WELCOME to the CHILLY HOLLOW NEEDLEPOINT ADVENTURE

Thursday, June 3, 2021

Breaking News: One Shop Goes, Another Appears

Labels: Creative Needle Arts, news, shops, yarn explosion

Yesterday Yarn Explosion (knitting and needlepoint shop in Roanoke, Virginia) announced it would be closing this summer so the owner could retire. I always meant to stop by the shop on my way to and from visits to relatives but never managed to find the time during this long trip.

https://www.yarnexplosion.com

To balance the sad news, there was an announcement on NP Nation that a new shop will be opening in Gulf Shores, Alabama the 4th of July weekend. It will be called Creative Needle Arts.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10218700220276499&set=gm.4031286130281848

We wish our shop owners both a great retirement and a fun time opening a new shop!

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow

Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com

and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com

More Beginners Guide to Needlepoint: Handling Threads

Labels: basketweave, beginners, Hawaii, tent stitches, tutorials

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.

https://poppymonkneedlepointkits.com/blogs/the-5-minute-needlepoint-blog/how-to-do-a-perfect-needlepoint-basketweave-stitch

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--

https://needlepoint-for-fun.com/pages/needlepoint-waste-knot

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:

https://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com/2021/06/how-to-stitch-beginners-guide-to.html

https://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com/2021/06/more-beginners-guide-to-needlepoint_0657953055.html

https://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com/2021/06/a-beginners-guide-to-needlepoint.html

https://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com/2021/06/a-beginners-guide-to-needlepoint_01444392938.html

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow

Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com

and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com

Wednesday, June 2, 2021

More Beginners' Guide to Needlepoint: Basketweave

Labels: basketweave, beginners, Hawaii, Poppy Monk Needlepoint, tent stitches, tutorials

Today I'd like to talk about the stitches I'm going to use on my little torch ginger mini sock. You can see the design above. If you missed Part One from yesterday, here's the link.

https://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com/2021/06/how-to-stitch-beginners-guide-to.html

I'm using tent stitches on the design. This is the most basic needlepoint stitch. It looks like this / and from the front you see rows of ///////. However, there are three types of tent stitches: continental, half cross and basketweave. I'm using basketweave for the background, the leaves and the lighter pink of the flowers.

Basketweave is tent stitches done on the diagonal, which makes it a little tricky. (Half cross and continental are done in horizontal or vertical rows.) This is a good tutorial.

https://poppymonkneedlepointkits.com/blogs/the-5-minute-needlepoint-blog/how-to-do-a-perfect-needlepoint-basketweave-stitch

If you look at the black and white numbered diagram in the Poppy Monk tutorial, you'll see the last diagonal row you've finished makes little "teeth" that the next row you do will slot into, sort of like a zipper. Make sure you read the tips at the bottom of the article. If you have areas you need to skip over on your canvas, here's a tutorial on that.

https://poppymonkneedlepointkits.com/blogs/the-5-minute-needlepoint-blog/how-to-work-around-shapes-in-needlepoint-basketweave-stitch

Here's my start on the background. Tomorrow I'll talk about all the yellow "tails" you see sticking out on the front. It's my thread management, which isn't pretty but works for me. But more on that tomorrow.

Now that this series is finished, I'll post all the other articles here. starting with the first:

https://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com/2021/06/how-to-stitch-beginners-guide-to.html

https://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com/2021/06/more-beginners-guide-to-needlepoint_0657953055.html

https://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com/2021/06/a-beginners-guide-to-needlepoint.html

https://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com/2021/06/a-beginners-guide-to-needlepoint_01444392938.html

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow

Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com

and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com

Tuesday, June 1, 2021

How to Stitch: A Beginner's Guide to Painted Canvases

Labels: beginners, Hawaii, mini socks, tent stitches, tutorials

Lots of people are trying needlepoint for the first time. I thought I'd post about my current project (a mini sock with Hawaiian torch ginger from Vanoni) to help answer common questions that people wonder about when they start needlepointing a paint or printed canvas, just in case you have no one to ask.

So, here it is, a little design that's about 3 1/2 inches at the widest point and perhaps 5 inches tall. It's on 18 count needlepoint canvas, which means approximately 18 stitches to the inch. Take a good look. As you can see, most of the design is outlined, either in black (leaves) or dark red (torch ginger flower). The sock itself is outlined in black, too. Just keep that in mind. It's important.

The first decision to make is what color to use for the background, which is unpainted. You can go with any color you want, but often if you choose a very dark color like black or navy, the white canvas will show. We needlepointers call that "dandruff." Since I don't want white speckles in the background, I rummaged in my stash and found a pretty pale yellow Impressions from Caron for the background. Any white that shows won't be noticeable if I use pale yellow.

Impressions is a silk/wool blend. I decided to see what other silk/wool blends I had in two shades of red and green tucked away in my stash. I found I had both greens and the dark red in Planet Earth's Essentials, which is a blend of silk and merino wool. You can mix thread types, of course, and use a metallic with cotton, wool and silk, but these threads can be different weights so I would recommend beginners use one type of thread for everything until you have a little experience under your belt.

The only problem I had with thread colors is that my two shades of green were a dark rich green and a dark olive green. I didn't have any spring green in a silk-wool blend! Oh, well, I'll just use olive green and no one will ever know. You won't tell, will you?

I have some pink Bella Lusso, an all-wool thread from Fleur de Paris for the flower. More about that later.

I didn't look for any black thread for the black lines. That's because I'm not going to stitch them. I'll just cover the black lines on the leaves with green. Let's take a look at the painted canvas again.

This design was originally drawn on needlepoint canvas as a black and white drawing, then the artist filled in the various areas with paint, sort of like coloring in a coloring book. The black lines are just guide lines--they don't add to the design. Since I'm using two shades of dark green, the black lines won't show if I stitch over them.

The red lines are also guidelines but they serve a purpose--they are there to help outline the petals of the torch ginger blossom. I am going to stitch the dark red lines so the flower won't be a big shapeless blob. The outline of the sock is just a guideline. I'll stitch yellow background up to the line. The yellow thread won't hide the black lines well. The black lines may show through the pale yellow, but that's ok. I won't cover the black outline and the finishing will hide that edge anyway.

I think that's enough for today. Tomorrow I'll talk about the stitches I will use. Stay tuned!

Questions? Just email me at chilly hollow at hot mail dot com.

Now that this series is finished, I'll post all the remaining articles here:

https://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com/2021/06/more-beginners-guide-to-needlepoint.html

https://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com/2021/06/more-beginners-guide-to-needlepoint_0657953055.html

https://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com/2021/06/a-beginners-guide-to-needlepoint.html

https://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com/2021/06/a-beginners-guide-to-needlepoint_01444392938.html

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow

Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com

and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com