Friday, April 23, 2010

Focus On: Vavoom

Vavoom is a new thread for us here at Rittenhouse Needlepoint. It comes in five yard skeins and is available in seven colors (white, black, red, tan, light gray, dark gray and pink). The thread is 100% polyester and consists of long hairy filaments attached to a fine, hallow core.

Interestingly, the thread looks quite different on the ring than it does stitched up. Loose, Vavoom appears feathery like a boa but stitched up it looks soft like angora. To fluff up the yarn, brush with a toothbrush or a Bunka brush. This will create the look of a beard. Vavoom can also be used for fluffy areas such as pom-poms and fur trim.

Suggested stitches for use with Vavoom include Gobelin, slanted Gobelin, Giant Brick and Encroaching Gobelin. Complex decorative stitches are wasted on Vavoom since the hairiness of the yarn obscures detail.

Vavoom can be mixed with wool to achieve a mottled animal fur. This would help to achieve a more realistic effect (hair is rarely one solid color).

The manufacturer also suggests that the thread can be curled by used a heated metal knitting needle and rolling the threads like a curler. I'll leave that for you to try!

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