Recently I became aware of a new (at least to me) brand of thread: VALDANI. It is my understanding that they have been producing Pearl Cottons for awhile, but that they had recently introduced Crochet Cotton 20.
I was originally intrigued by Debbie Arnold’s comment that Valdani Pearl Cotton threads were known to not be the same size as other brands pearl cotton threads (ie. DMC, Anchor, Finca). I have been experimenting with threads in the size 10-20 range for ‘another’ project and was intrigued that I might be able to find a thread in the middle of that range–a Size 15 thread. (I have done a lot of leg-work to create a graph of ‘Thread Size Comparison’ based upon calculating yards per 50 grams of many threads—look for this info in upcoming posts.)
Observation 1: As someone who has tatted with size 20 thread A LOT (I have extensive experience with DMC, Anchor, Manuela, Lizbeth 20 for all the ‘Fun with Split Ring Tatting’ pieces I’ve tatted for my books), my first observation when tatting with Valdani Crochet 20 thread was that it definitely was NOT a size 20 crochet thread. It felt like a size 30 thread.
When I compared the finished piece with the same pattern tatted in Lizbeth 20 and Manuela 20, It was distinctly smaller in size. (The Lizbeth and the Manuela thread are almost identical in size/finished piece.)
When I compared the ‘Yards per 50 grams’ of these three threads, the quantification of these threads confirmed my physical tatting observations.
Yardage per 50 Grams
- Lizbeth 20: 410 yards per 50 grams
- Manuela 20: 438
- Valdani 20: 550
Thus, with a larger amount of yards in the Valdani thread (versus the Lizbeth and Manuella) the thread is smaller is size.
Anchor Liana 30 is 536 yards/50 grams; DMC Cordonnet 30 is 540; Manuela 30 is 547 yards per 50 grams. Thus you can see that the number show that Valdani 20 is actually a solid size 30 thread.
Observation 2: This thread is VERY twisty. I struggled to tat with this thread and had to force myself to finish even this small piece (I really wanted to prove that this thread was smaller physically by comparing a finished piece with my favorite threads). I can’t remember being this unhappy tatting with a thread since working with Flora thread.
Observation 3: The colors in the variegation do not change very fast, from one color to another. I love variegated threads that will change colors 2, even 3 times in one average (16-20 DS) ring. The Valdani Crochet 20 thread variegation changed after 1-1.5 rings…not very fast. So the variegation effect was not as wonderful as the Manuela 20 thread. This however is very personal preference–I get that.