Happy Birthday Serinde!!!

[rcperryls]

Wishing you many many more Happy Birthdays!!!
Looking forward to another year off "moderating" with you. Have a lovely day!

Carole

[richardandtracy]

Yes, do have a lovely day & very pleasant evening.

Regards,

Richard

[wendywombat]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

HOPE YOU HAVE A WONDERBUBBLE DAY!!

[mags]

Happy Birthday

[Steam.Jo]

Happy B'day Serinade.

I hope it is everything you you would wish for your birthday

Jo

[Serinde]

Thanks very much. Very nice day so far, and dinner made by Younger Son (who knows about these things) to look forward to.

Presents look like Christmas since one is an Advent calendar from de Vere and the other is a surprise box from Royal School of Needlework. Lots of goodies! The beads are wonderful, although you can't see them very well. And a red thread that looks like gimp! And some Pearsalls (old but lovely).

[Mabel Figworthy]

A belated Happy Birthday, Serinde, and what lovely pressies! I almost wish I hadn't looked at this thread as I did not know about the de Vere advent calendar and now I do...

[Serinde]

I'm a full-time enabler, Mabel. Glad to help (they are wonderful; one year I received their worsted wools. Very nice for stitching... )

I'm presuming the fabric I received from the RSN box is silk dupion? It's quite thick.

[Mabel Figworthy]

I've put the advent calendar on my List Of Suggested Presents for Youngest who has a good job in London . The green fabric looks like a hand-woven silk dupion (slubby), which can feel quite stiff and has a bit of weight to it (although generally it still needs backing); because of the light in the pic I can't tell for certain whether the red is the same but it looks like it has a similar texture.

I like the hand-woven stuff but it can play havoc with some of your goldwork materials - one of my students dropped a length of one of the hollow wires onto hers and the coils catch on the unevennesses in the fabric so it is very difficult to get the wire off without stretching it (and thereby rendering it unusable). Silk dupion marked as powerwoven is much smoother and easier to work on, but you don't get the added play of light that the textured fabric has.

[Mabel Figworthy]

Is their worsted wool the same sort of weight as crewel wool?

[Serinde]

The worsted embroidery wool is a 28 (found under embroidery threads) is about the same as one ply of Appleton, but much less fuzzy. The colours are lovely, and it gives the possibility of using two colours in the needle to create a whole range of different effects. I should also say that these yarns, being worsted, are "harder" than Appleton or Heathway, which tend to be a bit puffy (if you see what I mean). Makes for really clean lines, which is what you wanting when weaving, of course, which is why the best weaving yarns are worsted spun.

These are the colours I received in my first (and only previous) Advent calendar in case it helps:

[wendywombat]

Interesting bundle of very useful threads there!

[Mabel Figworthy]

They do look very attractive! And on those bobbins they definitely look less "spreading" than the more usual crewel wools. But I thought all crewel wool's were worsted, that that was part of its definition Will have to look into that!

[mags]

Mmmmm nice