has any one seen this book ?

Both things sound wonderful!! Maybe when the exchange rate is more favorable, if that ever happens, I might consider getting some of the thread and the motorized needle.

Which size needle is that? It's possible that I missed it when I went shopping; it's also possible that my stores don't stock the same things your's do.

Oh my!!! Her work is wonderful!!! I'm jealous of her talent and the people who can afford to buy her work.

Anne,

The Clover needle size listings are confusing at first glance but there are two more needles besides the three ply needle which (seems) to be the only one that comes with a barrel.

One has to read the labels to figure out which needle is for what! Clover needles aren't listed by what we expect to be fine (one ply), medium (3 ply) and thick (6 ply).

Instead, one needle is listed for one ply and the other needle label states it's a needle to be used for medium to fine yarns...the back of the package shows a pic of a ribbon "clump of loops" and one of a knitting yarn "loop clump"! The label states 4 mm ribbon can be used with this needle and any thread of the same size will work with the needle.

Have you tried the Cameo needle you recently purchased yet? I took a look at the Cameo needle in the needlework shop and notice there is a spring included in the package...is the Cameo needle spring loaded and does the spring affect the needle when used by a bouncing motion?

Just got back from yet another shopping trip (I'm very lucky to live 5 minutes from just about everything I need/want) You're right -- the hanging display thingies did list different sku's but they both seemed to have the same needles. There weren't that many so I went through the display and found the one you've mentioned way in the back. I didn't buy it though; I'm waiting to see how the cameo needles work.

I bought them from Joann's online store; it'll be awhile before they get here. I'm increasingly mechanically inept so I hope I don't break the spring thingie from the git go.

I've lost some of the tubing used to adjust loop height for my Russian needles. How do the others you've tried compare in terms of ease for setting height?

Anne,

So far, I've found the Clover needle easy to work with...it's easy to set the loop height or depth by just moving the needle inside the barrel to the lines shown on the plastic cylinder...the cap is then screwed back on to hold the needle in place. So far, I've set the single ply and three ply needles at the same level but I did discover slight height differences of the loops made for an interesting texture when using different colors.

I've "played" a little with the single ply Russian needle and haven't got the hang of adjusting the depth of the loops yet. My first attempt shortening the tubing didn't work out as I probably pushed the tubing too low on the needle...I wasn't able to make any loops until I raised the tubing a little higher. Have a feeling adjusting the Russian needle loops is going to take a little practice & experimentation to get the "right" look we're after for the design we're working on.

I noticed the Russian needle company offers a mail order course with critiques for $75.00. Upon satisfactory completion of the course, the student becomes certified to teach punch needle...that's one way to learn punch needle well!

You can take the course and then teach me ;-)

Seems my answer to your query got "lost in space" as it hasn't appeared after a couple of days and I can't find a copy of my reply either!!

I "played" around with the tubing on the Russian needle to adjust height and didn't do so well at first. I wasn't able to make any loops at all at a certain level that must have been too low even though it looked like I had plenty of space...so moved the tubing up slightly and was able to make loops.

Getting the right height or depth of the loops using the tubes will take a little getting used to. Makes me wonder how well I'll be able to match loop heights should I use another needle in the design or something happens to the tubing I'm using. Guess I'll have to mark the needle in some way where I want the tubing to go on all the needles.

The Clover needle seems easy by comparison as you just match the needle base to the notches and screw on the casing barrel.

Interestingly, I noticed the slight difference of loop depths where I used two different shades of color, (yellow), looked pretty cool! So guess the slight differences of the loops won't matter much as long as the design looks good to me as I'm also my own worse critic!

Speaking of loops...the the Russian needle folks offer a correspondence course with critiques for $75.00 where at the end the student is certified to teach. Guess if one really wants to know how perfectly they've done their loops, this would be a good way to learn too.

Not to worry; I saw it but didn't have much to say about it except to tell you take the needle punching course and then teach me.

When I cared enough to try and before I lost some of it, I never, ever got the tubing cut to the same size for different needles so I gave up trying. After my last project which was smallish, my hand hurt from gripping the needle so tightly. I'm hoping the cameos will be more user friendly

The base of my sewing machine has magic marker lines that I drew for different seam allowances ... yeah, I could've bought a gizmo that would do the same thing, but when I looked at it, I couldn't figure out how to put it.

Most of us are our own worst critics.

This discussion got me to thinking -- there are many, many differences in what an artist or craftsperson does for her or his own pleasure and what a designer creates for a mass market

Amen to that. I have learned, on gifts, to not sweat the small stuff. The recipient probably won't notice. If it's going on my own wall, it may be worthwhile to frog so it won't annoy me forever.

Mega happy dance time!!!!

The cameo needles came yesterday and they're wonderful!!! Not only are they more ergonomic than the Russian ones, setting the loop length is super simple. With very limited practise, I found that the largest needle handles 2 mm silk ribbon and 2 strands of unknown type/brand of crewel/tapestry yarn with ease.

Now if I or someone smart could figure out how to get a design on both sides of the fabric at the same time so regular and punch needle embroidery could be done on the same piece, I'd be in hog heaven. Amend that -- having a k's creation type frame would really put me over the edge

Hey Anne,

That's good news about the Cameo needles...what does that spring do? Does it bounce or works like a pen to push down the needle?

