What an incredible amount of help this request has generated! I have learned so much. Thanks to everyone who responded, many of whom responded privately.
Although I had been pursuing the thread before, I had stepped up my efforts this week because I am going to a contemporary lace class this weekend that invited people to bring thread to experiment with. Sifting through the information that I have received, I am planning to call a few stores and see if I can find the Aurifil, or failing that, the Mettler, although one source said the Mettler 60 sometimes untwisted and then shredded during sewings. Incredibly, the Aurifil website says explicitly under the heading "lace", "50 weight is a wonder for both bobbin lace and machine lace." I was wondering about the threads that are 3 ply. I once did a piece of needle lace with a three ply thread and it didn't turn out well. It curled up. I have had sort of a prejudice against 3 ply threads since then, so the two ply threads that Brenda confirms squash down sound more appealing to me than the three ply ones, even though this isn't needle lace. According to the DMC website, "DMC developed a left twist thread which is ideally suited on all makes of sewing machine". I was wondering if this was a claim that had any special significance for the makers of bobbin lace, since everyone confirms it to be a good thread for bobbin lace. Or perhaps all machine embroidery thread is left twist, whatever that means. The Aurifil claims to have 270 colors, whereas the DMC claims to have 132 according to my brochure. An undated internet article ominously entitled The Notorious DMC Machine Embroidery Thread Situation... http://www.vsccs.com/Hints-Info/MachineEmbroideryThread.htm reveals that DMC had eliminated about half of its 250 colors in the number 50 Cotton Machine Embroidery thread at some point. Many of my sources confided to me that they frequent garage sales trying to buy second hand partially used spools of DMC Machine Embroidery thread. Some report delight at buying a stash at a going out of business sale for a quilt store or finding some while on vacation in another country. Others report sorrow at the closure of a store that once carried the thread. I find this alarming on two fronts. One is that it looks like the thread is increasingly unavailable and unsupported by DMC, the other is that the thread is so desirable that people are scouring garage sales, going out of business sales, and diving into needlework stores while on vacation to find the thread. It must be some great thread. No one has a bad word to say about it. I have the complete set of Madiera Tanne, much of it never used, but some colors, notably a particularly useful green, run out. I really enjoy going to this stash and experimenting with the colors. But with likely downsizing in the future, I was hoping to find a thread that I could, while in the throws of creative excitement, visually inspect in a store, not via a printed or digital color card, and then buy the colors that I thought went together and buy only them. What a novel idea, but perhaps unrealistic. Thanks to all for your help in this line of inquiry! Devon In a message dated 3/17/2015 6:48:09 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, paternos...@appleshack.com writes: Hi Devon Madeira Tanne - 2Z-39 w/cm. DMC Broder Machine - 2Z-42 w/cm The only other current threads in the same sort of thickness and available in colours, that I know of, are: Aurifil Mako 50wt - 2Z-40w/cm http://www.aurifil.com/products/cotton-50 or Superior Threads Masterpiece - which I have listed as 2Z-38 w/cm, but according to their website only the pre-wound bobbins (sewing machine bobbins) are 50/2. The reels and cones are 50/3, I havenât yet seen any of that http://www.superiorthreads.com/product/brand/masterpiece/ Brenda I have been enjoying my complete set of Madiera Tanne 50 that I bought many years ago in order to have a huge palette of colors for creative work in bobbin lace. But unfortunately, some colors are becoming depleted and Madiera Tanne 50 is no longer being made. I asked Holly Van Sciver about a replacement that would serve the same purpose and she said that she thought that DMC Cotton Machine Embroidery Thread, size 50 weight, (Broder Machine) was what I was looking for, but that she did not carry it. Brenda in Allhallows _paternoster@appleshack.com_ (mailto:paternos...@appleshack.com) www.brendapaternoster.co.uk = - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
