Needlepoint terms and abbreviations

Abbreviations

LNS and WIP are everyday needlepoint shorthand, and UFO is used across the needle crafts. FFO, FO, SABLE and SAL are met in cross stitch more than in needlepoint.

• FFO. Fully finished object: a piece stitched and then framed, or sewn into a pillow, an ornament or whatever else it was meant to be, ready to display. Also read as finally finished object.
• FO. Finished object: a piece with all its stitching done, whether or not it has been framed or sewn into anything. Where FO and FFO are used side by side, the FO is the one not yet framed or sewn up.
• hpi. Holes per inch: see mesh.
• LNS. Local needlepoint shop, or store: one that sells canvases and threads, answers questions and takes in stitched pieces for finishing (see finishing). In cross stitch the letters stand for local needlework shop.
• ORT. A snipped end of thread: see orts.
• SABLE. Stash acquired beyond life expectancy: more supplies than their owner will live long enough to stitch.
• SAL. Stitch-along: many stitchers working the same design at the same time and sharing their progress.
• UFO. Unfinished object: a piece begun and then set aside.
• WIP. Work in progress: a piece still being stitched. A stitcher may have several.

Six words to know first

• Canvas. The stiff, open grid of threads that needlepoint is stitched on, with a hole between each thread and the next. Its three main weaves are mono, interlock and Penelope, each with an entry below. See canvas and mesh sizes.
• Mesh. The size of a canvas: the number of holes, or of threads, in an inch. An 18 mesh canvas has 18. The higher the number, the finer the canvas and the smaller the stitches. Also called count or gauge, and written hpi, for holes per inch.
• Intersection. The place where one canvas thread crosses another.
• Tent stitch. The basic stitch: one small slanted stitch over one intersection. It is worked three ways, continental, basketweave and half cross, which look alike from the front and differ on the back.
• Thread. What the canvas is stitched with: wool, cotton, silk, metallic and more. Shops also call it fiber. The thread guide covers the kinds.
• Finishing. Making the stitched canvas into the thing it is to be: an ornament, a pillow, a framed piece. It does not mean completing the stitching: a canvas with every stitch done still has to be finished. See needlepoint finishing.

Terms: A to C

• Appliqué. A shape fastened onto a background by sewing or with adhesive. In needlepoint it is a detail stitched on fine canvas and attached on top of a piece worked on coarser canvas. Appliqué finishing is a shop's service that adds a stitched piece to a ready-made bag or pouch.
• Away knot. See waste knot.
• Bargello. Also called Florentine work and flame stitch. Upright stitches, each over several canvas threads, set in rows of shaded or contrasting colors that step up and down in zigzags and waves. In four-way bargello the canvas is divided into four along the diagonals from its center and the pattern is worked in each part, so the lines often seem to spread out from the center. See what is bargello, the bargello stitch and the four-way bargello patterns.
• Basketweave. Tent stitch worked in diagonal rows. On the back the stitches run vertical and horizontal by turns, which looks woven. Of the three ways of working tent stitch it pulls the canvas least out of shape. See the basketweave stitch and basketweave vs continental.
• Beading needle. A very fine needle with a long, thin shaft, made to go through beads. See how to add beads to needlepoint.
• Berlin work. Canvas embroidery of the nineteenth century, stitched in bright wools from colored charts that were first printed in Berlin in 1804. See the history of needlepoint and old needlepoint.
• Binding. Tape or fabric put around the cut edges of a canvas so that they do not unravel.
• Binding stitch. A stitch worked over the folded edge of the canvas, so that thread wraps the edge, as on a bookmark or a key fob. Binding, the entry above, is something else. See the binding stitch in the stitch library.
• Blending. Two or more colors of thread in the needle at once, used for shading. Also called tweeding.
• Blocking. Pulling a stitched canvas back to the shape it had before stitching pulled it out of square. The piece is dampened, pinned out straight on a board and left there until it is dry. See how to block needlepoint.
• Canvas. See the six words to know first.
• Canvas work. Also canvaswork and canvas embroidery. See needlepoint.
• Card. See skein.
• Chart. A design drawn on a grid. On most charts each square is one stitch. See how to read a needlepoint chart. The graph paper is for drawing your own.
• Color swap. Stitching part of a painted canvas in a color other than the one painted. Going darker is easier than going lighter, because dark paint can show through a light thread.
• Compensation. Many stitches other than tent stitch cover several canvas threads, so a whole one does not always fit where an area ends. A compensating stitch is the part of a stitch worked in the space that is left.
• Congress cloth. A fine mono canvas with 24 threads to the inch.
• Continental. Tent stitch worked in straight rows. The thread crosses the back in long slants, so the back is well covered too. It tends to pull the canvas out of square. See the continental stitch.
• Cording. Threads twisted into a cord and sewn around the edge of a pillow or an ornament. A welt is a different edge. See how to make twisted cord.
• Couching. Fastening a thread to the surface of the canvas with short stitches made across it. Almost any thread can be used this way, even one that cannot be stitched through the canvas. See couching in the stitch library, and laid work.
• Count. See mesh.
• Coverage. How well the stitches hide the canvas. The thread, the number of strands, the tension and the mesh all change it. See the thread guide.

