One great way to solve the problem of having two dyelots is to create a quartered background. The technique is easily explained: the background is dived into four equal parts and the same dyelot is used to stitch diagonally opposite quadrants.
Although it’s easy to describe the impact this makes is nothing short of miraculous. The secret is in a property of threads called directional light. Threads with this property look like different colors when their stitches slant in different ways. You can learn more about this in my article on directional light. In the picture above the change in color when the directions change is easily seen in solid threads.
But you can also use this to your advantage with overdyed threads, above. This Caron Collection ornament, a free design, has a quartered background. Although the same thread was used throughout (I stitched it in rounds), see how the color changes from quadtant to quadrant, depending on the direction of the stitch.
You can put this principle to work in solving the dyelot problem as well. This is easiest to do on canvases that have the design in the middle. Use an extra-fine tip marker for fabrics, such as a SCA-UF or a Pigma Micron to divide the background in half vertically and horizontally. If the division is in a line of holes, the quadrants will meet in the holes, top picture. If the division in on a thread, stitch a line of Tent Stitch there, as in the Caron ornament.
Pick a textured stitch for the background, one that uses only one direction of stitch throughout, but that can be reversed. Some examples would be Byzantine, my favorite for this, or Hungarian.
The difference in dyelots is minimized if you stitch with the directional light. This means that the lighter color is used for vertical and lower-left-to-upper-right for slanted stitches. This has been my experience, but it may not hold true for all threads. You can check your thread by stitching a patch of Alternating Scotch in your thread.
As you can see in the dyelot model, above, the change in dyelots, which was dramatic in the skeins, is minimized.Yes you know the lower-left/upper right quads are lighter but that’s mainly because of the presence of the brighter coral and chartreuse in them. Otherwise the color changes are balanced out by the directional light of the thread and the symmetry of the color placement.
This solution is so pretty you’ll find yourself creating quartered backgrounds even when they are not needed.
About Janet M Perry
Janet Perry is the Internet's leading authority on needlepoint. She designs, teaches and writes, getting raves from her fans for her innovative techniques, extensive knowledge and generous teaching style. A leading writer of stitch guides, she blogs here and lives on an island in the northeast corner of the SF Bay with her family
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