Tuesday 11 September 2012

Do You Twizzle?

The silk motifs on the Gold Work Sampler are stitched with a single strand of Soie de Paris – a 'Z' twisted thread.


I noticed that as I stitched I was adding over-twist to the thread especially as the thread got shorter. This causes the thread to twist around itself and even to twist itself into knots.


To correct this, I like to twizzle. I am right handed and stitch with my right hand on top of the frame and my left hand below. When I take the needle with my right hand and begin to pull it through the fabric I slide my thumb towards the tip of my index finger just a tiny amount rolling the needle between them. It is not necessary to do this every stitch but is necessary more often with a shorter thread. I watch the thread and try always to maintain the original amount of over-twist.


Do you twizzle?

Happy Stitching

3 comments:

Mary Corbet said...

I do! The other option is to always keep the same side of the eye of the needle facing you, so that you aren't twisting the thread - but that's just too hard! Much easier to 'twizzle'! Love the word! ~MC

Rachel said...

I pause and let the thread straighten, rather than actually twizzling. It gives me a chance to straighten my sensitive elbow so I can stitch for longer!

Mary Martin said...

The twizzle is the key to working with Gilt Sylke Twist thread! I figured it out as I was learning how to work with it, went to Tricia who confirmed it is actually a Japanese technique. If you do this with GST, it keeps the breaking to a minimum. I've noticed myself doing it with other threads now, and it seems to make a huge difference.