How to Start Needlepoint: A Beginner's Guide

What to buy, the one stitch to learn first, and how to start, work, and end your first thread.

Needlepoint is embroidery worked on canvas, a stiff, open mesh that the stitches usually cover completely. You stitch through the holes in the canvas, one small stitch at a time, and one stitch, the tent stitch, is enough to finish a first canvas. Our needlepoint vs. cross stitch guide says more about what needlepoint is.

This guide starts with the supplies and the stitch, then takes a first canvas step by step. After that it covers how to start a thread so that it holds, and how to end one, then the mistakes to avoid and how long a first piece takes.

On this page: what you need, the tent stitch, your first stitches, starting and ending a thread, mistakes to avoid, why a shop helps, how long it takes, other needlework crafts, and the FAQ.

What you need to get started

You do not need much to try needlepoint for the first time. A basic starter kit comes down to five things:

• A canvas. This is the stiff, gridded fabric your design is stitched onto. On a printed or hand-painted canvas the design is already there, so you can see where each color goes.
• Thread or yarn. Wool or cotton to begin with, stitched in lengths of about 18 inches.
• A tapestry needle. These have a blunt tip and a large eye, so they slide between the canvas threads instead of piercing them. The size goes with the canvas, and our supplies guide gives the size for each mesh.
• Small, sharp scissors. These trim the thread ends.
• Something to hold the canvas. Stretcher bars, four wooden bars that slot together into a frame you tack the canvas to, keep it taut. NeedlepointTeacher.com, the site of needlepoint teacher and author Susan Sturgeon Roberts, says beginners and experienced stitchers alike find their stitches much more even on them. A hoop is another way, but Nordic Needle warns that stitching caught in a hoop can be distorted and some threads broken.

Needlepoint shops sell beginner kits that bundle most of this, which saves choosing each piece separately. Those at KC Needlepoint in Kansas City, for example, hold a 13-mesh canvas, threads, a needle, scissors, stitch instructions, and a project bag. Our kit guide compares the kinds of kit, and the supplies guide has our picks for buying online.

Learn one stitch first: the tent stitch

The Royal School of Needlework's Stitch Bank speaks of a huge number of canvaswork stitches more elaborate than tent stitch, but Needlepoint.Com, which has shops in Charleston and Raleigh, calls tent stitch "the most traditional stitch that beginners should learn." It is a small diagonal stitch that covers one intersection of the canvas grid at a time. The basic motion is: bring your needle up through a hole, cross diagonally over one intersection, where two canvas threads cross, and go down through the hole one up and one to the right.

Tent stitch can be worked along rows, as continental, or in diagonal rows, as basketweave, and a third way, half cross, is in our stitch guide. Continental and basketweave look the same from the front and differ on the back. Needlepoint.Com names them in its post for beginners as the two tent stitches it recommends learning.

Continental

Worked back and forth along rows, with a longer slant behind each stitch, tent stitch is called continental. Needlepoint.Com recommends it for learning because it "follows logical, easy-to-learn horizontal lines," and says it can fill small areas, single lines of stitches, or a whole project.

Carry each row as far as the area allows. NeedlepointTeacher.com says a row broken partway leaves lines that will not block out, meaning that blocking, which our framing guide explains, will not remove them.

Basketweave

Worked in diagonal rows, tent stitch becomes basketweave, named for the woven look of its back. The Royal School of Needlework's Stitch Bank says it wears best of the three ways of working tent stitch and is the least likely to warp the canvas. The Stitch Bank also says it should always be used in large areas of tent stitch.

Begin at the top right of an area, then take turns: a diagonal row down, then a row back up. Two down rows or two up rows next to each other leave a line that NeedlepointTeacher.com says will never block out. The stitch guide has more on both stitches, and the FAQ below gives the sources' advice on which to learn first.

From a shop: Greystone Needlepoint, in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, draws continental and basketweave for the left hand in its guide for left-handed beginners, and basketweave for either hand in its post Learn to Basketweave.

Your first stitches, step by step

Here is a first canvas in order, from the frame to the last stitch.

