The other day I was taking inventory of my Anchor Cordonnet 20 thread. I absolutely adore this thread!!! Some of this stash is 20+ years old. I started buying it at the IOLI Convention in Puerto Rico (can’t remember the year).
When I started putting different colors of split rings together in my designs, I was noticing differences in thread size (within the same manufacturer/thread size) in different colors. Thus I turned back to my old favorite—Anchor Mercer Cordonnet 20 for perfect results.
The thread is still made and sold in Europe, but only one place in the US sells it today (that I know of).
When I was on the national needlework show circuit, Coats/Anchor would donate threads for my classes….and I approached the US importer/distributor about the possibility of getting it in….to no avail. It was “Not available. Period”.
Now that I have just recently placed my order and have had email confirmation that 15 more balls of thread are on their way to me, I’ll tell you of my source. It is The Tatting Corner in Indiana. Go to:
www.Tattingcorner.com. Jennifer, the owner, is a bit like my drug-of-choice-dealer….she keeps me connected to ‘the good stuff’.
I am so enamored with these threads that I have even paid a very premium price to order these threads from England to get large quantities of a grey-colored thread that I have need of for a large ‘art’ piece that I have designed (which I haven’t started.)
These threads are amazing. I can mix the ‘new’ threads bought from The Tatting Corner with my ‘old’ threads purchased 20+ years ago and they match in size. The colors between lots/years match perfectly too. My ‘old’ thread is as strong/non-breaking as it always was–and I put alot of pressure on my threads pulling my rings VERY tightly closed.
BTW, if anyone has some of these balls of thread that they don’t completely love to the N’th degree and are willing to part with them, I would love to buy them!!! Maybe we can work out a deal for one of my books: Fun with Split Ring Tatting or MORE Fun with Split Ring Tatting. Currently the balls of thread are going on the open market (aka The Tatting Corner) for $5.95 a ball.