Needlepoint - Choosing a Needle and Fiber

Susan Battle: Hello! I am Susan Battle, owner of The Point of It All and this is how to needlepoint. In this segment, I will be focusing on selecting a needle and choosing a fiber. Needles come in several different sizes and you are going have to experiment and see what's you like. If you like a larger needle or a smaller needle. I prefer a larger needle. So for a ten mesh canvas and remember those are the biggest holes, you could use in size 18 or size 20. On a 13-mesh canvas you could use a 20 or a 22, and then for 18-mesh canvas you could use a 22 or a 24. Just the process of experimenting, no right or wrong, it's whatever is comfortable for you.

There are variety of options in choosing fibers. Used to be that wool was your only choice but that's not so. There are tons of possibilities and it's lot a fun to mix fibers in projects. So this is Traditional Persian wool, great for bags because it's so sturdy, a really good basic fiber, comes in tons of colors. Another choice is a metallic thread and it really gives your project some glaze. Look around the edge here, it gives a little bit of a sparkle, sparkle to the Washington Monument and it's very easy to stitch with, and it comes in a number of different colors.

Cotton is another fiber choice as you can see we use that on this bracelet. One of the things I really like about cotton is that there is no plying or separating of fiber which I will explain in a minute. You just needle up and start stitching. It's perfect for travel projects.

Another fiber choice is silk, 100% silk, I love it, feels great, lays down nicely on the canvas. This is a head band and one of the things that you need to know about silk or this particular silk is that you have to strand it, which means that it come in a 12, in 12 pieces and we are going to separate it. It separates very easily into its component parts and stitch with that. Your needlepoint shop will be able to advice you on how that's to ply.

I would love a blend of silk and wool. This particular one is called silk and ievory and it's just divine. It feels like butter and this brick, this is a door stop was stitched using silk and ivory. It is perfect on 13-mesh canvas. You just needle up and go. It's absolutely divine. They also make a pliable version called Trio and that's perfect for ten mesh, bigger holes, an 18-mesh smaller holes, you just pull it apart and start stitching. Lastly there are number of specialty fibers with which you can really add texture and dimension to your stitching and I love that. This is my husband's Christmas stocking and in this I used velvet and see on to this coat and it's very soft and then up here, I use Fabulous Fiber to give some fluff to the hat and to the cuffs and then down here I used Neon Rays, a ribbon to accentuate this line through here. I really like using a variety of fibers in my pieces. That really gives it some punch and add some interest.

Now in our next segment, we are going to thread the needle and then actually start the thread in our canvas.