Keeping Hands Soft and Smooth while Stitching

If your hands aren’t smooth many threads will catch and some, such a Trebizond or Silk Serica, can become so snagged they are unusable.

Carrying around a small tube of lotion in your project bag is a great way to go, but what if you don’t have some? The solution is as close as your nearest deli or your kitchen. To smooth your hands you need a package of mayo and a packet of sugar. Begin by putting the mayo on your hands and smoothing it around. Sprinkle the sugar in your palms and rub it into the mayo and rub them all over your hands, including around the cuticles where there is usually rough skin.

Now wash your hands with soap and water. The mayonnaise softens the hands, while the granular sugar exfoliates and gets rid of the rough stuff. It’s an outstanding method and really works.

But you may also want to go the tried and true route of using lotion. If you do, be careful. Many lotions leave a residue on your hands that can be transferred to the threads, helping them attract dirt. Just thread has an excellent post on lotions good for stitchers with links to places to buy them.

I’d also shy away from scented creams as well. Often scent can linger on threads and even scent other threads kept with them. I know this from experience I used to shop, from time to time, at an LNS that burned scented candles in the store. Years later the threads still smell if they have been kept in drawers.

About Janet M Perry

Janet Perry is the Internet's leading authority on needlepoint. She designs, teaches and writes, getting raves from her fans for her innovative techniques, extensive knowledge and generous teaching style. A leading writer of stitch guides, she blogs here and lives on an island in the northeast corner of the SF Bay with her family

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