HELP! How much floss/thread to buy???

lovestitches

Hi,

I have never stitched a HAED before but like always, I will jump in at the deep end and aim for a large project.

I am trying to kit up for Walls Catching Wishes. I looked through the chart pack but no where in it I could find how much floss/thread I should buy. I believe this will take months, even years to finish and I dont want to be in the situation where I am unable to find matching threads. That happened to me once and DMCs colors did change, I ended up with a horizontal color change though the color codes remained the same.

Also, someone mentioned that for HAEDs, you have to stitch one full cross at a time, not a row or a block. Is that true?

Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

liolia86

mira en la pagina oficial de heaven and earth, ahi suelen tener las cartas de colores y los que necesitas
en cuanto a ir cosiendo una cruz cada vez, no creo, yo he hecho uno y he cosido filas enteras, lo que si que tienes que tener cuidado es en que todas las crucez vayan en la misma direccion
saludos

Philomena

I noticed that some older HAED charts dont have usage. But they do have a floss usage chart on the website, just find that chart on the website (by artist) and it is just at the bottom of the chunk of text, but before the order buttons.

You definitely dont have to do one stitch at a time, and can stitch it any which way you want. Lots of people finish just one block at a time, parking their thread. Some people finish one colour at a time. Some people only do it in half stitch, not even cross. Whatever you want, and whatever looks good in your style of stitching.

LouAnna

I find with thread the colours do change over the years.   I would suggest doing most of the large blocks with a certain skein and if you find you are running out and not sure try and finish a section (that has a break of colour in between the two lots of floss) and continue on.   That way you are not stitching the two different floss lots together.   It can get expensive when purchasing the colours for these large charts especially if you are going to need multiple skeins.  

tcca

There are charts that tell you how many stitches you can get per skein of thread for each thread count of fabric. Of course this is approximate and will vary depending on how you stitch, how often you start and stop, how many stitches you carry your thread, etc etc. But I looked this up for you:

For 25 count, 2 strands, it is estimated that you can get about 3000 stitches per skein of DMC.  You said you are using 14 count, so first of all you will be using more than 2 strands of floss to get good coverage - more like 4 would be my guess, though you should test it out with more and less and see which you end up liking. Here are the numbers for 14 count. The number in (parenthesis) is how many strands you will use, and the number after that is how many stitches you will get from it.

14)         (1)3570        (2)1785        (3)1190        (4)892        (5)714        (6)595

You can use this information combined with going to the HAED site and finding their floss usage chart to figure out how many skeins you need for the count that you are doing.

As for dye lot problems - if you have any colors that have very large areas, I would recommend blending from 2 or more skeins. So cut a length from each skein and pull 1 strand from each skein onto the needle - that way even if there is a slight variation, it will be consistant everywhere and you wont have any visible lines at all. This is what knitters do when working with hand painted yarns to prevent visible patterning and pooling, and you can apply the same concept here to your cross stitch.

rteixeira63

This is all great advice. Thanks to all as it is valuable information.

bigred

what I do with my Haed chart is buy the thread for the first page and if the chart calls for
1 skein of a color I will buy 2 I always buy one extra skein that way I know I will have enough
floss

bigred

when I start the next page I buy the floss for that page and the floss left over from page 1
will be used for page 2 and so on haeds have around 80 colors or more per pattern if I double
the floss it will be 160 skiens if I buy for one page at a time an double the skeins its about
40 to 60 skins at a time and it get less for every page because I dont but the skiens I already
have

GrannyNeedle55

Wow, this really helps me as I never knew there was a stitch count for a skein.  I will learn so much from this forum.

cute.panda.sue

This might be a bit late but, the HAED patterns actually suggest using TWO strands of thread for 25 count. If you were doing 14count you might want to up it to 3, depending on your preference of coverage.  I personally would go check out their webpage and find the pattern for the floss chart. As for 14count, if youre using 2strands, I would probably just buy an extra 50% of what is needed. So, if it asks for 2skeins, buy an extra one, 8skeins, buy 3~4.. Also, you dont HAVE TO stitch full crosses before moving on, its all on your own preference.