1. Bind the edges. If the canvas has raw edges, NeedlepointTeacher.com binds them with masking tape, which keeps the thread from snagging on them.
2. Mount it on stretcher bars. Put together two bars the length of the canvas and two its width, and tack the canvas on with rustproof thumbtacks: the middle of each side first, then either side of those, and the corners last, as NeedlepointTeacher.com shows it. The supplies guide's section on stretcher bars explains the sizes.
3. Cut a length of thread. About 18 inches, or from your fingertip to your elbow, as Needlepoint.Com measures it; the FAQ below says why. If the thread is made of strands you can separate, as floss is, Needlepoint.Com separates them and puts the number you need back together, so the thread lies flat.
4. Thread the needle. Needlepoint.Com folds the thread over the needle, pinches the fold tight, slides the needle out, and pushes the fold through the eye. With wool, check the grain first: NeedlepointTeacher.com strokes a strand under the chin both ways and threads it the way that tickles less. Keep the short end through the eye to about 1½ inches, and do not slide the thread along the needle as you go, which NeedlepointTeacher.com says wears thin spots in it.
5. Choose where to begin. Needlepoint.Com starts right-handed stitchers in the upper right corner and left-handed ones in the lower left. On what to stitch first, the sources differ. Needlepoint.Com's beginner page says beginners often find the smallest color areas easier. Its post for beginners, Greystone, and The Red Thread Atelier, which has shops in Locust Valley on Long Island and in Sarasota, suggest the background, a larger area where you can practice one stitch. Needlepoint.Com and The Red Thread Atelier both advise stitching light colors, or white, first, so that darker threads are not pulled through into them.
6. Start the thread. Use a waste knot, about an inch away on the side you will stitch toward. The next section shows how.
7. Stitch. On stretcher bars, NeedlepointTeacher.com keeps one hand under the canvas and one on top and passes the needle between them, which it calls the stab method. Pull each stitch through in one smooth movement rather than in starts and stops, and keep the tension even. The same site says loose stitches look lumpy and tight ones distort the canvas.
8. End the thread under stitches on the back when you finish an area or the thread runs short, and start the next one under stitches too, as the next section describes.
9. Check for gaps. When the canvas is done, Needlepoint.Com suggests holding it up to the light to find any missed stitches.

From a shop: Needlepoint.Com's beginner page takes a first canvas step by step, with pictures, and The Red Thread Atelier's Needlepoint 101 adds its own tips.

Starting and ending a thread

A needlepoint thread is not left knotted on the back. NeedlepointTeacher.com's rule is "Never leave knots on the back of your work." Each end is held by stitches instead. At the start, the tail is held by the stitches you are about to make, or by ones you have already made. At the end, the thread runs under stitches on the back. Our sources give several ways to start a thread, and every source that covers ending does it that way. For a first canvas, the waste knot is enough.

The waste knot

NeedlepointTeacher.com calls the waste knot a fine way to start on an empty canvas, or in an area far from any stitching you have done, and it is the first start on Needlepoint.Com's beginner page. The knot is only temporary.

1. Tie a knot in the end of the thread, the end away from the needle.
2. From the front, take the needle down through the canvas about an inch from where your first stitch will be, on the side you will stitch toward. Needlepoint.Com says about an inch, and NeedlepointTeacher.com about 1½ inches. The knot stays on top, and the tail lies on the back.
3. Bring the needle up where the first stitch starts, and stitch toward the knot. Your stitches cover the tail on the back and lock it in.
4. When you reach the knot, cut it off the front of the canvas, taking care not to cut the canvas itself.

For basketweave, BeStitched Needlepoint in Scottsdale gives an example. If your first stitch is at the top right, the knot goes toward the bottom left, in line with the area to be stitched, and it can be cut off once several rows of stitching hold the tail.

The away knot

An away knot is a waste knot placed where you are not about to stitch. NeedlepointTeacher.com uses it when the stitch you are working will not cover the back well enough to hold a tail. Knot the thread, take the needle down through the canvas away from the area you are working, and come up where your stitching starts. The tail waits on the back. When you later stitch the area where the knot is, stitch over the tail there, as with a waste knot, and cut the knot off when you reach it.

