Best Bets: A Needle is a Needle

A needle is a needle, unless it’s a sharp, or a tapestry needle, intended for beading, curved for quilting, triangular, made for yarn, twin pointed, too thick or too small, too big or too thin. You may be embroidering with a milliner’s needle, which is intended for hat making, but if it’s doing the trick – a needle is a needle. So, I say, young apprentice, pick up a pack of “embroidery” needles. But, for goodness sake, LOOK at the needles in the package. First, you must peer into your sewing future: will you be able to find this needle if it slips off the thread and into the couch? Before it snags your sleeve and stabs you in the night, consider a thicker needle, a needle that may guide itself through taught linen, but not starched canvas. Or choose a needle with a larger eye that won’t require you don a monocle to thread it. Whilst scanning the needles available to you, “embroidery” might not be emblazoned on the package. It’s okay to pick up a pack of needles because they look like they’d be happy in your sewing box. My skill level will dictate the information here, thus the brevity of this tutorial. There are many different types of needles for general sewing, darning, leatherwork, beadwork, repair, quilting, milliner’s work, etc., each in a variety of sizes. The most valuable thing I learned while taking a closer look is the higher the number, the finer the needle. For basic embroidery, the kind my hands can teach you, here’s the skinny (the long and short of it, the point):

• Embroidery/Crewel Embroidery/Crewel needles have a long, lean eye which makes threading easier when using multiple strands of thread, as we ‘broiderers often do.

• Chenille Chenille needles have a large, visible eye and are used in the art of crewel embroidery and ribbon embroidery, which is of course thicker than thread or floss. Chenille needles have a heavier “weight” to them, as Tapestry/Cross Stitch needles do, but they have a sharp point. I find them easier to hold, less likely to prick, and sturdier in my clumsy hands.

• Tapestry/Cross Stitch Tapestry/Cross Stitch needles have a large, visible eye and a blunt round point designed for the use in needlepoint, petit point, counted cross stitch and plastic canvas work.