How To Basketweave Your Needlepoint
How To Basketweave Your Needlepoint
A step-by-step guide for basketweaving your needlepoint stitches.
Basketweaving is a great technique that is easy to master by both beginners and seasoned stitchers. It adds durability to your stitching, helps keep tension uniform, and even creates a pretty woven pattern on the back, hence its name. A few readers have asked for some tips on how to basketweave, so I am sharing some tips, tricks, and visual guides below. This post is a modification of previous writings on the topic on my blog.
Do be sure to learn basic continental stitches before beginning. A How-To Guide is coming soon!
Quick reminder: When stitching your stitches, your needle comes up from behind the canvas from the bottom left hole and goes down the top right hole to create a /slash/. I like to use “up SW and down NE” or “up Texas and down Vermont” as a mantra.
STEPS AND POLES: WEFT AND WARP
Take a moment to examine your canvas. Notice how the weave is made of “the weft” and “the warp.” If you consider a loom, this is how your canvas is made! Because your canvas is constructed of overlaps in weaves, the canvas depicts the material sometimes going under and sometimes going over.
The Warp are the longitudinal (vertical) lines going up and down like on a loom. The Warp gives the canvas structure and durability.
The Weft are the interlocking or woven, transverse (horizontal) lines weaving in and out along various latitudes.
If you have ever had an orange striped material on your canvas, that is called the selvage and is what keeps the bolt of fabric together when shipped by the roll from the manufacturer.
Depending on how these interwoven threads lie, needlepointers call them “steps” and “poles.” By stitching your threads in such a way in tandem with this steps and poles mindset, you give your canvas the best shot at being durable, evenly tensioned, and smooth, even if you don’t stitch on a frame. This can be extra handy for items like belts or other functional pieces.
I am including some additional visual aids below to guide you.
When you are basketweaving, although you’re keeping all of your stitches uniform, you are placing them diagonally along the canvas. This will create the “basketweave” effect on the back of your canvas. I am including an example below. The basketweave portions are in light green with some sprinkling of the technique throughout.
Look at your canvas, in relationship to the diagrams. Are your stitches steps or poles? This can also be handy because you’ll never not know what you’re supposed to do as the canvas will tell you, even if you haven’t picked up the project in years.
FRONT:
BACK:
Here are some more visuals of how to stitch along the steps and poles.
In the diagram above, you can see that the method here is to stitch diagonally “up the steps” and “down the poles” so that you are stitching at a diagonal.
An example of this can be seen on the moon canvas above. (Although, do note that I am doing a technique called “scooping.” More on that in another post). In this case, I am stitching up the steps. Because the stitch is done at a 45 degree angle, you will be stitching up the steps, SE to NW of the canvas and then down the poles, NW to SE of the design.
Stitch Chart:
The next image show you a little visual aid of how to master the basketweave.
Continue to stitch along the diagonals, up the steps and down the poles. When you get to the end of your diagonal, simply complete the stitch and then make a stitch to the left of where you ended to continue up or just down below it to continue following the path. You will eventually get to the point when you don’t even notice that you are doing it, I promise!
In the corner of your canvas or on a scrap piece, consider giving it a go! It’s not nearly as scary as you think.
Cast off as you would normally et voilà! You have successfully done the basketweave. This stitch can be done on diagonals as long as you’d like! Each person has their preferences as to how closely they follow the rules of the basketweave stitch. It is always a good idea to have both continental and basketweave in your repertoire to use interchangeably.
TIP: When you’re casting on or off, be sure to run your needle along the warp or weft as to not create ridges on your work.
Am I doing this correctly?
I have recently had quite a few stitchers reach out with SOS inquiries as the back of their canvas was looking a little different than the original examples I provided above. After some sleuthing, I discovered that this was simply because of how they were holding their canvas. If you tilt your canvas at a 45-degree angle and use the poke-and-pull method, your needle splits the threads lying across the back from your step stitches and creates a different weave effect. This style is 100% correct and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it, your needle is simply going in at a different angle and has different results.
Another Helpful Tip:
If you start in one corner of the canvas and basketweave for a while and start basketweaving somewhere else and then meet your stitching from another positioning, there’s a chance that it might create a ridge where the two meet. It’s best to start in one corner and end in another or puzzle piece around motifs in a way that doesn’t mess with your weave.
In the photograph above you will see that I am “scooping.” This is simply to show those who would like to, how to position the needle when scooping in basketweave. You are merely skipping a hole horizontally or vertically depending on which direction you are stitching. This is of course optional and by no means necessary to stitch the baskeweave. Understanding how poles and steps work can also be really helpful for selecting background stitches. For example, the diagonal mosaic, the scotch and more lend themselves well to the basketweave mentality. (More on this later).
You are on your way! Thank you so much for stitching with me! My favorite pro-tip of all is to keep a small project in your handbag- you never know where life will take you and how many in-between moments can otherwise be spent needlepointing.
For more information, tips and tricks, stay tuned!