Starting without a knot

• Hold the tail. Greystone Needlepoint and The Red Thread Atelier both start a beginner this way. Come up from the back, leaving a short tail there, hold the tail against the canvas with a finger, and let your first few stitches cover it.
• Make an L. NeedlepointTeacher.com and BeStitched anchor a thread with two tiny stitches at right angles, sharing a hole, in an area that later stitches will cover. NeedlepointTeacher.com makes the L four or five intersections from where the stitching starts, and BeStitched says it will not pull out. The L stays under the stitches that cover it, and only the tail is clipped.
• Run it under stitches you have made. Once you have stitched a sizable area, Needlepoint.Com says you no longer need a waste knot. On the back, run the new thread under four or five stitches, the same way you end one, then do it a second time to lock it in. BeStitched's lock stitch runs the thread under stitches, then back the other way, over several threads of the stitching and under them again, so the end makes a U that locks when pulled.
• The loop start, described for cross stitch. The Cross Stitch Guild describes it for stranded floss, and it works only with an even number of strands. Fold one strand of twice the usual length, and thread both ends into the needle. Come up from the back, leaving the loop there, and when the first stitch takes the needle to the back again, pass it through the loop. On canvas it runs against NeedlepointTeacher.com's advice to "never double any thread": a folded strand covers less well than two separate ones, and with wool, one half lies against the grain and stitches fuzzy.

Ending a thread

End a thread when you finish an area, or when it gets too short to stitch with. Take the needle to the back after your last stitch, turn the canvas over, run the needle under a few stitches on the back, and trim what is left.

• Keep to straight lines in basketweave. BeStitched and NeedlepointTeacher.com both say to run the thread straight across or straight up and down the back of basketweave, never on the diagonal, which leaves a line on the front. NeedlepointTeacher.com adds that the line will not block out, and that the next thread should start where the last one ended, going the same way, so the woven back is not broken.
• End in the same color. NeedlepointTeacher.com advises anchoring a thread under stitches of the color you are working.
• Double back with a slippery thread. NeedlepointTeacher.com suggests a longer tail, or running it back in the opposite direction, and BeStitched repeats its lock stitch for rayon.
• Cut close. BeStitched cuts ends close to the canvas, so that no end is left for a new thread to catch and pull through to the front.

From a shop: BeStitched's two posts on beginning and ending threads, part 1 and part 2 (2011), describe more starts, among them the pin tuck, two tiny stitches in a line.

Beginner mistakes to avoid

1. Pulling the thread too tight. NeedlepointTeacher.com says tight stitches distort the canvas, sometimes more than blocking can put right, and that nothing helps stitches which are too tight but cutting them out. The Red Thread Atelier's advice is not too tight and not too loose, with consistent tension.
2. Skipping a frame. Held in the hand, a canvas is stitched with what NeedlepointTeacher.com calls the sewing method. It says the sewing method is quicker, and suited to basketweave and continental, but that the canvas will distort and need blocking. Rittenhouse Needlepoint in Philadelphia lists stitching without stretcher bars, hoops, or frames among the things that make a finished piece hard for it to square.
3. Starting with a project that is too advanced. Needlepoint.Com recommends a first canvas from what it calls "the larger mesh canvases," which it says are quicker to stitch than detailed 18-mesh. It also recommends a few colors with little or no shading, in a simple design you love. Begin with a small piece, such as an ornament, a coaster, or a small motif, and save a large piece for later. The section on time, below, says why.

Why an in-person shop helps, especially at the start

You can learn the stitch from a video, but the materials are things you handle. The difference between wool, cotton, and silk, or between 13-mesh and 18-mesh canvas, is something you can feel in a shop. Our thread guide covers what separates the three if you want the theory first. Shops teach, too: Lowcountry Needlepoint in Charleston, for one, runs a beginner class that sends you home with a canvas, thread, stretcher bars, and scissors, and our region pages note classes where a shop lists them.

How long does a first project take?

It depends on size, and we found no source that gives hours for a beginner. Stitch counts give a sense of scale instead. By our arithmetic, a 4-inch square ornament on 13-mesh canvas holds about twenty-seven hundred tent stitches, and a stocking 11 by 19 inches on the same mesh something like twenty-three to twenty-six thousand. That assumes the stocking's shape fills about two-thirds to three-quarters of the rectangle. Needlepoint.Com says a full stocking takes "months and months" to stitch.

