Nuts about Needlepoint » tips

Needlepoint Trade Secrets: One chapter free download & special offer

Janet Perry — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 14:03:54 +0000

In my book, Needlepoint Trade Secrets, I share hundreds of tips with you about doing needlepoint and other needlework. I like the book so much I keep a copy on my desk as a reference.

It’s summer and I have two special offers for you, good through Labor Day (how’s that for a vacation special?) First you can download and read, completely free, the Traveling with Needlepoint chapter. It’s a PDF file, and you get it by clicking the link.

Second, I am offering the book at a special price to my readers. The book, including shipping via first class mail in the US is only $16. That’s below retail, even with the shipping! Use the PayPal button below to order.

California residents get charged sales tax. If you live outside the US you will be invoiced for additional shipping costs (which ought to be small).

Take advantage of this great offer today and keep stitching!

Skip Tent – A Great Stitch

Janet Perry — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 14:12:56 +0000

Basketweave Twill, AKA Skip Tent from Ruth Schmuff

Skip Tent has mostly left me cold. To be quite honest it never made much sense to me. I couldn’t see the point of making parallel lines of Backstitch and calling it anything nice.

Now thanks to this post by Ruth Schmuff, it makes sense. I’ve been doing it wrong all along. By calling it Basketweave Twill and having this excellent diagram, now I understand. I am also feeling like an idiot because I should have known this.

Ruth says it is one of her favorite stitches and lists tons of ways you can vary and fix up this stitch. She also includes tips for stitching it well.

Now I’m off to find a canvas where I can use it.

Random Thoughts on Needlepoint

Janet Perry — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 14:33:53 +0000

Originally posted 2008-01-31 11:29:41. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Yesterday I was getting some stuff off my old Mac and came upon a list of “Do You Knows?’ leftover from About.com days. These are short comments, tips and information about needlepoint.

I thought I’d share them with you.

~ Compensation is the process of making partial stitches in order to fill up a space which is not filled by complete stitches.

~ If you are using furry threads, always stitch with them last. That way your other stitches don’t get furry too.

~ When stitching a piece with beads, do the beads after the stitching around them is completed.

~ Use up odds & ends of threads–put them into a bag & pull out a thread at random, stitch with it until it is gone, then pull another one.

~ If you have French knots in a piece, stitch them after the surrounding area is stitched.

~ You can use a small bag with a corded handle for your orts. This can hang on your frame.

~ Stained glass patterns can make beautiful needlepoint, just trace them onto your canvas.

~ You can use one of those stitcher’s magnets on any metal surface to hold an extra needle.

~ Making marks every ten stitches or so on your canvas is a great way to keep from going off count in charted needlepoint.

~ You should always use a hard lead drawing pencil (4H) to draw on needlepoint canvas, the others will flake off and discolor your thread.

~ Keeping cotton floss on spools in closed plastic boxes can weaken the thread. Whenever you store in plastic for a long time, keep it open.

~ Using penelope (double thread) canvas allows you to work both petit point and regular needlepoint in the same piece.

~ Rank your unfinished projects, so that when you finish a project you know which one to work on next.

~ You can organize your projects more easily and neatly by putting them into the wire baskets in a storage unit.

~ When working from a chart, remember that one square equals one stitch, in needlepoint that means one intersection covered by a tent stitch.

~ Use a colored pen to mark out the center lines or squares on a chart. Color in all the squares from arrow to arrow.

~ If working tent stitch, you can turn your chart upside down, but never turn it a quarter turn, your stitches may slant wrong then.

~ When using a chart or stitch diagram, check your relative position often, you will find (and be able to correct) mistakes sooner.

~ Wondering how many ply to use? Stitch a small sample on scrap canvas & hold it up to the light. If you don’t see light, then it’s OK.

~ If you end threads by working it through the back, don’t put dark threads through light, it will show through.

~ When working a chart, plan the shortest route between areas of the same color, this makes you less likely to make mistakes.

~ When stitching with perforated paper, the smoother side is the right one.

~ If using perforated paper, mark the cutting lines on the back with a soft pencil.

~ When stitching on perforated paper, complete stitching before cutting out the shape.

~ Always look for a piece of fabric with a minimum of slubs and imperfections.

~ If using waste canvas, cut it at least 2 inches larger than the design all around.

