How to needlepoint

What needlepoint is

Needlepoint is embroidery on stiff, open canvas. You cover the canvas with thread, one small slanted stitch over each crossing of the canvas threads, until none of it shows. The basic stitch is called tent stitch. Most needlepoint designs come painted or printed on the canvas, so you stitch each color where you see it. You can also work from a chart, counting squares onto blank canvas.

What you need

• Canvas. Either a painted canvas, or blank mono canvas (plain canvas woven of single threads) and a chart. Cut blank canvas at least two inches (5 cm) bigger than the design on every side. For a first piece choose 13 mesh (13 holes to the inch): the holes are bigger than on finer canvas and easy to see. More in canvas and mesh sizes.
• Thread. Enough of each color in the design. Wool is forgiving. See the thread guide.
• A tapestry needle. Blunt, with a large eye. Size 20 for 13 mesh, size 22 for 18 mesh. See needle sizes.
• Small sharp scissors.
• Stretcher bars and tacks (optional but worth it). Four wooden bars that slot together into a frame. Canvas tacked to a frame stays steady, and your stitches come out more even.

The stitch

Every tent stitch crosses one canvas intersection on a slant, from its lower left to its upper right. From the front it looks like a short slanted dash.

1. Cut a length of thread about 18 inches (45 cm) long. Longer than that and it wears thin before you reach the end.
2. Thread the needle and anchor the thread with a waste knot, described below.
3. Start at the right-hand end of the first row. Bring the needle up at the lower left of your first intersection and take it down at the upper right.
4. For the next stitch, come up in the hole to the left of where the first stitch came up, and work the row from right to left.
5. Work the row back directly below, from left to right, and make each stitch the other way round: up at the upper right, down at the lower left. The upper holes of this row are the lower holes of the first.

There are three ways to arrange tent stitches, and they look identical from the front. Continental works in rows, as above, and is right for lines and small areas. Basketweave works in diagonals and is right for filling areas. Half cross saves thread but is thinner and wears least well. Learn continental first and basketweave second. The difference is explained in Basketweave vs continental stitch.

Starting and ending a thread

To start in an empty area, use a waste knot: knot the thread, take the needle down from the front an inch or so (2 to 3 cm) away along the direction you will stitch, and work toward the knot so your stitches cover the thread on the back. Snip the knot when you reach it.

To end, turn the canvas over, slide the needle under a few stitches on the back, and trim. Later threads can start the same way, by running under stitches already there. More in how to start and end a thread.

Habits that make it look good

• Let the needle dangle now and then so the thread untwists.
• Keep your tension even. Pull each stitch snug, not tight: tight stitches distort the canvas.
• Stitch details and lettering first, then the background.
• End each thread under stitches of its own color.
• Do not carry a thread far across the back. End it and start again.

What to stitch first

Something small and flat: an ornament or a coaster about four inches (10 cm) across, in a handful of colors. Geometric patterns and bargello are excellent first projects from a chart, because the pattern repeats and you can see at once if you miscount. Bargello is not worked in tent stitch: its stitches stand upright over several canvas threads, as What is bargello? explains.

Most of the ornament and coaster charts on this site are 72 stitches square. That is 4 inches (10 cm) on 18 mesh and about 5 1/2 inches (14 cm) on 13 mesh, so on 13 mesh the same chart makes a larger piece. The canvas size calculator gives the size of any chart on any mesh.

When the stitching is done

A stitched canvas is usually a little out of square. Blocking straightens it. Then it is made up into its final form, which needlepointers call finishing: made into an ornament or a pillow, or framed.