Pat Thompson Talks Starting and Ending Threads

Hillside Needlepoint's newsletter has a great section by Pat Thompson on various ways to start and end your threads.  Useful stuff and good diagrams, too.
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Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright April 2, 2018 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

How to Start Threads

The cross stitch site Funk and Weber is running a series of tutorials on how to start threads.  These things will work on any ground fabric, so I thought I'd mention them on Blog.  The first posting is about starting threads with waste knots.
http://www.funkandweber.com/starting-threads-with-waste-knots/

Next is how to start threads with a loop.
http://www.funkandweber.com/starting-threads-with-a-loop/

The next tutorial talks about starting threads by piercing them.
http://www.funkandweber.com/starting-threads-by-piercing/

Note that some of these techniques can also be used to end off threads.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright July 1, 2014 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Anchoring Threads in a Single Line

Mary Corbet has a wonderful tutorial on how to secure a thread when you are stitching a thin line with no place to tie off a thread nearby.  She is stitching with crewel wool on what looks like coarse linen or perhaps Aida cloth, but I think this technique will come in handy for us needlepointers at least occasionally.
http://www.needlenthread.com/2008/09/starting-your-thread-anchor-stitches-on.html


Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com

Anchoring Ends When Stitching Light

Yesteday morning I found a question from Melinda in the Comments section. To quote her in full--"This is a beautiful canvas, Jane. Tell me how/where you are anchoring your Walsh thread so that it doesn't show under the blank areas of the background. Thanks!"

Starting and ending threads is one of those basic techniques that are hard to master.  Do you use a knot?  Or not?  [LOL.  Sorry, I had to say that!]  Just how do you end off slippery threads like rayon?  Is it really important to have the back side of your work look as neat as the front?  Etc.

However you normally start and end threads, if you stitch part of a painted canvas with light coverage stitches to allow the painted shading to show, you will find that ending one or two plies of a thread is much different than ending off 4-6 plies.  The less thread you are using, the harder it is to tie off a thread or get one started.  After all, there's not much thread on the back side to anchor a new length in.

Sometimes there is a place nearby where you can start/end threads the way you normally do.  Unfortunately, most of the wide diamond stitches were done before I had stitched anything else so there is no stitched area to start/stop threads in for this canvas.  Even when I have more of Cha stitched there aren't going to be many areas where there is full coverage.  Here is what I do with my one ply of the 5-plied JL Walsh silk/wool thread (but this applies to all the light coverage threads and stitches I'm using on this piece):

To start a thread, I tie as small a knot as I can manage in the new length of thread.  Then I stitch a Locking L stitch in an area that will be covered by one of the long stitches in wide diamonds.  I stitch until the thread is about 2-3 inches from running out.  (If you are using a thread that unravels in the eye of the needle you might have to stop stitching with a length when there are 4-5 inches left.)

Locking L stitches are just a little stitch over one thread followed by a second stitch over one thread next door to the first. Together these two stitches make the shape of the letter L.  (If I am using a really slippery thread, I might make a Z shape from three tiny stitches.)  In most cases, even if you are using only one ply of silk, these tiny stitches will be hidden by the regular stitches.  You just need to figure out where to put them so that the stitch will cover the Locking L.  This is one reason it is smart to do some test stitching in the margin of your canvas if you haven't done the stitch before.  You'll soon have a good idea where to hide the Locking L.

The reason you will want as tiny a knot as possible on the back side is that if you tie a knot that has a little tail sticking out, that little tail will start to poke itself through to the front.  Once you do your starting Locking L and then stitch that first stitch or two, turn over the canvas and check the starting knot to make sure there is no tail to stick out on the front.

If you are stitching one small area instead of the whole background, try starting your stitch in the middle of the area.  That also helps keep any ending thread from showing at the margin of the area you are working.  This is particularly important if your thread is slippery or if it is 100% silk.  Silk becomes more of an escape artist the less of it you use to stitch with.

To end a thread once you have finished a section, use the Locking L stitch again. This time, slide a stitch you've done already over with your needle tip and run the ending Locking L stitches under this thread and its neighbors.  Then turn the canvas over to the back and slip the end of your thread under neighboring stitches, if any.  I often slip my thread under previous stitches on the back going in one direction, then slip it under neighboring threads going in the opposite direction so that there are 2-3 inches of thread ending off on the back.  Trim the end.

Even if they are light coverage stitches, one ply on the back probably won't show.  However, some folks make a point of putting a piece of fabric under their canvas in finishing.  If you layer your canvas over a thin fabric, it helps mask those stitches running from one area to another.  Choose a fabric color similar to the background stitch if you do this or use a sparkly fabric like gold lame.

