How to start needlepoint
Needlepoint is painting with thread on a canvas that already has the picture on it. If you can thread a needle, you can do this.
What you actually need
Four things, and you can carry all of them home in one bag.
Why the stretcher bars aren't optional
They look like the skippable item on the list. They aren't, and this is the thing most self-taught stitchers wish they'd known first.
Worked in the hand, canvas pulls out of square as you stitch. The more you do, the worse it gets. A piece that goes badly out of shape has to be blocked back hard at the finishing stage, and sometimes it won't come all the way back. Pinned to bars, it stays square, your tension stays even, and both hands stay free, one above the canvas, one below.
Buy bars two inches longer than your canvas on each side. Bring the canvas in and we'll size them for you in a minute.
13 mesh or 18 mesh
Mesh is how many holes per inch the canvas has. 13 mesh has bigger holes, takes thicker thread and covers ground faster, easier on the eyes and quicker to finish. 18 mesh holds finer detail, which matters on a face or lettering, and takes roughly twice as many stitches over the same area.
If it's your first piece, start on 13. You'll finish it, and finishing it matters more than the detail.
Choosing a first canvas
The temptation is to pick the one you love most. We'd gently point you somewhere else for the first one.
The canvas you fell in love with will still be here. Quite a lot of people buy it on the first visit and stitch it third.
The first stitch
There are hundreds of stitches. You need one.
Basketweave is the one to learn. It's worked on the diagonal and it covers the canvas evenly. Most importantly, it distorts the canvas less than anything else, because of the woven pattern it leaves on the back. It's what most of a finished piece is made of.
Continental is the other basic, worked in rows. It's quicker to pick up and it pulls the canvas badly out of shape, which is why we teach basketweave first and save continental for single lines and small details.
Ten minutes to learn. The rest is repetition, and the repetition is the reason people love this.
Tension, and the only rule about it
Stitches should sit on the canvas, not strangle it. If the canvas is puckering, you're pulling too tight. If the stitches look loose and loopy, not tight enough.
Nobody gets this from an explanation. Everybody gets it after about twenty stitches.
What it costs to start
A small canvas and the threads for it is the least expensive way in. Needles and stretcher bars are a few dollars and you'll use them on every piece after this one.
Five things first-timers tell us they wish they'd known
Hand-dyed colors vary between batches, and a new skein halfway through a sky will show. This is the most common disappointment in the shop and it isn't fixable afterward.
When you get stuck
You will, and usually over something small, a thread that won't lie flat, a stitch that looks wrong and you can't say why, a background you've lost heart in.
Bring it in. Our Stitch & Chat tables are free and you don't need to book. Most stitching problems take someone about two minutes to spot and rather longer than that to explain in writing.
That's the real difference between learning this from a shop and learning it from a screen.
Needlepoint is worked on open-weave canvas, usually with the design painted on it. Cross stitch is worked from a printed chart. If the picture is already on the canvas, it's needlepoint.
