One of the questions that came up the other day when we were speaking of Cosmo embroidery floss was whether or not I had tried their two-stranded embroidery thread. I haven’t yet, but I will. It’s an interesting concept, and I would guess that the two-strand embroidery floss off the spool has come about thanks to the popularity especially of redwork and other line embroidery common to quilting.
You might be wondering what I mean by two-stranded embroidery floss. Well, you know how DMC, Anchor, Cosmo, and other flosses come in a skein? And each of those flosses are made up of 6 strands of thread? And when you separate the strands, you can stitch with either one strand, or several? The most common number of strands, especially in redwork and line stitching on quilts, is two. So Lecien, the manufacturers of Cosmo floss, now also produce spooled floss in two strands.
This multi-work floss comes on spools of 88 meters, in 27 colors.
The convenience of the multi-work thread is the fact that it comes right off the spool ready to stitch – it doesn’t have to be separated.
Each strand is the same size as one strand of Cosmo floss of the 6-stranded variety – they are both “Cotton 30.”
Cosmo also produces “No. 30 Thread” for punchneedle – it comes in 88 meter spools, in 27 colors, and it, too, is made of 2 strands of cotton 30. They also produce a spool called “Stitch Work” – it comes in spools of 30 meters, in 53 colors, and is also 2-stranded cotton 30. Packaging, I suppose, is everything. They are all essentially the same thread, just packaged differently.
The two stranded floss looks like it would be exceptionally convenient for those who do a lot of redwork, or single-color line stitching in any of the colors Cosmo produces. For stitchers who use a lot of color, though, I think the palettes would be a bit limited.
As for stitching with the thread, I haven’t had a chance yet. If it feels as nice as the 6-stranded floss when stitching and holds up as well in long lengths, then I’m sure it’s a great thread for the techniques mentioned above. One of these days, I may actually have a chance to try it out myself!
Have you used Cosmo’s multi-work thread, or any of their other 2-strand spooled needlework threads? What do you think of them? Feel free to leave a comment and let the rest of us know!
