Last week, I unboxed (unpackaged?) the simple embroidery kit I had ordered. This week, I started stitching.

As my video from last week showed, the instructions provided with the kit were pretty minimal. As I figured, I had to rely on Youtube to get started. I found videos on how to split the threads — it turns out that embroidery floss is made of 6 strands, and different needles and stitches use a different number of strands. I already knew how to thread a needle, so the only finessing of that I had to do was threading two strands at once. I also discovered a never-ending debate in the embroidery community — to knot, or not to knot. Embroiderers essentially just disagree on whether it is necessary or better to tie a knot at the end of your thread before starting to stitch. I have sided with the not to knot team — a video showed me how to begin and end stitching without knotting, and it seemed wise to go with the simplest method possible for my first project. I may knot in the future, but who knows.

I began with the backstitch — it is used, generally, to make lines straight lines. It involves passing the needle through the back, passing it back down a certain amount of space away (I don’t think the amount really matters, I get the sense that it just has to be relatively consistent from stitch to stitch), then coming back up from the back that same distance away from where you come down in the initial stitch. You then backtrack — hence the backstitch — to pass the needle back down through right beside where the previous stitch came down. The backstitch seems to be one of the more basic ones.

 

 

There are obvious gaps and unevenness in my lines, but I was happy just to have figured out how to start and to learn a basic stitch.

However, I found it difficult to find videos on YouTube aimed at beginners that had a more process-oriented overview of embroidery — I could find demonstrations for how to split a thread and do basic stitches, but nothing to help me understand how a project works from start to finish.

And then my lovely partner bought me a little embroidery care package, including threads in the colour palette I enjoy, different sizes of needles, two different-sized hoops, a pin cushion, and, most importantly, Readers Digest Complete Book of Embroidery.

The hoops, apart from offering me to create different-sized projects, are of a much higher quality than the one that came with my kit. I haven’t been able to get a very tight grip on the fabric in the one that came with the kit because the screw and tightening mechanism are of a very poor quality — these new hoops will help me address that, allowing me to get a tighter stretch on the fabric which should lead to better quality work. But, more importantly, the book will provide me that wide view of the process that piecing together disparate YouTube videos into a coherent plan won’t. It has extended detail about materials and tools, design sources, transferring motifs to fabric, getting started, and basic stitches in addition to having an extensive “stitch library” which provides detailed text and pictorial guides for each stitch. In other words — it can guide me at the start, at the finish, and everywhere in between.