Needles

[Brekkana]

They just don't make needles like they use to!



I didn't even use this one for more than a week! Jeepers creepers ...

[19Roland19]

Yikes!

[Allyn]

Was it out of a kit?

[curly sue]

I broke one needle and badly bent a second all in one evening. Size 28's are what I have trouble with. I like to use them but don't like the breakage. Some of my broken ones are DMC as they are most readily available.

I have one package of John James and one needle has been used. I don't remember if I liked it or not. It's a 26.

The old needles I use from kits have never given me any trouble, however, none of those are 28's.

I usually use a hoop, and I know it stresses the needle sometimes when I run it under a few stitches to end a thread. That may be part of my problem.

[Fizzbw]

I use John James ones and they are very good. I have some really cheap ones from china and they are even better!!! Bonkers. I have some other cheap gold ones that bend as soon as you look at them....it's a minefield!!!

Niki xxx

[Brekkana]

Was it out of a kit?

No! It was from a package I had bought at Walmart ... just last month ... I use size 28s as well since I usually stitch on 32 ct or 16-18 ct. I will look to see, I think the gold ones I bought online were John James, not for sure. I just don't remember having this trouble 10 years ago LOL!

[wendywombat]

Ouch!!! What a pain!! I keep getting bent eyes on my needles!

It doesn't seem to matter what make you have you'll always get a rogue needle!

[Reta]

I stitch with 26 and run ends in with 28
I have a few on the go so possibly why I do not get many breakages

I get mine from here

http://www.crossstitchneedleshop.co.uk/ourshop/" target="_blank

[rcperryls]

I get my needles wherever I can. About the only thing that Michael's always has in their cross stitch section. I also get them at Walmart and on line. I prefer 28 petites for most of my stitching though I do use 26 or 24 on my afghan (18 ct). Because I keep my needles threaded I have a lot of needles and they bend and break periodically. DMC probably more than other brands, but since I have more DMCs its really hard to know.
I have tried lots of other brands and I can't tell the difference. I tried to keep them seperate but didn't though the petites are John James and I don't think I've broken any of those yet. DMC is the easiest and quickest and cheapest to get so I mostly stick with those.
Never tried gold though.

Carole

[Rose]

I love my DMC needles. I have had really good ones that have lasted for years and I have had some that a week of work and they have broke. As long as they work for me I do not worry over what brand they are. I never use the needles from a kit. I just do not care for them they feel funny. I bought one pack of gold needles and used 1 for a bit but I could not stand the squeaking noise it made. It was a John James needle and the gold wore off quite quickly. I eventually gave the other 2 away.

[NeedleAndFork]

Woah. I don't think I've ever had any that have done that on me! I use a mix o DMC and Bohin 28s with a few 26s mixed in. The worst that happens is the eyes on the 28 start getting all bent out of shape until they're impossible to thread quickly. That's when they go in my retired needles page of my needlebook since I park and need to be able to thread a needle quickly repeately. I do have a few that get really rough on the inside o the eye, and if that gets extreme, the thread starts to fray as it rubs against the needle, so those get retired too. Overall though, my needles seem to last me forevver, I haven't had to retire many at all in the 3ish yearsof stitching. I think that the fact that I mostly start and end my work from the front may help with that - I'm not trying to squish the eye of my needle though teeny tiny stitches in the back of the work. That and I keep several of them in rotation at any time.

[mauveme]

I like 28s for most work, I tried John James and found they broke quickly, either bent terribly or the eye hole snapped . I like Bohdin, I find they last the longest for me .

[fccs]

I've had needles break on me, and since it only started recently, I think maybe the quality isn't what it used to be, or I just got a bad batch. I don't remember which brand they were as I use DMC, John James, and Bohin (the latter two are my favorites).

[Allyn]

I use 28s all the time unless I'm using a specialty fiber that is too bulky to thread into the eye. It's been years since I broke a needle and quite a long time since I broke an eye. I loved the John James gold needles, but over the years, the eyes have gotten so rough that they shred the floss. I switched to Bohin. The eyes in the Bohins are very smooth. By using waste/away knots, I'm not jamming floss behind already formed and properly tensioned stitches. I also stitch "in the well," which means the back of my work is flat so if I do have to weave a tail, I can position the needle flat against the fabic and not try to angle it in around the frame. By not having to 'force' the needle, they don't break on me. If you're breaking needles as an ongoing problem, you might want to think about what it is you're doing that is putting force on the needle and try to work out how to do it differently.

[cairee]

I use 28 John James for almost everything, I have no idea how long a single needle lasts because I tend to drop my needle in my box of needles, rather than use a needle minder so I probably use a hundred or so needles in one project. I likely throw out close 20 needles in a year, but often the breakage is from stepping on one I've dropped and things like that rather than breaking from use.

my beading needles are another story entirely. I bend those until they dont even come close to resembling a straight line, when I cant reasonably bend them back I throw them out.

[Brekkana]

I also stitch "in the well," which means the back of my work is flat so if I do have to weave a tail, I can position the needle flat against the fabic and not try to angle it in around the frame. By not having to 'force' the needle, they don't break on me. If you're breaking needles as an ongoing problem, you might want to think about what it is you're doing that is putting force on the needle and try to work out how to do it differently.

I really have to ask, and I am sorry to sound dumb, but what does stitch in the well mean?

I would like to think the back of my work is flat as well ... well, when not tucking in 30 confettis in the same block lol ...



Front of current project



Back of current project. Does this help show you how my work is? Of course this is a simple project, only has 5 colors in it ...

[Allyn]

You don't sound dumb, hun. I had to have it explained to me the first time I heard it, too. The first time I heard the term, I had a picture in my head of some poor girl down in a well, sitting in the bucket and hanging on to the rope while she stitched. As it turns out, it's not nearly that complex.

Stitching "in the well" is a term that is really describing how the fabric is mounted to your frame. If you mount the fabric over the frame, then you stitch on the flat side. If you mount the fabric under the frame, you'll then be stitching "in the well" and the back of the fabric is the 'flat side."



The upper figure is "in the well." The lower figure has the flat side on the front. The drawing shows a scroll frame, but it could be any frame, like a hoop or Q-Snap. When you stitch "in the well," you never have to contend with the frame when you anchor your tails. It also means you don't handle the front side of the fabric while stitching.

[Brekkana]

Oooohhhh it makes sense now hahaha I had to laugh at myself thinking it was more complicated ... thanks for explaining, I might have to try that ... but the piece my needle broke on I am holding in hand, no hoop or frame at all ...

[Reta]

Brekkana Your work looks the same front and back How do you manage that ?

Looks like it uses lots of thread

[Brekkana]

Brekkana Your work looks the same front and back How do you manage that ?

Looks like it uses lots of thread

That is how I was taught by my mom, working right to left. Usually start in bottom right, work up and to the left, cross country style. Only since discovering this forum did I try starting from the top and working down, but still working right to left. My mom is a stickler for the back being as pretty as the front, so it is pretty darn ingrained into me. Trying so hard on my big projects to let the back go ... very hard ... I keep hearing her voice in my head ... lol ...