The Story of the Doctor Who Tapestry (Part Four)

I often get asked the same questions regarding the tapestry: When did you start it? How long have you been doing it? It’s not actually that easy to answer because it has not been a continuous activity. But let me wind the clock back and try to provide some answers. (Parts One, Two & Three here)

Of Time Lords and Twilleys

Anchor, old and new larger skeins

Another of the questions that I get asked is about what sort of wool I use: Will any wool do? Well, chunky knit certainly won’t. Working on the project over the years I have used mainly three brands, initially when I first started it was Anchor tapestry wool, it was this brand of wool than mum first used when she did her first tapestry kit that I mentioned in part one. 

Twilleys stranded, good to split down

I had a basic range of colours and you will notice in the earlier work that there is much less detail and less shading. An area was filled with orange if that was the main colour because I would have had one skein. There was a small wool shop local to me that stocked tapestry wool but it wasn’t Anchor it was Twilley’s. They were also being sold off, so I started to stock up, although the colours were mainly purple, mauve and khaki green. I had to find a way to use this wool.

Time Lord panel with Morbius, the Monk, Omega, the Dark Tower, three Masters, Melkur, The Rani & Rassilon

This is why the Time Lord section that came next has the border around it. I made a hard edge, meaning no need to blend backgrounds but also allowed me to use the cheaper wool I had bought.

I discovered that Twilleys wool has some advantages over other brands. First the skeins are larger, (although I later found larger skeins of anchor too) they are pre-cut lengths but they also unravel a lot easier. They are three strands that can be untwisted to make the wool thinner for some applications but it also means you can then use different colour threads together. The one disadvantage was their more limited colour range, far less shades than Anchor or DMC.

Stitching with two colour threads for chain mail effect

This helps a lot when you are stitching something that needs a mottled look or for chain mail. It is much harder to split the other brands.

DMC added to the mix

Roll forward a few years and I started to add DMC to the mix too. I don’t see any disadvantage in mixing the brands, in fact it helps me blend colours now and shade. Using the tighter Aida than I first started with and having access to so many shades means I’m a lot happier with the later work but also makes me less keen to show the earlier parts.

When I said I had access to all shades, I now have an entire cupboard full of boxes of wool since I bought up all the stock from the local Hobbycraft when they sold it off at 80% discount when they stopped selling tapestry skeins. Later I was again very fortunate in 2019 when a local charity shop had a few cases donated; they were initially bagging them up a few at a time and selling them. The poor staff believed they would be bagging up these skeins for life and would never see the back of them - but when I bought all they had on display they almost jokingly said at first, "Would want to buy the lot?" Well, no joke, a deal was struck and there were smiles all round. I mentioned this back in 2019

4 of the 5 cases of Anchor wool from the charity shop

I think I now have almost enough wool to finish this project and maybe the New Who one, should I live that long. I do still need to top up from time to time, usually black and white but it is harder to find suppliers, this seems to be a dying craft.

Next time I’ll talk about how I started to tackle the "Wilderness Years" and then the coming of the Eighth Doctor.