How to Needlepoint a Stocking

Needlepoint stockings are easy to make.

Needlepoint has been popular in cultures around the world for thousands of years. It is easy to learn and looks elegant when finished. Museums have displays of a variety of needlepoint treasures from small coin satchels to large antique wall tapestries. Needlepoint stockings are a good beginner's project and an heirloom gift that the recipient will enjoy for many years.

Things You'll Need

• Tapestry needles
• Yarn
• Stocking
• Pattern or Chart

Instructions

1. Choose the design for your stocking. If the pattern is already inked then follow the package directions for transferring it to the stocking. Otherwise, draw over every detail of the pattern with a transfer pen and apply the design onto the stocking with a hot, dry iron. Skip this step if you will be using a chart.

2. Choose tapestry needles that are small enough to pass through the mesh in the canvas. Make sure, however, that the thickness of yarn that you will be using will thread easily through the eye of the needle.

3. Buy Persian three-ply yarn as it gives good coverage and is available in hundreds of colors. The skeins of each color should be from the same dye lot. Buy more than you need to avoid the problem of running short and not being able to find the same dye lot.

4. Learn the two stitches used to needlepoint a stocking: basketweave and continental. basketweave is worked at a diagonal and continental is worked either top to bottom or left to right. Each stitch covers one mesh without any skipped meshes.

5. Practice the transition from the basketweave stitch to the continental stitch and back again. Needlepoint stockings use both stitches to help distinguish details.

6. Needlepoint all areas of the stocking that use white yarn. Then, needlepoint areas with colored yarns. This will prevent the needle from pulling dark threads onto the white areas.

7. Use a single ply of Persian yarn and wrap it three times around the mesh when you need to do only one stitch of a color. For example, small details such as dimples may require only one stitch on each cheek. Wrapping the single ply three times around the mesh will give the stitch stability and still have the three-ply thickness needed.

8. Follow the chart (or design) until the stocking is complete.

9. Individualize the stocking by stitching the name of the child along the top cuff.

Tips & Warnings

• Left-handed people will find it easier to work the canvas from right to left (away from the body) and from bottom to top (for better visibility).

References

• Caron: Beginning Needlepoint
• Stitching: Beginner Tips