Terms: D to H

• Decorative stitch. Any stitch other than plain tent stitch, used for texture. Most are long stitches, or long stitches and tent stitches together. The stitch library has diagrams, and which stitch to use helps in choosing.
• Divisible thread. A thread whose strands can be separated and used singly or together, such as Persian wool and stranded cotton. Tapestry wool and pearl cotton are non-divisible. Also called strandable.
• Doodle cloth. A scrap of canvas or fabric kept for practicing stitches and trying colors.
• Dye lot. One batch of dyed thread. Batches of the same color can differ by a shade, so buy the thread for a large area at one time, from one lot.
• Fiber. Another word for thread.
• Finisher. The person who does the finishing.
• Finishing. See the six words to know first.
• Flame stitch, Florentine work. See bargello.
• Floss. See stranded cotton.
• Frogging. Ripping out stitches that were wrong or unwanted. The name is a joke: "rip it, rip it" sounds like a frog.
• Gauge. See mesh.
• Gobelin. A stitch longer than tent stitch, made to imitate woven tapestry and named for a tapestry works in Paris. It is worked upright or slanted: see upright Gobelin and slanted Gobelin.
• Gros point. Large tent stitches, on canvas of 8 to 15 holes to the inch; 7 and 16 mesh are sometimes counted in. On Penelope canvas it is the stitches made over pairs of threads. See petit point and gros point.
• Ground. The material that embroidery is worked on. In needlepoint the ground is the canvas.
• Gusset. A strip of fabric sewn between the front and the back of a pillow. A pillow made with one is called boxed; one made without has a knife edge. See how to finish a pillow.
• Half cross. Tent stitch worked so that the back shows only short vertical stitches. It uses less thread than the other two ways and wears less well. See the half cross stitch.
• Hand-painted canvas. A canvas with the design painted on by hand. On a stitch-painted canvas each intersection is painted one clear color, so there is no doubt which color a stitch should be. Other hand-painted canvases leave more of that to the stitcher. See painted, printed and charted canvas.

