Monday, December 5, 2011

Have You Ever Seen Anything So Beautiful?

Skeins of High Cotton
This arrived in the mail this week.   Am I lucky or what?!!?

Those reds and golds just glow!  And those pinks!!!
Here is a closeup so you can see the gorgeous colors better.  No photo can capture the colors well, plus it was very dark and dreary when I took the photos, hoping to avoid reflections from the protective covering.  I'm not taking them out of the bag yet.  These threads, all High Cotton skeins from Hyla Hurley at Point of It All Designs, are for a project down the road.

The Periwinkle skeins on the left are background threads for my project.
Here's another closeup.  I won't even open them until January sometime.  I don't want to be distracted from the stitching I need to accomplish before Christmas.  But I wanted you to see the wonderful stuff.  Some of the colors will premiere at the January TNNA trade show but Hyla says they aren't a state secret and I can show them to you.

High Cotton is a five ply cotton thread.  Each ply is a little crinkled when you pull it out of the skein so it has a slight texture.  In the skein the threads look slightly matte but if you use them in long stitches, you get a slight reflection, sort of like what carefully laid DMC cotton floss gives you.  Each ply of High Cotton is slightly thicker than one ply of DMC or Anchor cotton floss.  One strand of High Cotton should cover 13 count canvas nicely.  I normally work on 18 count needlepoint canvas, though, so I usually pull out individual plies for stitching, using 2-4 depending on what stitch I'm using.

The color card (with real snippets of the thread) shows 141 shades but at my last count, there were 162 glorious colors available.  I'm particularly impressed by all the shades of greens and blues but there are plenty of reds shading into pink and beautiful yellows.

You can see more of the new colors on Facebook. Peacock Alley in Michigan has posted photos on their shop page. Hopefully you can see the page whether you have a Facebook account or not.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.304818359537169.81439.100000270232592&type=1&notif_t=photo_album_reply

I just love this thread.  Thank you, Hyla!  I do appreciate your sending these for that colorful project I will start shortly.  The rest of you, stay tuned. I'll reveal all once I recover from the holidays.  Just imagine what sort of project uses all these colors....


Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com

6 comments:

Nancy L said...

Thanks for the glorious riot of color in your photos! This post arrived on a very gray day on the prairie. Just the eye opener I needed!

Nancy

woolwoman said...

Hi Jane I'm glad to see High Cotton is alive, well and expanding their color repertoire. When you suggested it to me last year - I could not find any color charts on line to save my life so I ordered a few colors sight unseen from M's Canvashouse - another source I believe you recommended to me. Lucky you getting such a beautiful array of this beautiful cotton thread. Enjoy the holiday season ! Melody

The Chilly Hollow Needlepoint Adventure said...

Melody, the color line is expanding. There still aren't any color charts online (I may ask Hyla if I can take photos to post but that's a poor substitute to seeing the real colors in person). But it's a lovely thread. Glad you were able to get some to play with.

NCPat said...

they look yummy!

Wendy TC said...

What gorgeous jewel-like colors, Jane. They look much brighter and bolder than DMC. I know you have a love of silk, so let me know how it is to stitch with the High Cottons and the final look. Excitement mounts to see your beginning of year new project.

Deepa said...

gasp!!...wow!!..sigh!! (shock,appreciation,envy) ;)