There is one type of needles that I use more than any other. This is very much because I do more counted thread embroidery than surface embroidery. My favourite needles are therefore tapestry needles, and more precisely No 24 tapestry needles.<\/p>\n
Tapestry needles are useful for counted thread work because they have a blunt tip, which means that instead of splitting fabric threads as they go through the fabric, they are more likely to pass between them, which is exactly what you want when you are doing counted thread work.<\/p>\n
In my years of teaching I have discovered one very interesting thing about tapestry needles: not all tapestry needles are created equal. You’re probably expecting me to sing the praises of gold plated needles here, or something like that. But no, I’ve never used a gold plated needle. <\/p>\n
My point is that the eye size of tapestry needle changes markedly in size from one brand of tapestry needle to another. This means that if I specify a No 24 tapestry needle (which is larger than a 26, and smaller than a 22 – so the smaller the number, the larger the needle) sometimes it will work for the stitcher, and sometimes it may not. Some 24s are very much hard to thread than others because their eye is narrower.<\/p>\n
Tapestry needles are the same as chenille needles in all respects but their points. A tapestry needle has a blunt or rounded tip, while a chenille needle has a sharp tip. So if you compare chenilles and tapestries of the same size and brand, you’ll find their length, shaft thickness, and eye size are all very similar or as much the same as you could hope for. However, the tapestry needle has a rounded point, and the chenille is sharp.<\/p>\n
Tapestry needles are also useful for some surface work. Sometimes you will need to pass a needle under a stitch without catching any of the stitch on the needle. A sharp pointed needle can mean that the tip catches on the stitch thread, perhaps accidentally piercing it. In this instance, a tapestry needle would be much more likely to pass by without catching or splitting the stitch thread. (The back of a sharp pointed needle – the eye end – can also work, but you have to be careful not to accidentally stab yourself with the sharp end of the needle!)<\/p>\n
So there you have it, a precis of my favourite type of needle. Long live the tapestry needle!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There is one type of needles that I use more than any other. This is very much because I do more counted thread embroidery than surface embroidery. My favourite needles are therefore tapestry needles, and more precisely No 24 tapestry needles.<\/p>\n
Tapestry needles are useful for counted thread work because they have a blunt tip, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-embroidery-musings","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/vettycreations.com.au\/white-threads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/vettycreations.com.au\/white-threads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/vettycreations.com.au\/white-threads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/vettycreations.com.au\/white-threads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/vettycreations.com.au\/white-threads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3773"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/vettycreations.com.au\/white-threads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3775,"href":"http:\/\/vettycreations.com.au\/white-threads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3773\/revisions\/3775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/vettycreations.com.au\/white-threads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/vettycreations.com.au\/white-threads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/vettycreations.com.au\/white-threads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}