Kreinik Thread Blog: February 2013

New Easter Braid™

There is a new thread in town, offering stitchers, crafters and fiber artists a new way to achieve prismatic color and optical effects in their projects. It's pearl on steroids, pearl hi lustre, Easter grass gone wild…it's color 9032 Easter Braid.

Last year, we introduced translucent Kreinik Easter Grass™ by specific request from one of the most talented and prolific needlepoint designers, Meredith Willet of M's Canvashouse (store) and Elizabeth Turner Designs (needlepoint canvases and finishing). We turned that Easter Grass into this year's new Easter Braid™.

Kreinik Easter Braid™ is a bolder version of our classic 032 Pearl color. It brings to mind the whimsical lightness of soap bubbles and the crystalline color of snow. At once purple, then green, then pink, then white...it dazzles in the light to create a color of depth and dimension, which gives you more visual interest in your handwork or machine embroidery. It’s a pretty pearl—and more.

One of the most versatile colors we've ever created, Easter Braid has the chameleon-quality to pick up color around or beneath it. Use it to intensify color on a painted needlepoint canvas, to blend subtly into colored cross-stitch fabric, or magnify print on quilt cottons. We have already heard that fly tyers are raving about the shimmery color for making irresistible lures. So don't let the name determine the use; it's not just for "Easter" designs. When we handed out samples at the recent TNNA needlearts trade show, needlepoint designers started using it in projects as diverse as winter, Halloween, Christmas, wedding, baby, Easter, and confection-themed designs.

Choose from a variety of thread sizes (thread weights) to match your particular creative technique: needlepoint, cross stitch, knitting, crochet, weaving, papercrafts, and more. It is available in Kreinik Blending Filament, Very Fine #4 Braid, Fine #8 Braid, Tapestry #12 Braid, Medium #16 Braid, plus 1/8" Ribbon and 1/16" Ribbon.

For more information on Easter Braid and other Kreinik threads, visit your local needlework shop or www.kreinik.com. We posted pictures of the new Easter Braid on our Flickr site, http://www.flickr.com/photos/kreinikgirl/

Kreinik Color Cards

Kreinik Metallic Color Card

Actual threads wrapped on cards…swatches of every Kreinik color...have the whole thread selection at your fingertips…what a good idea! These fabulous tools are called color cards, and they are available from Kreinik for the silk, metallic, machine sewing, and iron-on thread lines.

Whether you are a professional pattern designer, a store owner, a kit maker, a fiber artist, or a do-it-yourselfer designing custom projects, a color card puts a manufacturer's thread inventory in your hands. It is a design tool, an organizing tool, a reference tool.

There has been some online talk recently about color cards from thread manufacturers, and whether they consist of just photographs of colors or actual threads. We want to spread the word that the Kreinik color cards have actual threads on them. So if you are doing color matching or planning projects, you can see exactly what a color looks like — in your home, shop or studio, in various light sources, next to certain fabrics, etc.

Kreinik Silk Color Card

For convenience, we offer digital photos of all Kreinik colors on our web site at www.kreinik.com. You can also download a PDF of a 'pocket' color chart for each thread line (silk, metallic, machine sewing, iron-on), featuring photos of all Kreinik colors here: Kreinik Color Charts. Until we can all afford 3-D printers, we can't have actual threads coming out of your computer screens, so in a pinch the photos give you a pretty good idea of a color.

It is ultimately the most helpful to flip and search, match and coordinate based on real colors rather than photo swatches, however. So the Kreinik Metallic Color Card has thread samples of 350+ Kreinik thread colors wrapped around panels. The Kreinik Silk Color Card has swatches of 200+ colors. When new colors are added, updated panels are created. For any creative person, these cards are an easy and economical way to have a thread palette on hand at all times.

For more information or to purchase the Kreinik silk and metallic color cards:

Ask your local needlework store to special order a color card for you
If you have a wholesale account with Kreinik, add updated color cards to your next order
Check online stores for color cards (such as Nordicneedle.com, everythingcrossstitch.com etc)
Click here for Kreinik metallic color card
Click here for Kreinik silk color card

Kreinik Colors In Shading Order

We received this letter from a stitcher, regarding our collection of gold and silver thread colors:

Hello,

I looked up your color chart for metallics. It is enormous! I found your color family cards, but they are only for purchase, and I could not view this on-line.

Could you please give me the progression of color from light to dark (or visa versa) of your golds and your silvers. I have some from a variety of projects and need to organize them for a new project, by light to dark or visa versa. I have a hard time differentiating between some with subtle differences.

Thank you very much.

Regards, Mrs. N.

What a great idea! We have compiled lists of Kreinik gold and silver colors in shading progression order, based on our observations. Keep in mind that dye lots can vary, and people see color differently. However the lists below should make an organized starting point for planning your own projects.

Silvers (light to dark):

100HL White Hi Lustre

100 White

032 Pearl

032C Pearl Cord

9032 Easter Braid (this is a new color, debuting February 2013)

5760 Marshmallow

101 Platinum

3231 Moonstone

001L Solar Silver

001 Silver

001C Silver Cord

001HL Silver Hi Lustre

001J Japan Silver

001V Vintage Silver

4205 Ironwood

105C Antique Silver Cord

5010 Knight

019 Pewter

025 Grey

Golds (light to dark):

102 Vatican

102C Vatican Gold Cord

3232 Brazilianite

104C Colonial Gold Cord

3221 Heliodor

3260 Gold Tourmaline

002 Gold

3228 Topaz

002L Chromo Gold

002C Gold Cord

002J Japan Gold

002HL Gold HIi Lustre

002V Vintage Gold

3202 Cat's Eye

5720 Gum Drop Gold

3250 Aventurine

3280 Citrine

202HL Aztec Gold Hi Lustre

221 Antique Gold

5520 Ginger

205C Antique Gold Cord

5005 Gold Coin

LIGHT VALUES, GOLDS: