Curiosities about pearl cotton thread

Olá! When I was writing last week’s post about a Portuguese pearl cotton, I used some terms that made me curious… When I read that Limol's pearl cotton is made of "extra long staple combed cotton fiber, gassed and mercerized" or "long staple Egyptian cotton with double mercerization", I decided to research these confusing words!!! And the same thing happened while trying to understand what "size 8" means...

I did my best to answer these questions for myself and I decided to share  the results I found with you… Portuguese floss manufacturers, Limol, helped me on this, clarifying some doubts and they even captured images of the mercerization process. 

Pearl cotton balls size 8, my photo

Egyptian Cotton - Extra Long Staple - ELS
The term "Egyptian Cotton" is often used to distinguish high quality cotton fibers, Extra Long Staple cotton - one of the four commercially grown species of cotton. However most products bearing the name are not made with the cottons from Egypt. And even cotton that was grown in Egypt is not necessarily the ELS Egyptian Cotton!! 

High quality cotton fibers are very important in the manufacturing process of cotton pearl as only these types of fibers respond well to mercerization (1).

So, often, when trying to describe high quality fibers, manufacturers refer to them as “Egyptian” (2), even when they come from China...

Skeins used in agulha não pica kits, my own photo

Cotton combed gassed mercerized - CGM 
To produce the best pearl cotton you have to use the best cotton fibers (ELS) and the most demanding manufacturing procedures - combing, gassing and mercerizing (CGM).

When cotton is combed, fine brushes are used to pull out any remaining impurities, along with short cotton fibers. This process removes 15% of the volume and only the long, straight fibers remain, which prevent threads to stick and prickle.

Gassing means passing cotton thread through a flame at high speed to reduce the fuzz. This process also produces a higher sheen.  

Mercerization is a treatment that gives yarns a lustrous appearance and softer feel. Technically the mercerization process, devised in 1844 by John Mercer and improved by H. A. Lowe in 1890, consists in treating cotton with strong caustic soda or certain other reagents. After this the treated yarns are washed off.

This refinement results in a permanent change in structure and the fibers become wash-resistant, stronger and thus more stable, meaning that peeling can largely be prevented. This procedure also reduces the natural fuzz along the fiber’s length and increases cotton’s ability to absorb dye.  

Here (until 4th step) you'll find a great visual explanation of all the process until mercerization.

See how mercerization works in this video… The cotton threads are rolled into a cylinder. As the cylinder rotates, cotton is immersed in the bath of caustic soda.

Being expensive procedures, combing, gassing and mercerizing are only used for high quality products, like pearl cotton. 

And what does it mean to have a pearl cotton size 8?
As you already have noticed, with embroidery thread, the higher the thread size, the finer/thinner the thread. The size of thread has to do with the thread sizing systems. There are fixed weight systems, which measure how much thread weighs a given amount, and fixed length systems which measure how heavy is a given length of thread. 

Pearl cotton uses a fixed weight system that is called "thread weight". Within this system, a thinner thread will measure more for a given amount than a thicker thread… And thinner thread will have a higher number than a thicker thread… In very simple words and trying not failing exactness: having a pearl cotton size 8 means that 8 meters of thread weights 1 gram. 

Maybe you already knew all this stuff... If so, sorry for boring you... If not, I hope you enjoyed as much as I did learning more about this material that with our hands we use to make our dreams come true...

As I'm not an expert I may have failed to explain all this with accuracy. So, you are invited to contribute with your own knowledge and your thoughts...

Cotton Pearl With Portuguese Soul

Olá! In the last few weeks I’ve been talking about Guimarães Embroidery... And this week I will not be far from this Portuguese town.

When I was taking the first steps in my agulha não pica’s project, I was determined to use Portuguese floss in my embroidery kits… At that time I discovered Limol, a manufacturer of 100% cotton yarns for crochet, hand knitting and embroidery purposes. And do you know where they come from? They are based in Ronfe, near Guimarães!!

