Which color should I use?!!

You should look to the center point — or vertical intersection — your stitch will cross to determine the color. If you still can’t tell, pick the color you think looks best. 

My stitch doesn’t look right…

I’m a firm believer in the “finish first, edit later” approach to needlepoint. Most of the time, a stitch I thought looked terrible is not noticeable when looking at the end result.

If you must fix the stitch now and are only 5-6 stitches past the error, “unwind” the thread by pulling the needle off and using the tip to pick out the stitches out. If the yarn is in okay condition, keep stitching. If it’s gotten scraggly, end the thread and start anew.

If you’ve waited to fix your error, cut the offending stitch on the front of the canvas (just the yarn, not the canvas). Use the tip of your needle to unwind a few stitches to the right and the left of the cut. I lay the two ends across the now bare canvas and secure by starting a new thread and stitching over, like the method used to secure a waste knot. 

The lines on the canvas are small and not going in the same direction as my other stitches.

You can try to use stitches to make the line a little longer or thicker so that you can stay consistent with stitch direction.

However, I typically prioritize the drawing direction rather than stitch direction. In these instances (which are very rare), I’ll break the stitch pattern and follow the lines of the drawing in the opposite direction of all other stitches. 

Everything looks lumpy and/or my canvas is skewed.

This is inevitable and totally normal. Don’t fret! Blocking should fix both of these problems (to some extent). During blocking, the fibers will be wet and can be reshaped and the canvas will be straightened out.

However, there are a couple things you can do to prevent some distortion:

• Eliminating knots (and subsequent bumps) by using proper starting and ending techniques

• Limiting canvas distortion by using frames or stretcher bars

• Keeping thread tension consistent by using the same type and amount of thread throughout