Keep track of your thread stash
Record the skeins in your drawer once, and every pattern and project shows how many of each colour it needs next to how many you have. The shopping list is only the gap, so you stop buying a third skein of 310 and running out of the one shade you did need.
- 30 day free trial
- No card required
- Works on any device
Entering a stash is quick
Nobody wants to type in two hundred skeins, so there is no form to fill in. Pick a brand and every one of its colours is laid out as a swatch, in shade card order or by number. Tap a colour to add a skein, tap again for another, and use the minus and plus buttons to correct a count.
If you already have everything a pattern calls for, one button adds all of its colours at once, raised to the number of skeins it needs. It asks before it changes anything, and it never lowers a count you have already set.
What each project needs, against what you have
Every colour in a pattern or a project tells you how many skeins it needs, whether you keep a stash or not. Once you do, that figure turns green where your stash covers it and amber with what is left to buy where it does not, and a project lists the skeins it needs beside the skeins you own. A line underneath counts how many colours are short and how many skeins to buy.
The skeins needed come from the thread length for each colour, which already allows for your fabric count, the number of strands the chart uses and the thread lost to tails and travelling. That length is divided by the 8 metres in a standard skein and rounded up, so a colour that needs a little over one skein asks for two.
Any brand, and more than one
Keep a stash in any of the 14 brands HobbyTub supports, or in several at once. A project counts against the stash in its own brand, so a DMC project looks at your DMC skeins. The whole stash view shows everything you own across every brand in one place.
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Common questions
Which thread brands can I track?
All 14 brands HobbyTub supports: DMC, Anchor, Madeira, Cosmo, J&P Coats, Presencia, Ariadna, CXC, Dimensions, Gamma, Luca-S, PNK Kirov, Sullivans and Unitas. Each is listed by its own colour numbers, exactly as they are printed on the skein label.
Does it allow for the number of strands?
Yes. The skein count follows the thread length for each colour, which is worked out from the strands the chart uses and your fabric count, so a colour stitched with three strands needs more than the same colour with two.
Does it take skeins off as I stitch?
No. The stash is what you own, and it only changes when you change it. Once a project is finished and a skein is used up, bring its count down on the stash page.
Is it the same as a floss stash?
Yes. Floss and thread mean the same stranded cotton here, and this is where you keep track of it, whichever word you use.
Patterns to try it on
Further reading
- How to Keep Track of Your Thread Stash
A stash only saves you money if you know what is in it. Here is how to keep a record of your thread that stays accurate, how to check a pattern against it, and how to work out how many skeins a pattern really needs.
- How to Organise Your Threads and Stash
A tangled bag of thread is the enemy of relaxed stitching. This guide covers practical ways to organise your cross stitch stash, from bobbins and floss rings to storage boxes and labelling, so you can find the colour you need in seconds and keep your whole collection tidy.
- DMC, Anchor and Madeira: A Guide to Cross Stitch Thread
Most cross stitch is worked in stranded cotton, and three brands dominate: DMC, Anchor and Madeira. This guide explains what stranded cotton is, how the brands differ, how their shade numbers work, and how to convert a pattern from one brand to another.