One of the more perplexing things I stitch in needlepoint is foam. In fact, mostly I try to avoid pieces that have foam on them because I think it is hard.
Foam, such as you find on tops of waves or in beer heads, is uniform in color but not in texture and has a very fine texture. It is also random. Random is one of the harder things to achieve in needlepoint.
Let’s talk about texture first. Usually in needlepoint Tent Stitch is used for things with a fine texture, but that won’t work here. Foam is mostly air, so whatever technique is used needs to be more open than Tent Stitch.
Often when I want more open than Tent Stitch, I look at darning patterns. But they won’t work here. They are too regular (so not random) and too flat (foam is usually higher than what it is near). French Knots do the trick of giving me a random look, but I often think they look too crowded and heavy. Crowded is OK, but heavy is not.
To remove the heaviness so that I get the feeling of air, I need to look to my threads. For foam pick only sheer or transparent threads. The beer foam pictured used several shades of Flair as the main thread and was accented by ** and organdy ribbon. You will also want a little bit of opalescent metallic and threads in different widths. Get together at least four different threads and arrange then in width from thin to thick and from dark to light in each width.
Now start stitching, using one thread at a time. With each thread scatter the French Knots throughout the area, making them single or in small clumps of 2-3 knots. Change the size of the needle to vary the size of the knot, wrap then in different directions and make some loose. You do not want them to look uniform in any way.
Besides varying the size and direction of the knots, you want to get the effect of bubbles piling up on each other. To do this, you need to allow the knots to overlap. This should happen beginning with the second thread.
As you stitch the foam will get more and more dense. When you get to the wider threads virtually all of the foam should be stitched. With the widest threads, a wide organdy ribbon in the example, I made only a few loose knots, overlapping other knots.
The result, an effective foam that mimics many of the characteristics of real foam while still being stitched.
NOTE: The scan is bad because I was working from a poor low-res picture.
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
I wonder if stitching on a thin quilt batting instead of foam might be a possibility. Most battings have a smooth coating on the outside so are reasonably easy to handle. I would imagine that a sharp rather than a tapestry needle would be easier to stitch with. The batting would also have a longer life as many foam products deteriorate over the years, Just a thought.