Starting and finishing a thread without a knot

What you need

• Prepared thread: two strands of 50 cm, or a single one-metre strand for the loop
• A tapestry needle
• Small scissors

The loop start

It is the neatest and quickest way to start two strands, and the one stitchers often discover with a “why did nobody tell me sooner?”. It takes a single strand, twice the usual length. Preparing the strand is covered in the guide to preparing the thread.

1. Take a single strand about a metre long and fold it in half. Thread both ends through the needle: you are stitching with two strands, with a loop at the other end.
2. Come up from the back to the front at the starting corner of your first stitch. Do not pull all the way: the loop must stay at the back.
3. Make the first diagonal by going down in the opposite corner, from front to back.
4. At the back, pass the needle through the loop, then pull gently. The loop closes on the thread and holds it, with no knot.

Tip. The most common mistake: threading two strands folded in half, which puts four strands in every stitch. To stitch with two strands using the loop, start from one. The loop only works with an even number: for one or three strands, use the next method.

Trapping the tail under the first stitches

The universal method, for any number of strands.

1. Come up from back to front at the first stitch, leaving a tail of about 3 cm at the back.
2. Hold the tail against the back with a fingertip, lying in the direction you are going to stitch.
3. Make your first four or five stitches: at the back, each one covers the tail and holds it.
4. Trim what sticks out close to the stitches.

The away knot

If holding the tail is fiddly, an away knot does the same job. Tie a knot at the end of the thread and go down from front to back about 3 cm from your first stitch, on the path of the stitches to come. The knot stays on the front; at the back, the thread runs to the first stitch.

Stitch towards the knot: at the back, your stitches cover the thread. Once they reach it, cut the knot off on the front. The thread stays held by the stitches, and there is no knot at all.

Ending a thread

End the thread when about ten centimetres are left, or when you have finished an area of colour.

1. Finish your last stitch by going down to the back.
2. At the back, slide the needle under four or five neighbouring stitches, without going through the fabric.
3. For a firmer hold, go back under one or two stitches the other way.
4. Trim the thread close to the stitches.

Tip. Preferably slide the thread under stitches of the same colour, or a darker one: a dark thread such as 310 hidden under pale stitches can show through.

Moving from one area to another

To reach an area of the same colour a few squares away, you can carry the thread across the back without ending it. Beyond three or four squares of bare fabric, end it and start again further on.

A long thread across the back shows through aida, especially a dark colour on pale fabric. And it catches: as you make the next stitches, you pick it up with the needle without noticing.

A chart full of single stitches makes this a chore. If yours is one and came from the converter, there is still time to simplify it: the guide to reducing the number of colours shows how.

Why the back matters

Nobody looks at the back of a piece, but everybody sees its effect. To frame it, the work is stretched over a board: every knot, every bundle of thread at the back then makes a lump you can see on the front. A flat back is a piece that stays flat, as the guide to framing a piece shows. The stitch itself is explained in the guide to how to cross stitch.

• Next guide: How to cross stitch: one at a time or in rows
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