Are you a sucker for silk?

I know I am. In fact I'm such a sucker for silk that when I can I convert nearly everything to silk as I've probably mentioned a lot of times before.

Given the fact that I've been working on a Heaven and Earth with DMC, I've been dreaming about silks lately. lol

Well I thought I would pass along a fairly new to me silk that is just lovely. It's made by The Silk Mill and it's a filament silk of incredible quality. It's similar in looks to Pearsall's - very shiny and incredibly luxurious to the touch, but it's not quite as fiddly to stitch with as it has a slightly tighter twist to it. It still sticks to hands a little, but then my hands are horrible from years of landcaping and all the bleach and chemicals I've used at work in my lifetime. So some form of hand cream is essential. They're much nicer than Eterna - not that I don't like Eterna, because I do, but sometimes the quality is a little off - the twist of the Mini Twist changes from skein to skein and sometimes the thickness is different too. They're very similar to the Soie de Paris in the way they stitch. They're a little springy, which is normal for a filament, but you can dampen them slightly to calm them down a bit, and if you keep your lengths relatively short (12-15 inches) they don't unravel too badly. As for thickness, they're thicker than a strand of DMC - one strand covers densely on 36ct-40ct, and makes a nice clear X on 32ct without too much fabric showing. I can't attest to their colourfastness, I didn't test it yet, but as soon as I get my current order with a bunch of reds, I'll check it out. What I can say is that the colours are YUMMY.

And the bonuses... they do conversions from DMC if you send them the numbers you need, OR if you ask, they will send you a conversion list from DMC to their silks which is really handy. They come in 600 colours (yep, 600) that are very vibrant. And this week, until September 4th, they're on sale! 35% off everything on the site (including the silk sets which are already discounted) by using the coupon code "movingsale". Their regular price is about the same as AVAS or NPI, at about $4 a skein (2.50GBP), the skeins are a little bigger - 7 yards, 6 strands, and their shipping price is really good. Service is fast, most orders ship the same day or the next day. If you get one of their silk sets, the price is lower. The sets are a great way to try it out and see if you like it!

I'm ordering a bunch of different reds to try out, as well as some mauves and slate blues to stitch my Serenity Sampler with. :) Will definitely post some pictures of them when they get here!

And on another note, and another silk, I'm ordering some Valdani silk floss balls to try out. They're incredibly affordable - about $6 most places - for 23 yards of six strand silk, so they'd make a good choice for large monochromes. The hardest part is deciding which colours to order to try - there are some really yummy colours available for sure. After I do some test stitching, I'll let you know how they stitch up!