Needlepoint guide
Needlepoint vs embroidery
Embroidery is the family name. Needlepoint is one member of it. Here is how the terms people mix up relate to each other.
Embroidery
Embroidery is the art of decorating fabric with a needle and thread. Its techniques fall roughly into two kinds:
- Free-style embroidery, such as crewel work, is not tied to the weave of the cloth.
- Counted work follows the grid of the ground, so every stitch has an exact place. Cross stitch and needlepoint both belong here.
Needlepoint
Needlepoint is embroidery on canvas, and it was called canvas work until the early nineteenth century. The stitches are counted and worked over the threads of a stiff, open-weave canvas, and most designs cover it completely. Worked in wool, the result is a very durable fabric. The basic stitch is tent stitch, but there are more than 150 canvas stitches; the stitch library here covers 29 of them.
Related terms
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Petit point | Fine tent stitch. Definitions differ on where it begins. One encyclopedia definition is needlepoint on canvas with 16 to 20 or more holes to the inch, and one teacher's is 16 and finer; by those, everyday 18 mesh is petit point. One shop's canvas guide keeps the name for 22 mesh and finer, which is how the mesh guide uses it. On double-thread (Penelope) canvas it means tent stitches worked over single threads. |
| Gros point | Larger tent stitch: by the encyclopedia's definition, canvas of about 7 to 16 holes to the inch. On double-thread canvas it means stitches worked over each pair of threads, so one gros point stitch covers the area of four petit point stitches. |
| Bargello | Needlepoint in upright stitches arranged in zigzag or wave patterns, in graded or contrasting colors. See what is bargello. |
| Tapestry | Strictly, a textile woven on a loom, with the design built up in the weaving. The word is also routinely used for needlepoint, and needlepoint wool is sold as tapestry wool. |
| Crewel | Free-style embroidery in two-ply worsted wool, on a twill ground of linen and cotton or on plain linen or cotton cloth. It is named for the yarn, not for any stitch. |
| Cross stitch | Crossed stitches counted on canvas or on evenly woven fabric. See needlepoint vs cross stitch. |
How to tell what you are looking at
- Stiff mesh ground, completely covered in small slanted stitches: needlepoint.
- Evenly woven fabric or canvas with X-shaped stitches set on its grid: cross stitch.
- Wool stitches running freely across linen or cotton cloth: crewel.
- The design is part of the weave itself and the cloth is reversible: woven tapestry.