What kind of yarn for needlepoint?

October 11, 2005 10:43 AM

Needlepoint yarn - does it have to be a special type of (expensive, French) yarn for a pre-worked canvas? or can I buy wool knitting yarn? How do I calculate how much yarn for 2 seat covers?

Also, have you ever bought yarn on ebay? thanks.

posted by theora55 to sports, hobbies, & recreation (7 comments total)

knitting yarn is too stretchy for needlepoint
also too thick in many cases, so that it abrades when you pull it thru the canvas and thins and weakens from the friction

ithe french yarn stays clean and crisp and the design has good definition

the french yarn comes loosely twisted into several strands which you separate, depending on how small the stitches are

sorry i can't help with the calculations
posted by subatomiczoo at 11:01 AM on October 11, 2005

Yarn on eBay is iffy - if you know the market prices of what you're looking for, you can find good bargains. It's very hit-or-miss; I've taken to buying from wholesale or particularly inexpensive places online. (Then again, I buy to knit - I don't know where you'd find needlepoint yarn for cheap.)
posted by kalimac at 11:41 AM on October 11, 2005

thanks for 2 useful answers.
posted by theora55 at 6:36 PM on October 11, 2005

there is also an alternative to the wooly-type french yarn, I wish I knew exactly what it was called but it's much more satiny and bright (like embroidery thread) and doesn't require strand separation.

needlepointing can get very expensive when you add up the canvas, yarn, and finishing (framing or pillow-making or whatever).

i suggest picking a canvas that doesn't have too many colors: when you have a lot of colors, you end up spending a lot of money on colors that are just used for a few stiches.
posted by radioamy at 11:21 PM on October 11, 2005

Huh. I work at an Australian needlecraft and knitting shop and as far as I know, regular old tapestry wool (DMC or Anchor) is pretty much identical to 8-ply knitting wool. At least it is if you're doing a normal 10-count duo canvas. Nobody separates it; it would go all fuzzy and crap looking. The only loosely plied embroidery yarn that we have is crewel yarn, which would be much too fine (even if you didn't separate it) for 90% of our canvasses. We also do upholstery and framing and I've seen a lot of chair covers that just use the plain old DMC tapestry wool and they're fine. (You can even get it as "grounding wool", which is just a larger hank.) I've even seen knitting patterns for toys that recommend using tapestry wool when you only need a little bit of one colour. Maybe things are different overseas...
posted by web-goddess at 1:01 AM on October 12, 2005

I missed the question about calculating the yarn. Our highly unscientific method is to make a fist and put it down on the canvas. That is just about the area that one skein of tapestry wool (DMC, Anchor or Appletons) will cover. What's that, maybe two inches by three? So we just count how many "fists" it would take to cover the area, and maybe add a couple extra one for safety. (Grounding wool, DMC at least, is equal to five of the small skeins.)

I just remembered one crazy customer who bought an expensive needlepoint cushion kit for her daughter and then realized that the yarns had some acrylic in them. Apparently her daughter lived in some commune where - no joke - everything had to be of natural materials. So the lady spent a good hour down in the knitting section picking our replacements for all the colors...
posted by web-goddess at 1:41 AM on October 12, 2005

I bought a pre-worked canvas on ebay. When it arrives, I can really decide, but I'm pretty sure I'll do the background in navy. Thanks for the answers.
posted by theora55 at 11:57 AM on October 13, 2005