I agree with you about the difficulties matching (the same) settings of the Russian needles...it's not easy and will take some doing but I've decided not to worry about "tiny" differences in loop heights! As I mentioned I thought the slight differences in loop heights made for an interesting surface texture!

Coincidentally, I was thinking the exact same thing about creating a pattern that can be used for either punch needle or embroidery! Unless a fabric in a kit is printed on both sides, the only other way I can think of is having the stitcher trace their own pattern from a printed master pattern.

The few things I practiced on were drawn freehand and then traced using a light table on the back or reverse side of the fabric. I traced with a very light pencil line but will use a micron pen next time when I'm actually doing a design.

I'm still waiting for my K's Creations scroll frames despite saying I needed them for work ASAP!!!

I think it works like a pen, by locking the needle in place once a loop height is chosen.

After posting my initial impressions, I did some more testing. The lowest settings (1-2) on all the needles seem to create a running stitch on the front of the fabric. I got little loops once or twice with the 3 setting and always got loops with 4 on up.

I wasn't happy with the large loops made by the single strand needle as I thought I could use that combo to outline or delineate parts of a design. Maybe with practise, I can overcome this.

The rayon stitching 'silk' spools looked like they would be perfect for the smallest needle but they weren't; the 'silk' was too thin ... they could probably be used in an extra fine needle. I really, really, really need to practise more -- I tend to over fill areas which makes it hard to work on adjoining (sp??) areas.

GMTA!!! (translation -- great minds think alike)

Most of the kits I've done use pre-printed fabric. However, one included an iron on transfer, no tracing needed, which I appreciated. I love iron on transfers!!!!!!

I'm gonna wait for your report but would like to know where you ordered them.

I'm outta here for an optometrist appointment and yet another shopping spree at a craft store that's closing because the owner wants some free time.

Anne,

Your words reminded me of my thoughts about Missy Stevens punch needle pictures featured in galleries as a fine art vs the punch needle designs produced by needlework designers. The obvious difference is in subject matter and style...designers generally have to produce work that is universally appealing to the mass market and fairly "easy" to do for the average stitcher.

A professional designer works at a job and not just for fun even though they're very happy to create & enjoy designing. Designing needlework for professionals is first and foremost a serious job, basically a commercial art job, not something done because of a love of needlework or a bit of pin money. True, there are people who have started designing because of a love for needlework and found success as they became more professional & businesslike about their work.

Craftspeople work in a similar mode...they're serious about their art and probably have more leeway to create what they want since they're not as totally commercial as a professional designer but they too have their eye on the bottomline as they have a good idea what sells in their market.

There is no rule that says professional designers or craftspeople can't "crossover" into other markets...many fine artists license their art to sell on products produced for a variety of markets including the mass market and commercial designers have produced fine art work shown in galleries developing a following of collectors.

I'm often tempted to just create what I like and not worry if what I do will sell or not...such as for example creating more artistic punch needle pieces that would be considered more fine art & not commercially oriented as a design.

I've admired embroideries by fine artists and often think what am I waiting for? I've got the ability to draw and lots of ideas I'd love to see "painted with threads"...but not the usual pretty thread painting subjects of cute animals or florals. My ideas might be to illustrate with threads something a little surrealistic in an urban scene, a group of figures, a fantasy, etc.

This next comment may sound blasphemous considering my business has been in painted canvas design but for myself, I like to needlepoint on plain canvas with the simplest light lines to denote design parameters. It's wonderful to see a design developing on blank canvas.

I've noticed many of my artist and designer friends have hobbies and other creative pursuits similar to most people...they get crazy about things to collect and carry on just like others except maybe they go a little more overboard!

I'm need to have a design either on paper or fabric as a jumping off point. However as I work a piece, I find myself abandoning preplanned color schemes and specific threads or thread types.

I like plain canvas but did do a couple of Beth Russell painted canvasses purely because they were on sale as kits in John Lewis and the price was too nice. I found it very hard to work painted canvas and had to keep holding it up to the light in order to make sure I was not skipping stitches because paint and wool were so nicely matched.

Offensive comment alert: I don't like most needlepoint, especially the mass market kits -- I find it boring to do the same stitch thousands of times but mostly because if one does that stitch as directed, curved lines become a series of jagged steps.

My EGA chapter brought in Rosalie Peters to teach a class in painting canvas; I can't paint and don't want to but the price was right (about $30). The design was rather simplistic tulips but I came away with a very important tip -- Use any threads and stitches that suit your fancy. In my limited esperience, this advice about the stitches works only if the design has large open areas and not alot of fine details.

I've admired many of the gorgeous geometric designs that are like stitch samplers and have tried one or two... however my counting dyslexia kicked in big time

Naturally when you are working on it, that jagged line is far more noticeable, but I never notice that when looking at needlepoint from a distance.

Needlepoint has gone along way from wool on canvas doing a half cross stitch, though that is still a very durable solution for dining room chairs or rugs.

I like Anna Pearson and she was amongst the first eons ago to tackle needlepoint and change it radically. I am not sure what she is up to now, I have lost touch with her, but I last spent a weekend with her at her mill in Norfolk. Wild weekend :)

I sit corrected ;-) I call the work currently designed for canvas "the new embroidery" using lots of stitches and fantastic threads.

oooooooooooooh, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah ... maybe in another life, I'll have the skills and money to tackle such gorgeous projects.