~ If using a large mesh waste canvas, stitch through the smaller holes, it will help you stabilize the stitches.

~ After you remove the waste canvas, check for missed stitches, then add them in with a sharp needle in the empty spaces.

~ Plastic canvas shapes can be used as lining for 3-D needlepoint pieces, to give them stability and shape.

~ When using penelope canvas and working petit point, separate the canvas threads with a large tapestry needle before stitching.

If you liked these tips and want more, why not get a copy of my book, Needlepoint Trade Secrets? It’s packed full of tips about needlepoint from start to finish. You can buy it at your local needlework store, from Amazon.com (here) or from Nordic Needle.

Solving the Dyelot Problem Prettily

Janet Perry — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 14:20:49 +0000

Over the weekend I was working on this Princess & Me ornament for my DD. I had picked this bright blue Rainbow Linen for the background.

Initially I thought one skein would be enough. But I didn’t like their suggested background or any of the three others I tried. By the time I settled on this Random Gobelin Stripe, I knew there wasn’t enough thread. Since the thread was from stash I was unlikely to find a matching dyelot.

This could have ruined the ornament, but you can see above how I planned for the dyelot change. I skipped every other stripe.

By doing so I’ve planned for the different dyelot. Since the change is regular, it will look as if the background was supposed to be striped in this way.

I found another card of this color in my stash and I’ll be set whether it matches or not.

Adding Your Signature to Needlepoint

Janet Perry — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 14:50:35 +0000

Jane recently asked me for ideas for “signing” her needlepoint, as she has not found a good way to do this.

It’s a problem many stitchers face, myself included. I can think of four ways to approach this. The last two approaches are taken from the art world. The pictures throughout are not taken from needlepoint pieces, but from other kinds of art.

Design your own label to put inside or behind the piece

One it to make it as unobtrusive as possible. The best way to do that is to write the information on a piece of cloth and sew it to the BACK of the needlepoint. This would be on the inside of the pillow or behind the needlepoint and the back of the picture. People wouldn’t see it, but the information would be preserved.

If you do want it on the face of the needlepoint, there are two other ideas. The first is also unobtrusive. Use a thread a shade or two darker than your background thread. Make your initials and the year in Tent Stitch. Tent Stitch around it in the background color to make a box and put your background stitch around this little box. It won’t show very much.

Another thing is to do something like the red “chops” or seals you see on Chinese paintings. Once again use your initials and the date, but this time stitch them in red. You might want to play around a bit to find a good-looking design). once stitched, enclose the chop in a thin red border. This does not need to go in the lower right corner as a signature would, but can go wherever it would make sense in the design.

Whistler's butterfly signature

A final way is to develop some kind of symbol and use that as your signature. My favorite painter, Whistler, used a butterfly for most of his career, even for letters. It took many forms, can be found anywhere in the piece and often is almost invisible. A stylized element like this can be a great way to sign your work.

However you chose to do it, signing your work allows others to know whose hard work went into the piece.

Needlepoint Tips

Janet Perry — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 14:16:35 +0000

Find some great needlepoint tips over at Stitchlady’s blog. I REALLY could have used the one about highlighters a few days ago. Oh well. Related posts:Needlepoint Tips Tips for Photographing Needlepoint Tips for Finishing an Embroidery Project Tips from Rhapsody Stitchers A Handful of Tips Related posts:

Colorfastness in Threads

Janet Perry — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 14:16:50 +0000

Are the threads you use colorfast?

There is a dark side to all those wonderful threads we love so much. It’s that they are not colorfast.

Colorfastness refers to the ability of a thread to keep its color when wet. Threads that are not colorfast bleed onto the thread and fabric around them. If this has happened to you, you won’t be likely to forget it.

The problem has many sources. A major one is that many of the more colorfast dyes can no longer be used, due to environmental regulations. Another is that darker colors need to absorb more dye in order to be dark and may not have had all the excess dye removed. A third is that (and this is true in knitting yarn and fabric as well) hand-dyed thread tends to be less colorfast.

Kathy from Needle Delights has an excellent article about colorfastness and some ideas about removing bleeding. It’s meant for cross stitchers, but many of the ideas also apply to needlepoint.

Silk Gauze – Try It You’ll Like It!