Terms: I to O

• In hand. Stitching with the canvas held in the hands, with no frame. See frames and stretcher bars.
• Inset. A frame of fabric sewn around the needlepoint on a pillow, which makes a larger pillow from a small canvas. See how to finish a pillow.
• Interlock canvas. Canvas with single threads one way and pairs of finer threads the other, each pair twisted around the single threads it crosses, which locks every intersection in place. It is stitched as mono canvas is, one tent stitch to an intersection, and its pairs cannot be parted for smaller stitches.
• Intersection. See the six words to know first.
• Kit. A canvas sold with what is needed to stitch it, typically the threads and a needle. A kitted canvas comes with its threads and an unkitted one comes alone. Kitting is choosing the threads for a canvas.
• Knife edge. A pillow edge where the front and the back are sewn straight to each other and meet in a single edge, with no gusset between them. See how to finish a pillow.
• Laid work. Long threads laid across a shape on the surface of the canvas and held there by couching. In tramé the laid thread is stitched over and covered instead.
• Laying tool. A smooth tool held in the hand that is not stitching, used with several strands in the needle or with ribbon. It holds the thread on the front of the canvas and strokes it flat as each stitch is pulled down, so the strands lie side by side and not twisted. A trolley needle is one kind: a tapestry needle on a clip worn on the finger. A tekobari is a laying tool made in Japan. See tools and supplies.
• Long stitch. Any stitch that runs over two or more canvas threads, where a tent stitch crosses one each way. The long stitch in the stitch library is one of them.
• Margin. The bare canvas around the design. Leave at least 2 inches (5 cm) on every side when canvas is cut for a design: see canvas and mesh sizes.
• Maynia. Also Stitch Maynia. A cross stitch custom for the month of May, begun in 2015: stitchers start many new projects, some of them a new one every day.
• Mesh. See the six words to know first.
• Metallic thread. Thread that looks like metal. Most is made of synthetic materials.
• Mono canvas. Canvas woven of single threads, each passing over one and under the next. Painted canvases are almost always mono.
• Needle minder. A pair of magnets, one of them decorated, that grip the canvas between them: the decorated one on the front, the other on the back. The needle is parked on it when stitching stops. See tools and supplies.
• Needle threader. A small tool for getting thread through the eye of a needle.
• Needlepoint. Embroidery on canvas. Needlepoint is the American word for it; canvas work and canvas embroidery are older names, and in Britain it is often called tapestry. The word also names a lace made with a needle. See what is needlepoint.
• Needlework. Work done with a needle, and above all decorative work such as embroidery as against plain sewing. Used broadly, the word takes in knitting and crochet as well as embroidery and needlepoint.
• Open stitch. A stitch that leaves some of the canvas showing on purpose.
• Orts. The short ends of thread snipped off while stitching. Ort is a word for a scrap, and the letters are also read as initials, "old raggedy threads" among them.
• Overdyed. Thread dyed by hand in more than one color, one over another, so that the colors change along its length in uneven stretches. Variegated thread changes color too, but normally at even intervals. One dye lot of an overdyed thread can be very different from the next: see dye lot.

