I've been roped into actually starting a TW (finally!) and I'm wondering how you all organize yourselves for one. We're doing the The Castle, and I know how I usually organize for any large project isn't going to work for this. All those blends (and this one has fewer than most!) just make my eyes cross trying to figure out how to get them organized for me. In the past I've used bobbins, but have been slowly moving away from those and into bags. But my brain just stalls out at figuring out how to manage the blends with bags or bobbins. I'm open to any suggestions! Oh, and the other challenge is making it portable also, so I can take it to work with me on my graveyard shift nights.
Thank you for any and all suggestions. I'll let you know what I work out, and boy, do I have to get this done quickly, since we're supposed to start January 1!!!!! Yikes!
No suggestions on how to help you as I am a bag user, too. I'm interested in the responses to this one.
But I do have a question. I hit TW's website and see it's called the "Wizard's Castle." Which if I'm not mistaken was the original name. Until someone voiced a stupid complaint and the name got changed to just the "Castle." Anyone know/remember anything about this? Is this the original piece from the 80's?
Darla has a system with bags and index cards that she finds works for her. I like the Pako needle organizer myself. I don't prelabel the card, but make up the blends as I come to them. I find that it's easier for me to remember where they are on the organizer more easily this way. I think once you get going on it, a system will fall into place for you. It's just the starting that's intimidating!
I use bobbins in bags on a ring. At the end of my ring I have a bag for each blend. Each time I cut a working length to pair up a blend I put the rest of those strands in the appropriate bag for that blend, then can pull from them when needed. If you like working with pre-threaded needles, you could leave the threaded needle in each bag too. It's very portable. I have my fabric in q-snaps, floss ring, pattern, etc in a bag and it comes with me all over the place, in case I have a few spare minutes to put in a stitch or two. My husband often asks, "you're bringing that with you again?" He's very supportive of my hobby, but does get a little tired of me dragging that bag with me everywhere. ;)
I guess I should introduce myself - I've been reading RCTN for a few years now, but usually I'm at least a month or three behind so haven't posted. I download messages every few days and then catch up on reading when I can. Things have been quiet at work this week, so I actually caught up with everything this morning. I'm excited to actually be able to post something and introduce myself!
I first started stitching when I graduated high school. Was wandering around the craft store looking for something to do for the summer. Picked up a large-ish Paula Vaughan and had no idea what I was getting myself into. Finally finished that first project 10 years later, after putting it down to work on other things I picked up along the way. I married my high school sweetheart, so although we've only been married 5 years we've been together for 18 years. Umm, what else ... I'm an IT administrator (computer geek) and sometimes moonlight as a wardrobe manager for a couple of theatre companies. I'm in California, no children, but do have a cat. I lick my floss, but cut off the ends so I don't worry about them. And I like mayo, not MW!
Incredible. Perhaps "someone" should be told that dragons are, like unicorns, just mythical creatures; albeit fascinating conceptions. Maybe "someone" has not yet realised that most cartoon characters have only three fingers because it makes them easier to draw...
Reading RCTN is such an education, is it not? Up here the Maeshowe Dragon isn't oriental and does not appear to have any toes - and it's been described as lion, a wolf and even a hare being attacked by a sea-eagle. All you need is poor eyesight and a vivid imagination!
I'm a bag person as well. However, the last time I did a TW, I kind of did the anal thing, and sat around pre-tweeding. Alternatively, you could do some bags with lengths of the 2 colors needed, and then thread up a couple of needles at a time. I am a user of multiple needles - so I make up some magnet cards and when I thread, I'll usually do 2 or 3 needles (using all the floss stripped out from that length at that time) . I hate stopping to thread over and over. But, I'm not spending time on bobbings, etc.
Good luck.
Hmm - good question. I'll look at mine - which is in stash for at least a few years. LOL - it's not even in the queue right now.
Now that I'm stitching my third TW. I've evolved a system which works.
Most of the blends have several combinations, so I make sure I cut the stitching lengths exactly the same for all colours, and put them separately on a punched card. When I want a new length, I take a thread from each colour, and put them together.
The first time I did one, I ended with nearly 100 bobbins with blended colours, all of which will be thrown out when I can force myself!
For both of my TW WIPs (Celestial Dragon and Winter Carousel Horse) I have a floss box with all the colors in numerical order. I make a bobbin for each blend (as I come to it), and put all six lengths of floss on the bobbin when I make it up. The bobbin is marked with the symbol and the numbers that make it up. Those get put in their own section of the box.
And that's all I do with it. Any blends left over will get tossed when I'm done (what, six years from now?), but it seems easier to me than rings did.
Fred! The dogs, my youngest DD....neighbor's kid...lots of stuff! now off to put shoes on so I can go spend my gift cards (Barnes & Noble, LTS (local tea shop), and LYS...) my husband knows me so well...I got him clothes for Christmas - he retired from the Air Force and started a civilian job at the same place he'd been working but needed clothes badly - after 20 years in uniforms, who wouldn't?
Fred! The dogs, my youngest DD....neighbor's kid...lots of stuff! now off to put shoes on so I can go spend my gift cards (Barnes & Noble, LTS (local tea shop), and LYS...) my husband knows me so well...I got him clothes for Christmas - he retired from the Air Force and started a civilian job at the same place he'd been working but needed clothes badly - after 20 years in uniforms, who wouldn't?
It comes from a very old (probably older than I) Looney Tunes. Daffy Duck is accosted by a large, hairy creature thing who says, "I'm going to hug him, and love him, and squeeze him and call him George."
I copped that when I was a mere child and have been saying it ever since.
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