I'm sure a lot of you are wondering when I'm going to start stitching. Soon, very soon! However, there are things that need to be done first. Remember, we are doing this piece in three stitches that look the same on the front (but not on the back). The goal is to stitch a piece with the front stitches all the same size and with the same look of plumpness in each stitch. We want the front of the canvas to look like identical rice grains have been laid very neatly out in rows.
However, I am using threads made from bamboo, rayon, silk, metallic fibers, and combinations of these. So I had to figure out if they could be made to look exactly alike on the front. As you can see, I tested this by stitching two rows of 10 stitches each in the half cross stitch, then tried a few rows of basketweave.
The threads are (from top down):
Impressions - a silk/wool blend in purple that is one strand
Patina - a rayon twisted strand in peach, like cotton perles except 100% rayon
Mandarin Floss - a six stranded floss made of bamboo fiber in brown
Silk Braid - a strand made from 4 plies of silk and 4 of metallic rayon twisted together in gold/ivory
Vineyards Silk - a silk strand in red
All the threads are a strand not meant to be plied except for the brown Mandarin Floss. For my half cross stitch row test, I used all six plies of Mandarin Floss.
After I stitched my test rows, I decided that Impressions looked skimpy compared to the rest and that the Mandarin Floss looked lumpy. Any time you end up with lumpy tent stitches with a thread, reduce the number of plies by one and try again. In my experience this often improves the tent stitches.
So I tried again with two strands of Impressions and only five plies of Mandarin Floss. Everything else was the one strand I used for the first test. You'll see the result in the basketweave diagonal rows under the first test. I am happy with the adjustment in the amount of thread used in the needle. I think I evened out the size of the threads I'm using so that my tent stitches will all be about the same.
If I was stitching this piece all in Appleton crewel wool, for example, I would probably not have to do this. Most colors within a brand of thread are very close in diameter, with the possible exception of black and other very intense colors (very dark navy, dark brown, deep reds) because the number of trips through the dye bath to achieve these very deep and dark colors sometimes thins the thread. So keep an eye on your black thread when you want to keep a black tent stitch the same as a yellow tent stitch.
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