It is altogether inferior to the French (or patent); and, (amongst other disadvantages,) has that of showing the colored thread through any light wool. Still, as it obviates, in some degree, the trouble of counting, many people like to work on it.
Silk Canvas is a very expensive article; but it saves much labor, as designs worked on it do not require to be grounded. I should never advise any but white silk canvas being used, as the colored ones do not wear well. There are so many different qualities of silk canvas, that none should be bought without careful examination, by laying something of an opposite tint underneath it, and thus detecting any irregularities, roughnesses, &c., good silk canvas should be perfectly even.
Canvas is made of almost every variety of width; the narrow silk canvas being the proper size for braces.
Canvas is chosen according to its size, being numbered much like cotton, according to the number of threads in the inch. We seldom require a coarser size than No. 8, which contains 11 threads to the inch—10 has 13,—and so on to 24, which has 27 threads. The next number, 30, has 31 threads, 40 has 35, and 50, 37. We seldom use any finer than this.
There are not so many sizes manufactured of either silk or Penelope canvas; and the former is never made so coarse as the cotton article.
The surface of canvas is covered by being worked with various substances, of which silks, wools, chenille, and beads, may be considered the principal. Beads are now very much used, intermingled with silks and wools. For grounding large articles a new and very beautiful kind of wool has lately been introduced, termed filoselle. It works in admirably, and imparts a very rich effect to a design. It is about the size of Berlin wool which is fresh and good. For finer articles floss silk is common, and chenille may be worked on silk canvas with excellent effect.
Berlin wool may be used for almost any purpose; for, if too coarse, it can be split without injury; and if the reverse, two or three threads may be worked together. It should never be wound, for however lightly done it is certain to be injured.
Fleecy wool has been greatly improved both in texture and dye of late years, and may now be used for groundings and those purposes for which, formerly, it would have been quite unsuitable. It is much cheaper than Berlin wool.
English, or Embroidery wool, is a much stronger substance than Berlin; the dark shades are excellent for the ground of large pieces, but the lighter tints are not equal to those in the Berlin wool.
The chenille used for embroidery is called chenille a broder, to distinguish it from the chenille ordinaire, which is much coarser. The effect of flowers, birds and butterflies, worked in chenille, is rich and beautiful in the extreme, but the pile so easily attracts dust, and is so liable to injury, that it should be used only for articles which will be defended by glass. The needle used for chenille should have round eyes, and be sufficiently large to prepare a passage in the satin or canvas through which the chenille may pass without injury.