Ok it’s not the most exciting stitchy mail in the world, but I don’t get to afford things in bulk very often and that’s quite a big wallop of plain white aida that’ll probably last me at least a year!

Since I needed to order this anyway, I also took the chance to grab the last few colours needed for Errol. Just have to get them on floss drops and I’ll be all set! But this brings me to my question…

Our local craft shop sells their skeins for £1.40 ($1.77 per single skein for the US folks). It really really adds up.

I used to buy all my floss online from https://www.enchanted-needle.co.uk which for a long time sold them at £0.69 (nice) and that obviously made a huge difference.

Unfortunately nowadays their pricing has gone up to £0.99 in line with the other big online options, which is still a lot better than £1.40, but when you take postage into account it’s no longer really saving much if anything on small orders.

So, after all that rambling, my question is where are other UK stitchers getting your floss? Is there a trick to finding it at the old prices? Or are we just all completely out of luck?

  • Io Sapsai 🌱@lemm.eeM
    3·
    9 months ago

    @MrJameGumb@lemmy.world I’m a big fan of Ariadna. Costs 0.50$ (0.35 from my local stores). It’s cotton, holds up well and it’s made in Poland. The colours wash well and I often mix it with DMC to reduce costs. To the trained eye there might be subtle differences but I don’t see them. Their palette is similar to DMC but with a different numbering system. They have most colours DMC has to offer but they’re not always a complete match so bw aware of it when you swap. I don’t see any difference while working with it quality-wise.

    A quick duckduckgo search led me to this store thst ships internationally

    Also if you don’t mind cheap Chinese retailers I’d reluctantly recommend CXC. You can read more a out it on Sirithre’s blogpost about it

    • MrJameGumb@lemmy.world
      2·
      9 months ago

      I just bought a bunch of CXC to try out! I may give Ariadna a try too, it sounds cheaper than what I pay here!

      • Io Sapsai 🌱@lemm.eeM
        2·
        9 months ago

        My main worry about CXC is how it holds up after being washed. I haven’t used them so I can’t vouch but I had no such issues with Ariadna and it was what I started with at first. A lot of the kits local designers assemble also use this brand, if you want them to make it cheaper, so it seems to have proven itself in Eastern Europe at least.

        • MrJameGumb@lemmy.world
          1·
          9 months ago

          Once my order gets here I’m going to make a quick easy pattern to do a color comparison and a wash test! I’ll make a post about it as soon as I’m done! Just gotta wait for the floss to arrive lol