Sally the neatest way seems to be small bags & the ring. I forget they are available. Not heard about them until I looked at storage/working solutions on here. At the moment I will be using card as I have some stored away

sorry this has come up twice

When I started stitching in 2011 I bought a kit, and it was carded as Lilacwine describes doing for herself. As I thought this was 'The RIGHT Way', I've done the same with all the kitting for myself since. Seems to work. If there's too much thread to be carded, I leave it in the skein. No bobbins for me - seems to be extra work for no purpose to me - just what do they add? You wind them and unwind them. Just skip that bit is my feeling.

Regards

Richard.

I card threads too. Don't know how much the little bags are & not sure either if you have to take them off large ring whenever you need to get threads out. Even if there is a gap for you to take out threads I don't think I would bother with them, just keep on carding. So easy to take threads off.

I also remove the floss from the Dimensions cards and loop it onto my own cards, writing the Dimensions # by each. I've never had a problem with the floss itself.

Thank You all for your help it is much appreciated.