Yesterday in my tutorial on how to do needlepoint, I ended with a photo of little tails sticking out all over the front of my canvas. What's up with that?!
This is how I manage ending threads. When I get down to the last 2-3 inches of a thread, I come up either horizontally or vertically in the channel down from my last stitch and bring the thread to the front. NEVER go on the diagonal when doing basketweave, whether you are tying off a thread on the back or just bringing it to the front like I'm doing. You read the tips on yesterday's tutorial, right? If not, go read them again. Dragging threads across the back on the diagonal when doing basketweave creates a ridge on the front.
If you forget this tip, you'll have little ridges on the front of your work instead of having a nice smooth surface. You are aiming for perfectly even fat little stitches that are identical.
Anyway back to what I was saying: I like to put my end of thread tails on the front, especially when I am just starting a piece and there's not much on the back side to weave my thread tails through. As I stitch the green leaves, I'll cover the yellow tails on the back with my green basketweave, and eventually I'll have them secure enough that I can pull up on the end of the tail from the front and snip off the thread close to the canvas. It will be held securely.
In a few places you see big yellow knots in the end of my thread. These are away knots, which is one way to start threads that's explained here--
Just remember not to run that thread on the diagonal if you are doing basketweave!
Tomorrow, a progress report and I'll explain how I'm stitching the pink and red torch ginger flower.
Now that this series is finished, I'll post all the other articles here:
Written by Jane/Chilly HollowBlogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright April 28, 2021 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.
