Long Dog Samplers

First you must remember that, at least initially, you can only get a very approximate idea of floss amounts. But it does give you a start. If you follow it up by measuring how much floss you actually use, then you are in a better position to get a more accurate figure next time. Go to

and select the number of threads in the needle, and number of stitches perinch that your canvas produces. Kathy's table gives you the number ofstitches you can get from a skein of floss. If you use this, it will giveyou an approximate idea of how many skeins of floss you require. I cannotfind my figures, but I think that Kathy gives 2040 stitches per skein at 2threads in the needle and 16 stitches per inch. Divide 11,629 by 2040and you get about 5.7. So a good guess is to buy 6 skeins of floss. Ifyou want to be on the safe side, maybe buy 7, but that is up to you. Whenyou have finished the piece, measure how much usable floss you have left,and you can then calculate how many stitches you actually got per skein offloss. If you use this figure next time, you will get a better idea ofhow much you need. However, dont expect to get very accurate estimates this way. Theywill be useful, but not necessarily accurate. The more you use thisapproach, the more you will understand what you are doing, and the moreuseful it becomes. HTH.-- Jim Cripwell. From Canada. Land of the Key Bird. This creature of doom flies over the frozen tundra in winter, shrieking its dreaded call; "Key, Key, Key, Key rist but it's cold!!"

Sure you could apply it to such charts. If you're using specialty fibers, you'll have to do your own conversion from DMC floss usage (8.7 yards x 6 strands) to something which may be only 5 yards, or only one strand.

Say the estimate is 2000 sts/skein (to use round numbers, and not to imply that's what you should be getting). 2000 gozinta 11,629 = 6 skeins and you'd have about 1/5 skein (371/2000) left for BSing.

My personal numbers are based on very little waste -- I'm one of those people who tuck a 1/4 inch tail under to start and work to the last possible millimeter of floss, so over 8.7 yards, I only lose a couple inches. However, if you're one of those people who uses a 12" strand, from which you lose 3" to an away waste knot, and another 4" when you end off, you're going to use a lot more floss than my usage numbers. So, that's another factor to take into account.

Also, how much do you frog, and do you re-use the floss when you do? Some avid froggers might need to double the recommended quantities.

Even when there's a number of skeins on the chart, I can imagine half a dozen reasons why some people would find that number insufficient. I can see Jim's point that the number of stitches would be more helpful to the experienced stitcher who knows whether she gets 1000 or 1500 or 2000 to the skein. I rarely do anything on the recommended fabric count, so I'm usually trying to convert "if they used X skeins on 14-count, how many is that on 36-count-over-1?"

OTOH, there's the novice stitcher who hasn't a clue whether a skein will do 5 stitches or 5000, and would benefit from being told how many skeins were used by the model stitcher (with a YMMV disclaimer, of course).

Once I waded through Jim's obvious attempt to hide the lack of an answer to my question thru deliberate obfuscation, I realized I would have to come up with the answer myself to post it here!

All I asked was how many stitches he calculated that he got from a single skein of floss.

However, my timing was good, I just finished the first skein of floss going into Bagatelle.

This is still an estimation based on the amount of the chart worked, rather than an exact count of each individual stitch.

Stitching 2 over 2 on 32 ct linen I'm getting about 2400-2500 sts out of a skein of DMC. I stitch English (one X at a time) which uses more floss than stitching Danish.

I hope this will help others estimate how many skeins they will need for any monochromatic samplers they choose!

Caryn

Thanks James and Karen both! Math not being one of my stronger areas, my brain just shuts down before I reach a number that works for me. I can see where it would take several projects for me to actually work out what numbers would work for me. I'm shamefully wasteful with DMC, but I'll perform contortions getting as much out of my silks as I can.

Thank you for taking the time. Tegan

I rather resent the word "obfuscation", as if there is a single answer as to how many stitches one can get from a skein of floss. I claim I have made more measurements than anyone else, and I have found figures ranging from less than 1000 stitches per skein to nearly 2700 (16 sts per inch and 2 threads in the needle). I am certain the difference is due to stitch scattering. If you have large blocks of stitches, you can get lots of stitches per skein; if the stitches are widely scattered you get far less. At the present time it is impossible to get a quantitative measure of stitch scattering. At the cost of much time and frustration, I did succeed with one pattern to get such a measure, and am satisfied it could be used in the future. But until someone other than myself gets a lot of information on this subject, we are not going to move the yardsticks very far. If your want to use Caryn's figure, you are obviously more than welcome, but I dont think you will find it to be anything more than an approximation. I would advise using Kathy Dyer's figure of 2040. At least this was about the average found by about a dozen stitchers.

-- Jim Cripwell. From Canada. Land of the Key Bird. This creature of doom flies over the frozen tundra in winter, shrieking its dreaded call; "Key, Key, Key, Key rist but it's cold!!"

I used the word "obfuscation" purposely. All that nonsense about Longitude or Latitude and such....totally thrown in to cloud the issue of the question asked.

You could have referred to Kathy Dyer's site at that point, but used my simple question, which asked for a simple answer to go off on your usual tangent of whining about symbol counts.

I did say my stitch count was an estimate, not something precise. I believe my answer was worded much more clearly than your original answer to my question.

Caryn

*yawn* Darla Sacred cows make great hamburgers. Picture Trail Gallery: User Name: Condorita Get naked to respond.

Please, repost the website! I missed it! J

ROFL!! Thanks Darla!

Caryn

Enjoy!

But be aware that Long Dog Samplers are highly addictive, and the addiction is contagious!

Caryn

Fabulous stuff!!! Is it all x-stitch, or do they use a variety of counted stitches? It is difficult to tell from the photos. J