Pink Limol Pearl size 8, my photo

Some years ago a very popular embroidery floss brand was still working in Portugal, they had a mill in the North of Portugal, but it was transferred to another European country. So, as far as I know, the only embroidery floss made on Portuguese soil is this one…

Although many of you still think that “Madeira” floss is made in Portugal that is not true… Madeira threads have nothing to do with Madeira Island nor even with Madeira Embroidery… I was repeatedly asked about this and some weeks ago I contacted the manufacturer and I was kindly informed that: “Actually there is no real relation between our company, the island and the embroidery. A long time ago the former owner was searching for a name for his embroidery threads company and named it after the famous Madeira embroidery. Very simple but effective.”…

I couldn’t say better… Simple but effective…

Charming boxes of Limol pearl size 8, my photo

In my kits usually I work with crochet thread sizes 12 and 6… I love the final work of the size 6 thread and for those that are learning to embroider I believe it is easier to use a thicker thread. And of course… crochet thread is less expensive than embroidery thread…

But for a long time I wanted to try Limol’s cotton pearl (in Portugal we say perlé) size 8, created for embroidery works. Last week I visited them in Guimarães and bought some boxes of this embroidery floss. The boxes are beautiful, inspired by fiancé kerchiefs embroidery, what made me even happier about choosing this thread.

This cotton pearl is a long staple cotton fiber with double mercerizing and fine shine and it can be used both in free embroidery and in cross-stitch. The differences between this thread and crochet thread involve not only the manufacturing process but also the raw materials used. Embroidery thread is made of the best cotton quality fibers and the manufacturing process is more demanding, implying double mercerizing.

Limol, a medium-sized Portuguese company,  in 1971 began manufacturing 100% cotton thread for crochet.  Many years later, the move to always improve the manufacturing process and the commitment to innovation made possible the production of embroidery thread. But as they say, there was another motivation… "The essence of the creation of Limol’s Perlé 8 is the need for preserving the secular tradition of the Bordado de Guimarães” (Guimarães Embroidery).

This thread was very well accepted, they sell it in Portugal and abroad and one of their most important and special clients are Portuguese regional embroiderers, since pearl cotton size 8 is used in Regional Traditional Portuguese Embroideries like Viana do Castelo and Guimarães.

Beautiful colors of Limol Pearl cotton size 8, my photo

In our country they are famous for their crochet threads but their metalized yarns are very well known, too. Their linen threads are extremely beautiful and recently Trama rústica (rustic yarn) became very popular in knitting works, its rustic look is truly charming...

I was so happy with these new acquisitions. It's great to see that in my country many of us are still working and doing their best to maintain the richness of our embroidery traditions. And I do believe that using thread made in Portugal in our works helps to assure that our Stitches have Portuguese Soul...

These threads are available in the Agulha não pica Etsy store.

Got thread? Share it!

_DSC0212, originally uploaded by Fiber Addict.

Gosh, look at all that thread - it's enough to make you dribble a little bit on your keyboard, eh..?

I love embroidery thread and I love looking at pictures of it almost as much. So the logical thing to do was make a Flickr group to share pictures of embroidery thread.

If you have some pretty pictures of embroidery thread/floss, why not join the Embroidery Thread Lovers group?

It can be any kind of embroidery thread, crewel, satin, six-strand etc. As long as you took the picture it's all good.

Oh and, the thread in your photos doesn't have to be all organised and stuff - tangles are great too! ;-)

Temari Thread Balls

Going all over the etsy-place a few weeks ago favoriting this and favoriting that, I discovered (meaning: heard about for the first time) temari thread balls. And all because they were being brilliantly offered by Julie and Co.

Edited: to add that Julie is offering Free Shipping for Feeling Stitchy readers, so go on and get yourself some of her beautiful work! -Carina

Perle Cotton Obsessed......

Seriously, if you were offered a deal to purchase these at 50 cents per, how many would you buy? I gleefully carried 57 spools home like a six year old with a candy bag.......I couldn't wait to sort them out and find a place where they would show off so handsomely. My current wool and fabric store that carried them closed and I was beginning to panic as to where to find them. My favorite quilt shop in Northern Wisconsin was discontinuing their Italian brand of perle cotton . I wanted to buy them all---would you have felt funny doing that? I wondered if I was showing an obsession or being smart.......we fabric, floss lovers do look obsessed at times, don't we? Look at our stashes.....lol. Of course, now I have to justify my purchase by lots and lots of embroidery........I am so upset...........not. What is the most floss /thread you have purchased at one time?

Floss porn: Spools!

photo by LOVE STITCHING RED

Do you like your embroidery thread skinny, pretty and a wee bit metallic? And on a spool? Well, we're equal opportunity here.