Terms: P to S

• Painted canvas. See hand-painted canvas.
• Pearl cotton. Also spelled perle. A twisted cotton thread with a sheen, sold in several sizes and not meant to be divided. See the thread guide.
• Penelope canvas. Double-thread canvas, also called duo or double mesh: woven of pairs of threads both ways, which leaves large holes between the pairs and small ones within them. Stitches worked from large hole to large hole go over a whole pair. Stitches worked into the small holes as well go over single threads, and are half as wide and half as tall, four to the space of one. So its size is given as two numbers: 10/20 has 10 large holes to the inch, and takes 20 stitches to the inch over single threads.
• Persian wool. A wool of three strands that can be separated to suit the canvas.
• Petit point. Very small tent stitches on fine canvas: 16 holes to the inch and finer, which takes in everyday 18 mesh. The name is also kept for 22 mesh and finer alone. On Penelope canvas it is the stitches made over single threads. See petit point and gros point.
• Piping. See welt.
• Plastic canvas. A plastic sheet with a grid of square holes that stands in for woven canvas, used for rigid and three-dimensional pieces. See plastic canvas needlepoint.
• Ply. Strictly, one of the threads twisted together to make a single strand, and not meant to be pulled apart. Shops and makers also use ply for a part that does separate, so a thread sold as 6-ply may be six strands that come apart. See strand.
• Printed canvas. A canvas with the design put on by machine. See painted, printed and charted canvas.
• Quick point. Needlepoint in the largest stitches, on the coarsest canvas: 3 to 7 holes to the inch.
• Scooping. See sewing method.
• Scroll frame. A frame that holds the canvas on rollers at the top and bottom. See frames and stretcher bars.
• Seed bead. The general name for a small bead, and the kind most often sewn onto needlepoint. See how to add beads to needlepoint.
• Self-finishing. Fitting a stitched piece yourself into a ready-made item with an opening for it, such as a leather key fob or luggage tag or a tray. See self-finishing needlepoint.
• Selvage. The firmly woven edge that canvas has as it comes from the loom, running along the lengthwise threads. Canvas has a grain, so the selvage belongs at the left or right side of a piece, not at the top or bottom. A cut piece may have no selvage: ask the shop to mark that side when it cuts the canvas. See frames and stretcher bars.
• Sewing method. Also called scooping. The needle goes down one hole and comes up the next before the thread is drawn through: one movement for each stitch, as in sewing by hand. It is quicker than the stab method, but it distorts the canvas, so the piece will need blocking.
• Silk gauze. A very fine canvas woven of silk, used for petit point. See petit point and gros point.
• Sizing. The starchy stiffening in canvas. It can soften with much handling or with wetting.
• Skein. A length of thread wound loosely into a bundle for sale. Some thread comes wound on a card instead. The length differs from one maker and thread to the next, so check how much is in it.
• Stab method. Also called the stick method. Each stitch is made in two motions: the needle is pulled all the way through to the front, then all the way through to the back. With the canvas on a frame, one hand can work above it and one below.
• Stand-up. A piece finished to stand on a shelf or a table. See what to make with needlepoint.
• Stash. A stitcher's store of canvases and threads waiting to be stitched.
• Stitch guide. Instructions for one canvas that suggest a stitch and a thread for each part of the design. See what is a stitch guide.
• Stitch-painted canvas. See hand-painted canvas.
• Strand. One of the fine threads that a divisible thread separates into, as in six-strand cotton. Also the whole length cut from the skein to stitch with.
• Strandable. See divisible thread.
• Stranded cotton. Also called embroidery floss. A cotton thread of six strands, used in whatever number the canvas needs: see stripping. The thread guide says how many suit each mesh.
• Stretcher bars. Wooden bars that join into a frame. The canvas is tacked to them through its margin and stays taut and square while it is stitched. See frames and stretcher bars.
• Stripping. Pulling a stranded thread apart into single strands, one at a time, and putting back together as many as are needed. It takes out the twist between the strands, so they lie side by side and cover the canvas more fully.

Terms: T to W

• Tapestry. Strictly, a cloth with the design woven in. The word is also much used for needlepoint, which is why the blunt needle and one of the wools carry its name. See needlepoint.
• Tapestry needle. The needle for needlepoint. Its tip is blunt, so it passes between the canvas threads without piercing them, and its eye is large. See needle sizes.
• Tapestry wool. A wool yarn for canvas that is used as it comes, not divided.
• Tekobari. See laying tool.
• Tension. How hard the thread is pulled as each stitch is made. Even tension gives even stitches and helps keep the canvas from pulling out of shape.
• Tent stitch. See the six words to know first.
• Thread. See the six words to know first.
• Tramé. Also written tramme. A long thread laid along a row of the canvas and then covered by the stitches worked over it. It pads the stitches and can mark out where the colors go. See tramme in the stitch library and painted, printed and charted canvas.
• Trolley needle. See laying tool.
• Trunk show. One designer's work on show at a shop for a limited time. At a needlepoint shop the designer's canvases are for sale during the show, often at a discount.
• Tweeding. See blending.
• Variegated. See overdyed.
• Waste knot. A way to start a thread without leaving a knot on the back. Knot the end of the thread and take the needle down from the front an inch or so (2 to 3 cm) from the first stitch, in the path the stitches are about to take. The knot stays on the front, the first stitches cover the tail on the back, and the knot is cut off when they reach it. An away waste knot is set well outside the area being stitched, and its tail is woven into the back of the stitches afterward. See how to start and end a thread.
• Welt. Also called piping. A cord covered in fabric and sewn into the edge of a pillow. See how to finish a pillow.

Needlepoint in Spanish and Italian

• Spanish. "Bordado sobre cañamazo", embroidery on canvas. "Cañamazo" is the canvas, and the same word is used for a piece embroidered on it in wool or silk.
• Italian. The small slanted stitch over a single thread of the canvas is "piccolo punto" or "mezzo punto", a stitch of "ricamo di tappezzeria", tapestry embroidery. The canvas is "canovaccio".