A Handful of Tips

Updated April 27, 2018

I’m sharing with you a handful of the tips that are in third edition of Needlepoint Trade Secrets. You can buy the book either on Amazon or Etsy.

— Do you have problems figuring out which end is the top when you are plying a thread? I do. But you can tell easily, even if the colors are pretty close throughout the thread. The end which is bunched up is the bottom end. I use this tip all the time when working with hand-dyed threads.

— If you are a leftie and find doing Basketweave from the upper right corner to the lower left corner hard — switch and work from the lower left to upper right.

— You can stitch on a frame on in your hand, but never do both on the same piece. The difference will be obvious.

— The eyes of needles are punched out, so one side is smoother than the other. If you are having trouble threading a needle, flip it over, you might be using the rough side.

— I ALWAYS have problems telling how many threads are across in an area. But you can tell if it’s an odd or even number easily. Are the first and last threads both the same (over or under)? Then you have an odd number of threads. Are they different? Then you have an even number of threads.

— If you don’t want to use tape on the edges of your canvas, fold down 3-4 threads on all sides and tack through the doubled (and smooth) edge.

— Plastic drawer liner, cut into 1″ x 2″ patches, makes a great needle puller.

— Bent tip scissors, like manicure scissors, let you clip threads extremely close to your stitching.

— The last stitch of a Rhodes Stitch is ther most visible. Either begin your Rhodes one stitch AFTER the stitch you’d like to have on top. Or add that final stitch AFTER all the other stitching is done.