Janet Perry — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:26:58 +0000

Originally posted 2009-05-22 08:32:38. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

I have always been afraid to use silk gauze. First there’s the eye thing — I don’t do well with magnifiers. Second there’s the mesh size thing, I tend not to like things which are that delicate and small.

But Kreinik has taken silk gauze out of this world and into the world of basic needlepoint with silk gauze in 18 and 20 mesh. It comes mounted or unmounted. Since retail is 3 or 4 times the cost of canvas, I like the mounted best. You can order on-line through Kreinik’s excellent on-line mall or your LNS can order it for you.

During my vacation I had a chance to make the piece pictured above on 18 mesh silk gauze and it was tons of fun. I can’t wait to make more.

Silk gauze is often not sold by the inch, the way canvas is, but is sold in precut sizes mounted in mat board. This is because the silk is expensive and the mat board provides the unworked margin. I also found that the mat board is it’s own frame, so the project was very portable.

Silk gauze also has a couple of other important characteristics, you need to consider when using it. The threads are pretty much translucent, so they can almost disappear against the background as you stitch. I found having something solid and dark as a backdrop worked best. The printed skirt I was wearing wasn’t good, but the dark carpet was.

You can see from the picture of my stitching just how transparent it is, the thread ends on the back can be seen easily.

The threads are also thinner than mono canvas, more like the size of interlock or a bit thinner. This could mean that you need to use slightly thicker threads, but I found I didn’t.

You also need to stitch with a looser tension. This is for several reasons. First off, the mat board isn’t that sturdy, so it’s pretty easy to bend or even to have the gauze come off. Second, silk gauze is woven like interlock canvas, so there isn’t “give” in the intersections. Pull too hard and you will have a mess.

I loved using it and I loved the results. My mind is bursting with possibilities for using this ground and I’m going to be trying some experiments over the next couple of months.

How Much Yarn Do I Need?

Janet Perry — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:26:57 +0000

Recently Pam asked: How do I estimate the amount of yarn needed for each color in a project?

There isn’t a hard and fast rule for this because the amount you need per square inch varies with the mesh size, thread, and stitch. But this method works to figure out how much yarn you use per square inch for any thread and any project.

Begin by marking on a canvas the same mesh size a 1 inch square block. So, for example if you were working on 14 mesh, this would be a 14 x 14 block.

Now take the thread you will be using, any color will do, and cut it into a bunch (5 or so) of 18″ lengths.

With those threads, start to stitch the square in the stitch you will be using. Stitch the whole 1″ square and keep track of the number of the cut threads you use.

Divide that number by 2 and round up if there is a remainder. This number tells you how many yards it takes to stitch one inch.

Take the number of yards it takes to stitch and inch and divide the number of yards in one package of the thread. Always round up. Then add 20%. This tells you how many inches you can stitch with one package.

Now you need to figure out how many square inches there are of each color. That is trickier because the colors could be dispersed all around the piece. But you have a good tool to estimate in your hand.
The middle section of your thumb is about an inch. And your fist covers about 5 square inches. You can use this to estimate the extent of the colors.

You don’t need to do this for every color. Since you can’t buy half a skein of thread, then any color where you have less than a skein’s worth of square inches, you buy one package.

After you have figured out the square inches in a project, divide that number by the number of inches per package. This will tell you how many packages you need to buy.

This is an inexact process, but because we rounded up and added in the 20% overrun, this should give you enough thread to do the project.

What’s your Burning Needlepoint Question?

Janet Perry — Tue, 25 May 2010 14:37:59 +0000

When I started doing needlepoint it was many years before I took a class. I learned from messing around and from reading books. Occasionally I would ask a question of a shopowner and most of the time got help. (We’ll just pass over the person who told me perle cotton was too fragile to use for needlepoint). But it does occur to me that this isn’t the best way to learn needlepoint. That motivation compelled me to write my popular email beginning needlepoint course, Right from the Beginning, and is once again compelling my new project a book version of the original class. The book will be available in printed and reader forms and will have lots more, including a reference section, a stitch library, projects, and a question and answer section. I’d like that section to be guided by your questions and to have it include your best needlepoint tips. Add either one, or both, into the comments section. Those I use will get a free copy of the book upon publication. Thanks heaps! Related posts:Bargello Revisited — almost here Question of the Week – Would you like to own a needlepoint store? My Answers to the Needlepoint Survey [...] Related posts: