New to Needlepoint?

Yesterday Nancy left a note in the comments section asking for help. Here it is in case you missed it--

"I am a neophyte to needlepoint; thus, I have no
'stash.' Could you give me a couple of
internet sites where I can buy quality materials.
Right now, I need blank needlepoint canvas and
threads. I am overwhelmed by the myriad of
threads. Beginner threads?"

I answered Nancy in the comments but I'm going to repeat what I told her here. This is for folks new to NP, ok? You need a shop that's somewhat local to help you. There aren't any cheap places to buy blank NP canvas. It costs pretty much the same everywhere. The cheapest route to go to learn is to pick up plastic canvas (it comes in 10 and 14 count) at the crafts emporiums like Ben Franklin's, Michael's, etc. and get DMC cotton floss in whatever colors you like at the same time. It won't cost more than a few dollars to experiment, especially if you use the free designs on the thread company websites (Kreinik, Rainbow Gallery or Caron).

I suspect Nancy is a bit beyond this and wants to know a) where to shop and b) what to buy. I asked her to tell me her state and if there's a big town fairly near her. Developing a relationship with a good needlepoint shop is key. They often have scraps of NP canvas and threads they'll give you and will provide free tips. Folks who run these stores aren't in it for the big bucks--they own a shop because they love stitching and they are a great resource you want to cultivate. Often they have classes or just times when they encourage stitchers to show up for a group stitch-in. Beginners are very welcome to join in and learn from more experienced stitchers. Besides, mail order from across the state is quicker and cheaper than mail order across the continent!

If you want to post your state in the Comments, I'll find and post links to shops who have good reputations in your area. If you don't want to do this, head over to TNNA's website and look for shops in your state which belong to TNNA.

TNNA stands for The National Needlearts Association. It is a trade group for shops that carry knitting, NP, cross stitch and other like products. Any store that belongs is serious about keeping up with new items, attending the trade shows they put on several times a year to pick up new stuff for their store, etc. It isn't a total guarantee of happiness with member shops but it's as good as it gets. Go to their site, then click on the "Find a Shop Near You" link at the bottom.

http://www.tnna.org/

You can search by state and by the product the shop specializes in to find shops in your area. You can also discover which ones have a website to do some browsing, look at their contact info, etc.

Any shop newsletter I post here is from a shop I have ordered from or who I've heard about through friends who love shopping there. You can pick one whose website you enjoy that has products to your taste and mail order anything you need. It's better to have a shop in your area that you can visit at least occasionally (and remember, just because a shop doesn't have a website it doesn't mean they aren't fabulous!--and vice versa) but if that's not possible, you can trust any shop whose newsletter I post for good service. I don't post newsletters from places I know nothing about but I do put up links to photos of goods I'm talking about from places that are not known to me. I try to promote new shops here. Any shop with an e-newsletter is guaranteed to be very serious about NP. You can buy there with confidence.

Ok, now you have a shop or two in mind, what do you buy? You'll need some blank NP canvas to play around with. The most common sizes are 13 count and 18 count. Pick one according to the current state of your eyes and see what colors are available if you don't want a plain white background. The canvas with the orange line woven in the bound edge is from Zweigart and is the best quality currently available. Remember that NP canvas comes in interlock (great for ornaments or glasses cases as it doesn't unravel; terrible for chair seats as it doesn't have any "give") and mono and penelope. Mono is one thread, penelope is two threads. Doesn't matter what you pick for a project unless you want to stitch over two threads for the background and over one for faces or flower centers--you'll want penelope if you need that possibility. The bulk of the charts available are written assuming you are using 18 count mono canvas, however.

Back to size. If you choose 13 count canvas, you need threads that are a bit fatter than what 18 count canvas needs. Your best bet is to buy cotton floss and/or crewel wool and/or Persian wool. You can use 1-2 strands of crewel for 18 count and 3-4 for 13 count; 18 count needs 3-6 plies of cotton floss while 13 count needs 6-8 plies; 13 count needs all three plies of Persian wool while you can use 1-2 plies on 18 count. All these threads are available most places and they'll work on both sizes of NP canvas.

Feeling like you want to go fancier than cotton or wool? Look for Rainbow Gallery's Splendor silk floss. It is also widely available and comes in a huge range of colors and is easy to use. It's 12 ply, and you need to separate it into 3 bundles of 4 plies each before stripping the bundles down further. It won't knot if you do this. It's a great thread, not as shiny as other silks, but as easy to use as cotton floss.

Also look for Kreinik metallic threads. They are also widely available. #4 and #8 braid are best for 18 count canvas; #12 is a new thread size made especially for 13 count, but #8 will work, depending on the stitch you are doing.

There are dozens of other brands of threads. Silk-wool blends are adored by stitchers everywhere. If you want to go that route, either Impressions or Trio is perfect for 18 count and the 13 count canvases are covered well by Vineyard Silks, Silk & Ivory or Silk n Cream. Vineyard Silks also works fine on 18 count, although I think some stitches don't do as well as others in this thread.

However, if you have a pattern in mind you are going to stitch, tell the shop what the chart asks for and if you want to try something different. They can substitute threads and colors according to your budget and color preferences if they know what threads the designer recommended and what pattern you are doing.

I hope this helps you dip your toe into the NP waters, Nancy. And remember, my motto is to jump in head first!

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

Snowman Has a Hat and Scarf

It is definitely turning into fall in Chilly Hollow. I've been in the habit of taking progress photos most mornings but recently it has been too dark for me to do this. Some of this is due to overcast skies, some due to the fall fogs we have this time of year. Now I'm trying to make time when I get home from work among the chores that have to be done before the sun sets to take my photos. Please be patient!

So you are not going to see the more normal progression photos as I work on the snowman ornament for Mim's shipment of Christmas trees and ornaments overseas. I'll still explain how I worked, though. For example, I started out tent stitching around the perimeter of the snowman's face with my metallic ribbon floss. I didn't fill in the center where the eyes and mouth and nose go until I was able to put in half cross stitches for the red smile (Patina, a shiny nylon thread), the pink cheeks (Flair), and eyes (MillHill's Magnifica beads). Since snowmen traditionally have lumps of coal for eyes, I didn't do the eyes exactly the same. Coal chunks are very angular and I wanted eyes that looked like coal would. The black beads are attached with two plies of black DMC cotton so the thread doesn't show.

Once the smile, cheeks and eyes were in, I finished tent stitching the entire face. Then it was time for the carrot nose. I had originally intended to fill a tube of orange Flair with orange beads but that provide impossible. Instead, I laid down a long stitch in orange Patina (more nylon thread) and wrapped it with orange Flair in a fake bullion. I like the snowman's happy little face and hope you do also.

But a snowman for Christmas isn't just a cute smile--he's got to have clothes!

I grabbed a sheet of paper from the trash and using the same glass candlestick, drew circles on it, then sketched out a variety of cap and hat styles and scarves on the paper circles. Once I had something I liked, I tent stitched the outline onto my NP canvas. In the photo below, you see the stocking cap and scarf I ended up with.

The scarf is outlined, but I stitched most of the stocking cap last night, using a stitch from the September-October 2008 Needlepoint Now. Marnie Ritter has done a great purse design called "Fascination" with all kinds of fancy stitches and I used the purple stitch in the middle for the snowman's stocking cap. I may use another stitch from the purse for the scarf. I've not decided yet.

http://www.needlepointnow.com/Magazines/2008-09/Cover.htm

Inspired by Pocket Full of Stitches' knit cap and gloves canvases (see links),

http://www.pfos.com/ChristmasClubs/CozyCaps/page1.htm

http://www.pfos.com/ChristmasClubs/WarmWooly/warmwooly.htm

I've pulled a bunch of colors, mostly red and lime green and orange sherbet with some medium blue, from my stash and I'm mixing and matching textures to create the colorful outfit on the showman. His cap is the ribbon-like in lime green tied down with a greener shade of lime in Impressions (silk-wool blend) with straight lines in the empty spaces in the pale gold-peach Impressions. I tied down the lime green ribbon with two strands of medium blue Accentuate to add sparkle and also used a strand of the same blue Accentuate to attach the orange beads I'd originally thought would make a great carrot nose. The next step will be to add a fuzzy ball to the tip of the stocking cap and fuzzy trim around the snowman's face.

I'm thinking I'll use Kathy Feschel's turkeywork variation stitch which you can see here on the ANG website.

http://www.needlepoint.org/StitchOfTheMonth/2006/aug.php

Now all I need to do is decide which thread! I'm leaning toward a medium blue Impressions mixed with the blue Accentuate. But it might make more sense to couch down a fuzzy thread instead since there isn't much space at the edge of the stocking cap around the snowman's face. Hard to make your turkeywork really plush with only 2-3 lines of stitches.

Stay tuned!

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

Needle Works Newsletter

The Needle Works of Austin has their September newsletter up on their website. Click on September 2008 Newsletter to read it. The newsletter has information on Tony Minieri classes but the best photos of the new floor frame and new stocking cuffs canvases are under What's New in the main part of the website.

http://www.theneedleworks.com/

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

Bad Day

I'm having a bad day. Allergies are killing me so I'm at my desk at work, crying. At least that is what it looks like!

[brief pause while Jane blows nose]

I don't want this canvas, currently on sale at eBay. I want one that reads "How Do I Set My Laser Printer to Kill?"!

The canvas is by Carolina House, by the way. Here's the eBay auction.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=160123392205&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=006
Signed, The Grump

also blogging and blowing nose at my main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

And For My Next Trick

First, I've added a photo of my almost completed wizard two entries back. That's the other side of the repeat posting about wired Flair. There really isn't much to see except the charms are in place, but there it is. I am working on tent stitching two rows outside the background now. That will take a while.

To keep from dying of boredom, I've started a Christmas ornament for Mimi, my friend who needs ornaments for 200 Christmas trees that are going overseas this holiday season for our troops. I don't have any stitched ornaments to donate (Mimi needs non-breakables to ship) so I am making one for her. Above is the first step, drawing a circle.

I'm going to make a snowman. They are small enough to make good ornaments and very easy to draw. In the photo above I took a candlestick holder out of the kitchen cabinets and dotted around the outside edge to make the snowman's face. I'm busy tent stitching that in using the metallic style of ribbon floss in Opal. It is opalescent white with touches of pink and green and quite shiny. Looks like sparkly snow!

Stay tuned as the snowman gets personality with a face while I do more tent stitches.

By the way, if you have ornaments you can spare for the troops this year, let me know in the Comments section and I'll put you in touch with Mimi. She needs everything before Halloween as they ship the first week in November.

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