Gay Ann Rogers has a dozen suggestions for improving your stitch tension on her blog. They’re great ideas.
If you are new to needlepoint and your stitches look uneven, remember that consistent tension in needlepoint takes awhile to achieve.
The best thing I ever did to improve my tension was to stitch during my commute. This is not something you should go out of your way to do, but if you can it’s wonderful. Why did this work so well?
One big problem with tension is that you make adjustments as you stitch so not every stitch is the same. Hence, they look uneven. You probably aren’t even aware that you make the changes, but your stitching shows it. Until you learn how to make those adjustments so every stitch looks the same, you haven’t achieved fluent stitching.
The bus (or train or subway or car) moves constantly, so your stitching changes even more on your commute. By stitching on the commute your practice regularly (another important factor in fluency) and you are forced to make adjustments.
Stitching on my commute was one of the smartest things I ever did. I mastered Basketweave, learned lots about goal setting and time management that helped in other parts of my life, and made a ton of really cool mini-socks, which I still have.
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- Right from the Beginning
- HaViNG FuN WiTH CuSToM NeeDLePoiNT CaNVaSeS – Improving the Picture
- Needlepoint Learning from Gay Ann Rogers
- Excuse Me, Your Back Is Showing
- Wrestling with Scroll Frames
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Improving your Tension from Gay Ann Rogers
Recently I have gotten several questions about what to do when the canvas is just too small. For one reason or another you want the stitching to be bigger but the unworked margins won’t do.
Although it’s pretty picky, there is a way to add to your canvas as long as you have unworked edges.
Best of all the result is seamless.
Here’s what to do:
Cut a piece of canvas, the same mesh as your original, 2″ bigger on all sides than the size of the new size piece.
Cut a hole out of the middle about 2-5 threads bigger on all sides than the already stitched area of the original piece.
Put the original piece on top of the new canvas, with the holes of the unworked margins of that piece, lining up exactly with the holes of the new piece. You’ll know this is right if you are only seeing one set of threads for every hole, almost as if it were a single piece of canvas.
Pin it on all sides near the outside edges of the original canvas; these are just placeholders. Now start to stitch the pattern as of it was just one piece of canvas the new, larger size. Go to the overlapped areas as soon as you can and do some stitches on each side. Once that is done, remove the pins.
Once things are secure and partially stitched, you probably should cut away most of the 2″ margin of old canvas that is overlapping. You should only have 10-12 mesh of overlap where there are two layers.
Essentially what you are doing is treating the two layers of canvas as one canvas. There may still be a bump visible, but the pattern will be continuous and the finished stitching will be the new size. Also, because you based your “hole” on the size of the existing canvas, if the ridges are visible they will look regular as if it were planned, not as if it were a mistake.
Related posts:
- How to Repair a Hole in Canvas
- What Size Do I Cut the Canvas?
- Getting Ready to Give Needlepoint Gifts
- Sketching a Canvas
- Painting Light Canvas to Cover It with Dark Threads
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My Canvas Is too Small – Help!
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.
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Related posts:
- What Size Do I Cut the Canvas?
- How to Use Leftover Yarn or Thread to Make a Tassel
- How to Repair a Hole in Canvas
- New Needlepoint Products (threads, finishing, canvases & more) – July 2008
- New Ways with Backgrounds – Tent Stitch
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How Much Yarn Do I Need?
Paint pens are a simple and economical way to add a little creativity to one’s wardrobe, home decor or even touch up minor scratches on the bodies of vehicles. The best part about using these pens is that their color will not fade or peel away even after a wash, and in the market, they are available in a variety of different types, sizes and shades, as per the demand and preferences of customers. These are available with even variations in the dimensions of their tips, the smaller and more delicate tip pens allowing for…
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Paint Pen Information
Scrapbooking for beginners is for you if you have never created a scrapbook but are anxious to get started, you can learn a lot about online. There is an entire community of veteran scrappers, as scrapbook enthusiasts are often referred to, from all over the world. Best of all, they enjoy sharing their tips, tricks, and techniques with others so you can benefit from their experience and it won’t cost you anything at all.
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Scrapbooking For Beginners – What You Should Know Before Getting Started
To hear it said by people outside North America, we, as stitchers, are far, far too concerned about our backsides. No, not those backsides, but the backsides of our needlepoint. Susan Battle, from The Point of It All, mused on this subject and how her
backs look. Practically I’m with her, I rarely worry about my backs and generally they are on the messy side.
But, in all fairness, your backs do matter. The needlepoint police won’t come and snatch you away if your backs are messy but understanding why they are important can make your needlepoint look better. In needlepoint the thickness of the back of the stitching is important.
Most importantly, you’re making a fabric with needlepoint and this means there needs to be structure. Without the fuller backs on the stitch, the structure is not as strong. This is less important when you stitch on fabric because the fabric is its own support.
Your back becomes thick by starting each stitch on the same side. This makes the stresses go in the same direction, making a prettier stitch. Think about a Scotch Stitch. You start in the lower left corner. This means the stress goes from lower left to upper right. The next stitch starts above it on the left. Once again the stress is lower left to upper right. And it continues this way, all the stitches pulling in the same direction, like a well-trained set of carriage horses.
But let’s make that same stitch again and go back and forth instead of starting each stitch on the same side. The first stitch went from lower left to upper right and the stress is in the same direction. BUT the second stitch goes from upper right to lower left, as does its stress. One stitch pulls in one direction, the other stitch in the opposite direction. The result is an uneven square with sides that aren’t straight.
A thicker backside is also useful because it creates a layer of padding between the face of the needlepoint and the finishing. This is particularly important for things that get wear. It’s the back that wears not the front. Shortchange the back and the piece wears badly.
That layer of stitching comes in handy. It can be used, instead of the margins of the canvas to move from line to line in pattern darning. It can hide traveling threads when you go from one area to another. You can use it to begin and end threads.
Your backs don’t have to be beautiful to serve these purposes, but they are important.
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Related posts:
- A Handful of Tips
- Cross Stitch Basics
- Right from the Beginning
- Needlepoint as Stress Release
- Needlepoint Tips
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Excuse Me, Your Back Is Showing
