Many of the needlepoint canvases I have in my stash have skies as part or all of the background. But for many years I was unsatisfied with the stitches and techniques I used for skies. The main problem has seemed to be that when Basketweave is used the sky felt or looked too “heavy” for the rest of the piece. If I used an overdye, then there was the diagonal line problem. As a result I developed a few different methods for handling skies. Finding threads which work well for skies and then using them correctly is the key to making beautiful skies. The sky, most of the time, is not a uniform color. It is lighter near the horizon and deeper at the zenith, or it has clouds, or fog. Because of this lack of uniformity in color, my favorite threads for skies are what I call semi-solid threads.