Stranded Cotton

In South India, the only good quality embroidery yarn available comes from Coats India.

use a different image

1. Each of the different coloured in the image below is called a skein. 
2. Each skein has 8 meters of yarn.
3. It is called stranded cotton because the yarn is made of 6 strands of yarn loosely twisted together. 
4. Very delicate embroidery (like needle painting using long and short stitch) uses just a single strand. 
5. While most people use two strands of yarn for general freestyle embroidery, there is no hard and fast rule. It is entirely left to the discretion of the embroiderer to use how many ever strands to obtain the desired effect.

show images of strands single 2, 3, 4 what's the problem with 4? so 1, 2, 3 or 6 it is.

How Much of Yarn Should You Cut from the Skein? 

show image of the right length

The ideal length to cut is about the same length from the tip of your fingers (with your arm streched out) to the middle of your chest. There are two reasons for this

• Shorter thread is easier to handle. The lengthier yarn, the more the tendency to tangles. You'll end up wasting time trying to untangle them plus the yarn is likely to lose its sheen due to repeated handling. 
• The lengthier the thread, the more the number of times it has to pass through the fabric. The yarn loses is sheen and starts to look ungainly and shabby.