I Have a Dilemma & A Heart for Hospice UPDATE

UPDATE TO DILEMMA:

My friend Laurel did the Southwest Sampler and gave me the rest of her ball of #8 pearl cotton. I then found someone else with a partial ball and it should be enough!!

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I was not aware until recently that anchor no longer makes pearl cotton for the U.S. market. This apparently has been the case for a number of years. Where have I been??

I was in need of some to finish off this Heart for Hospice heart. I had used thread from my stash and never thought I would need to worry about an Anchor thread.

I started out with some watercolor in my stash called Havana and worked from there choosing a purple and an ecru # 5 pearl cotton and some purple Kreinik braid. Well you can see in the photo there is a bit of green, that is where I ran out of the #5 Anchor Pearl cotton. I also needed some other pearl, so I went to a shop that told me they don't carry it. Then I called a shop in Denver and she told me the same thing, BUT she told me why. This was nice, since it saved me calling more shops or driving 50 - 60 miles one way to a shop.

So I was able to make it work by using some green from my stash and then I changed the Kreinik to a blue to pull the two together. Now I just have to remember which chapter was doing this (it was pre-covid) and turn it in!

But my biggest dilemma is my dire need for a ball of #8 Anchor Pearl Cotton in color 337. I have been collecting the threads for Margaret Bendig's Southwest Sampler from 2008 Needlepoint Now. I have found everything except the #8 pearl. There are three colors and DMC makes an almost perfect match for all of them, except they do not make DMC #3778 in pearl, only floss. The closest DMC in pearl cotton is #352 and that is WAY TOO PINK.

So, I am on a hunt for a ball of #8 Anchor pearl color 337. I am also working on other possible work arounds. I have a friend who did this piece and she gave me the rest of her ball of cotton. I also looked at her piece and it looks like this thread is only used on one area, but it is the border and this piece is 15"x16". I would hate to run out near the end! I thought about using three strands of floss instead, but the border stitch uses two of the #8 pearls. So it would not look good to do one half pearl and the other floss. I suppose I could try floss for both? So much easier if they still sold pearl here in the U.S.

I learned years ago, that if you buy a chart that uses special threads to get those right away because dye lots change or they stop making the thread. I never thought that would have been true for Anchor Pearl Cotton!

Happy Stitching!