The combination of a matte thread with some metallic is one which is very compelling. But in the past it was often neglected, largely because combining another thread with a thin metallic was a pain. You used to need to use blending filament but it tended to fly all over the place and made it hard to stitch.
Rainbow Gallery’s Silk Lamé is pretty close to a perfect thread for this. It combines several strands of a fine silk perle (in that the twist is apparent) with a fine metallic. There is enough metallic here to add a nice sparkle (50% of the thread) to every stitch with a firm, not fuzzy, silk thread which adds a lovely shot of color and a good background for the metallic.
As I stitched with it, I found it to be an outstanding thread for needlepoint. It did not shred in the needle, unlike some finer metallic/matte combinations. It did not come apart. Every stitch had metal and silk, so the effect is just what I wanted for these ornaments, glitz but not too obvious.
The combination of silk with metallic is one I just love. But it’s also one I’ve shied away from because I found the threads on the market difficult to use. Rainbow Gallery has really thought about the problems and come up with a thread that is as easy as pearl cotton to use but with this lovely effect.
Because the silk strands are more matte than many other silks, this thread can be a chameleon as well. It will add that bit of glitz in all kinds of situations, including in pieces which use more matte fibers such as cotton or bamboo floss.
It’s clear that lots of others share my enthusiasm for this thread. Rainbow Gallery has expanded the number of color to a total of 42.
I think I’ve found a new favorite thread.
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Thankyou for this review – I wanted some Cascade threads, but now know more about them – and the colour chart you’ve linked to is much better than the one i had, which had a dark background and made it really hard to see the colours