OFF THE SUDSY PATH

I have been working on a cross-stitch of THE LAST SUPPER.  I'm doing in on 28-count linen, over 2.

It's been a while since I cross-stitched, so I had to do a bit of prep work before starting.  Part of my prep work involved winding the 100 or so embroidery thread bobbins.

For those of you that are familiar, you know that bobbins are available in plastic or thin cardboard.  You are also likely aware that DMC number labels are available for use on the plastic bobbins since not even permanent magic marker works well.  In getting my supplies together, I went back to previously wound bobbins and found that the tiny labels had, evidently, dried out or something and had fallen off the plastic. 

In counted cross stitch, knowing the thread color number is critical.  As annoying, some of my older cardboard bobbins had corners falling off at the slit where the tail of the thread is secured.  So, the cardboard bobbins are not resilient enough and the plastic bobbins can't hold a permanent number label, hand-written or otherwise.  My solution was a bit unorthodox.  I had previously stacked a couple of the cardboard bobbins to get a bit more rigidity, but found that they still tended to bend a bit when the thread was wound.

So, I combined one of each.  I placed a cardboard bobbin, with both a hand-written and number sticker label, on top of a plastic bobbin and THEN wound the thread around both.

Sure, this takes care of my identification issue AND the resilience issue, but I have to wonder why they haven't come up with a better solution?  It always seems to come back to the preface . . . "If we can put a man on the moon . . ."