[HNW] Re: blackwork

[Eowyn Amberdrake]

No one has yet mentioned my favorite cotton thread for 
blackwork:  Tatting cord.  It is a very hard, strong, 
tightly spun thread, not fuzzy like floss.  One strand of 
floss is very like a length of tatting cord.  It provides 
a lovely, crisp line.

For silk thread, I again like sewing thread weights, such 
as Gutterman's.  I find Au Ver a Soie a bit "soft' for my 
taste, but just finished one sleeve of a smock with a line 
of blackwork done in that.  I think I will switch to 
something else for the other sleeve. 

My next experiment is going to be using Japanese flat silk 
for blackwork.  I'm getting used to using it for tent 
stitch for the sweet bag project.  Some of the 
Elizabethan-era blackwork pieces have thread so fine that 
they must be using flat silk, not spun, and only a thin 
little hank at that.

Melinda