Paterna Wool, no more

Last week I was very disappointed to find out that Paterna wool will no longer be available in Cape Town.

I will miss it because its the wool I most like using for needlepoint stitching on a 14 count canvas. I use one strand and it gives a good coverage of the canvas. It also has a lovely feel when you work with it.

Flower and Cushion Stitch pincushion

For years, Janet Grey has been the only local stockist of Paterna. She is however no longer able to get it from her supplier in the UK as the owner there has sadly passed away after a long illness and the future of his business seems uncertain. So Janet will now stock Appletons crewel wool instead.

This means a change over for me to using 2 strands of Appletons on a 14 count canvas instead of a single strand of Paterna, but Janet assures me that it works well and also that the range of colours is very good. She has ordered the first batch of Appletons and it should arrive quite soon. For the moment I continue to use Paterna wool for my pincushions.

The exciting news is that after talking about it for years, my friend Beryl Saunders and I are designing some patterns for needlepoint pincushions that we will soon have for sale on Etsy.

The photo above is a preview of our first design. The pattern will come complete with full instructions for all the stitches used in the design as well as the design chart. It will be available in pdf format which means that you can download it immediately, print it and start stitching. I will let you know as soon as the pattern is available.