Folks who do a lot of blackwork learn to plan their stitching path to minimize any threads from the back showing on the front.  For more insight on this process, read the February 2004 Stitch of the Month information Ann Strite-Kurz wrote for ANG's website.  She diagrams each stitch in such a way that the working order is very clear to minimize such problems.
http://www.needlepoint.org/StitchOfTheMonth/2004/feb.php
http://www.needlepoint.org/Stitch.php

My way of starting/stopping threads is not the only way.  Here is how Marj describes what Shay Pendray recommends you do to start and end threads.
http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com/2010/02/starting-and-stopping-threads-shay-way.html

I have written on this topic before.  The best explanations I can find from older blog postings are listed below.  It's a complex topic and if the above confuses you, read these explanations from me  for more help.  Sometimes I phrase things in a better way.
http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com/2009/12/light-coverage-stitching-imperatives.html

http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com/2009/11/locking-l-stitch-in-close-up.html

Great question, Melinda.  Thank you!  Please ask if any of the above isn't clear.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Knots or Not?

I’ve been promising to talk about starting threads for a while now. It’s a complicated subject. You can start a thread by putting a knot on the back side. You can also start stitching by putting a knot on the front side and stitching over the thread that goes from the knot to where you start your first stitch, or you can start stitching without a knot at all. I’ve used all three techniques on Lani’s Autumn Leaves and I think which one you choose depends on the threads, the area to be stitched and your own personal preference. Let me explain.

You’ve probably heard of away knots, or in line knots, or waste knots. These are all knots put in various places on the top of the canvas. The thread runs from the knot on top of the canvas along the back and then comes up where you plan to start stitching. Once you have finished that area, the knot is trimmed off. You do that by pulling up on the knot and cutting the thread as close to the canvas as you can. You can look at various types of starting top knots at these websites.

http://needlepoint.about.com/od/learnneedlepoint/ss/wasteknot.htm

http://www.needlepoint-for-fun.com/basic-needlepoint-stitches.html

http://www.needlepointnow.com/OnLineClassroom/ACSK-3/CanvasPrep.htm

To some extent, which you choose is a matter of personal taste. (Although Shay Pendray never puts her thread more than an inch away from her first stitch and she makes sure she will stitch right over it when she starts.) I don’t use any of these top knot techniques much, although I did use waste knots with the dark brown vein when I started the first brown leaf Using top knots works especially well if you are stitching straight lines or in a straight row. I tend to start my first few stitches on a canvas using waste knots but after a while I abandon them. People who are very careful with the back sides of their designs like the knot on top techniques as they do make for a tidier back. Me, I don’t care. I lavish most of my effort on the front and let the back take care of itself.

I am careful about the knots I tie in a thread that I’m starting, however. If you plan to put a knot on the back of a canvas, make it a small and dense knot. Ever tied a knot and had it turn out with a loop at the end or a much bigger balled knot that you’d planned? Those I trim with my scissors or cut off and replace with a smaller and denser knot. I don’t like a lot of lumps on the back and a knot is rather lumpy. To some extent this technique works best on natural fibers.

I find it easier to tie knots in cotton or silk or wool fibers than I do metallics or nylon threads. Some threads are slippery (Remember how Panache slips out of the needle eye?) and their knots will untie themselves sometimes. If you have a thread like that, consider another starting technique. If your thread is very stiff, like Japan Gold or twist, for example, you can’t tie a knot in it at all. You have to put a loose tail on the back and secure it with stitches taken through the threads already on the back of the canvas and over the loose tail.

Some of these problems can be solved by using techniques that don’t involve knots at all. See the photo above? Thats a double strand of my Impressions, which I’m using for the tan leaves and the purple backgrounds. Any time you are stitching with two strands of a thread you can make a loop “knot” to start the thread. All you do is cut double the length of thread that you normally stitch with. If you use a 24 inch length of thread in your needle, cut twice that, or 48 inches. Then put both ends in the needle’s eye as above. Come up through your canvas but don’t pull the thread all the way through. Just leave enough of the doubled end on the back that you can put the needle through the middle of the loop once you put the needle back down through your canvas. Pull to tighten the thread and the loop will close and secure the threads. This is the technique I used for all the areas on Autumn Leaves where I used Impressions since I doubled the strand to cover and match the other stitches in other types of threads.

Of course once you start a thread, you are going to have to end it eventually when it runs out or when you need to switch to another color. But that’s a topic for another day.

Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow