My first few needlework projects were cross stitch with white thread. At nine it never occurred to me to wash my hands before starting on projects. As a result, the ecru duck and the white sheep are both in need of a bath. I call it my "Dirty Needlework Era". When I look at those two pieces now I can't help but cringe because all the washing in the world won't remove the grime from that thread. Thankfully my grandparents, who were the recipients of my early work, loved the pieces anyway.
However, even with religious hand washing, doing a needlework piece with primarly white or light colored thread is a challenge. For instance, I was recently work on a cross stitch pattern from Mirabilia called "Winter Queen" No matter how clean I thought my hands were, I was still ending up with tattle-tale gray stitching. Below are a few solutions I found to keep white thread clean while doing hand embroidery and needlework. I'm sure a few of these solutions would work for knitting, crocheting and other thread/yarn intensive projects as well.
My favorite solution: Cheap thin white cotton gloves
Pros: a glove on each hand prevents skin oil transfer to thread and fabric
Cons: getting used to the extra layer of thin cloth was a bit of challenge for my needle hand, but one that was easily overcome
Source: Amazon.com
Alternative #1: Cutting the dirty portion of thread tail at the needle eye and re-threading my needle
Pros: Removed the dirtiest portion of the thread
Cons: I often forgot to stop and cut the thread while I was working and the dirty portion would end-up in my work. I also found this was really wasting a lot of thread and time.
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