So start small. A first piece is where you practice even tension, and finishing it tells you whether you want to take on something bigger.

How needlepoint compares to other needlework crafts

Needlepoint is one kind of embroidery, and cross stitch and crewelwork are others, each with its own canvas or fabric, its own stitches, and its own finished look. If you are trying to decide which to try first, our needlepoint vs. embroidery guide sets them side by side, and our needlepoint vs. cross stitch guide takes cross stitch on its own.

FAQ

Is needlepoint hard?

By NeedlepointTeacher.com's ratings, it is not, to begin with. A first canvas needs only the tent stitch, and the site rates continental, a tent stitch worked in horizontal rows, "Easy." What takes practice is even tension, which the mistakes above cover. The stitches you might learn next range further: the same site rates brick and Scotch "Easy" and Byzantine and French knots "Getting Harder." Our stitch guide has diagrams for all of them except the French knot, for which it links a video from Needlepoint.Com.

Continental or basketweave: which should I learn first?

The sources split. Needlepoint.Com recommends continental first, for its horizontal rows, then adding basketweave and using it as much as possible. Greystone Needlepoint, in its post on basketweave, says it always starts beginners with basketweave. One canvas can use both: NeedlepointTeacher.com gives basketweave for every area but very small ones, and suggests continental there.

Do I need stretcher bars?

You can stitch without them. Needlepoint.Com lists stretcher bars and tacks as optional, though recommended to start. Stitched in the hand, NeedlepointTeacher.com says, the canvas distorts and needs blocking, as the mistakes above explain. The Royal School of Needlework's Stitch Bank says basketweave helps keep the canvas square when you are not using a frame.

Do you tie a knot in needlepoint thread?

You tie one only as a waste knot or an away knot, which sits on the front of the canvas and is cut off once stitches hold the tail. The section on starting and ending a thread, above, has both, and ways to start without a knot.

How long should needlepoint thread be?

Cut about 18 inches of wool or cotton, or a length from your fingertip to your elbow. NeedlepointTeacher.com says a longer thread wears out before you finish stitching with it, and that a very long one can wear until it shows the canvas grid. It uses a shorter length for silk and rayon, and allows a longer one for the long stitches of Bargello. Needlepoint.Com cuts velvet and metallic threads to 6 to 8 inches, to keep them from fraying.

Which way should needlepoint stitches slant?

Tent stitches usually slant from bottom left to top right, as the Royal School of Needlework's Stitch Bank describes them, and Greystone Needlepoint's guide for left-handers says the stitches should all slant in the same direction. Greystone's left-handed diagrams keep the slant and change the working order. In them, continental's first row runs from left to right, each stitch made from top right down to bottom left, and basketweave starts at the lower left corner.

Do I need to know how to sew?

You do not. Needlepoint is a needle and thread taken through the holes of the canvas, one stitch at a time. NeedlepointTeacher.com does call one way of stitching the sewing method, like sewing on a button, but on stretcher bars you use its stab method instead, passing the needle from one hand to the other through the canvas.

What should my very first project be?

Choose something small and simple: a coaster, a bookmark, an ornament, or a small motif on 13-mesh canvas. See our guide to choosing your first kit for more on picking the right one.

Once the tent stitch feels natural, the next thing to understand is canvas mesh count. Our mesh count guide explains how it decides how detailed your design can be and how long a piece takes to finish.

This page was checked in September 2026 against NeedlepointTeacher.com, the Royal School of Needlework's Stitch Bank, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Embroiderers' Guild of America, John James needles, The Cross Stitch Guild, and Nordic Needle's guides on needlery.org. It also draws on the shops' own sites: Needlepoint.Com's beginner page and its posts for beginners (2022) and on stockings (2023), BeStitched Needlepoint's posts on beginning and ending threads (2011), Greystone Needlepoint's guides (2021), The Red Thread Atelier's "Needlepoint 101," KC Needlepoint's FAQ, Lowcountry Needlepoint's class, and Rittenhouse Needlepoint's 2026 finishing price list. The continental and basketweave diagrams were drawn for our stitch guide, and the two figures of a thread's start and end for this page. The stitch counts are our own arithmetic.