Once you have an embroidery project set up and ready to go – fabric selected, design transferred, threads lined up – perhaps the most important thing to consider is what embroidery needle to use. There are all kinds of different types of embroidery needles – which one to use depends on your fabric and thread. The thing is, within the “types” of needles, you also have the consideration of quality. Here, I’m looking at embroidery needles from a company called Pony.
Normally, I use “fine English needles” for my embroidery projects. Richard Hemming, John James, Mary Arden, and S. Thomas & Sons are pretty much the brands I’ve stuck with over the years. They’re reliable and fairly easy to come by. You sometimes can find them in hobby and craft stores (in a very limited range), but you will find a better range at your local needlework shop. You can also find them online through almost any needlework or fabric shop, or through one of my favorite needle sources, Colonial Needle. I also have a marvelous selection of very fine needles from Wendy Schoen Designs, but I don’t use them as often because they’re wrapped up and my supply is limited. (But I do love those needles!) So that’s my plug for the needles I typically use.
Recently, though, Michael Cook of Wormspit.com e-mailed me about some needles that he had come upon and finally tracked down. The manufacturer is Pony, from India, and the needles are used by the Chinese in their fine and detailed hand embroidery. After some contact with the company, he received a shipment of the needles to try. He kindly sent me a selection of #10, #11, and #12 – three each with gold eyes, plus one fully gilded needle in each size.
It was a while before I could work with the needles, but finally, yesterday I took out a small project and used the needles on it. It’s a thread painting project, worked in one strand of DMC in a high count cotton muslin.
I generally use a #10 needle on these projects, but mostly because I’m too lazy to go through my supplies and get other needles out. I always have #10 on hand!
Instead, I decided to try the #11 Pony, and they were perfect. They made those meticulously placed little stitches easy, and they are slightly finer than #10, which seemed to make a difference on the split stitching in the long and short stitch in tiny, detailed areas. In short, I liked the #11! I had all four threaded and working on the project at once. There is a slightly different feel to the fully guilded needle, but I can’t really place or describe what’s different about it. It passes through the threads and the fabric easily, but it “feels” as if there’s a coating on it, because there is. It’s not a bad feeling, and in fact, I like working with the needle. But there is a slightly different “something” about it.
Here are the needles, two of each, one of which is the gilded one. I’ve laid them on 8-square-per-inch graph paper so you can get an idea of the size.
Here they are again, with a #10 Richard Hemming needle (left). The #10 Pony and the #10 Richard Hemming are the same length, as far as I can tell, even though the Pony looks longer (it’s the placement on the paper).
I threaded both #10s (R.H. and Pony) with one strand of DCM and stitched with them, one needle right after the other, to see if I could tell a difference in size or feel. The Pony needle feels slightly finer than the Richard Hemming, which is what Michael found as well.
One strand of DMC also fits well in the #12 Pony – BUT… it doesn’t work well on tightly woven or high count fabric, as it takes a pit of a tug to get it through. It works fine on something a little looser, though.
Michael has some photos of the Pony needles really close up, so you can get a good look at the eyes.
The long and short of it:
I like the Pony needles. I’m going to keep using them on my present project to see how they stand up. They bend slightly – I don’t know how they will wear over a little more use – but I don’t mind a needle that bends. In fact, I like it! It gets “comfortable.”
The #10 Pony seems slightly finer than the #10 Richard Hemming.
The #11 Pony works well with 1 strand of DMC on a high count quality muslin.
Most people will probably need a needle threader for the #12 with a strand of DMC.
To find Pony needles, contact Hedgehog Handworks. Michael spoke to Joady about carrying them, and they will be apparently getting in the gold-eye variety.
One Final Note: On Threading Needles!!
Don’t lick your thread or wet your needle eye to thread your needles! Ok, if you have an endless supply of needles and you don’t mind switching out, fine – lick away. I’ve heard lots of reasons why “you shouldn’t lick your embroidery thread” – the ones are important and cause for concern are:
1. The Main Reason: Wet thread through the eye of a needle can cause the needle to “rust” (in a very tiny way) right inside the eye of the needle, which can cause little burrs that are hard on your threads, cause waste of thread, and can even cause damage to your project without your really realizing what is happening.
2. The habit of wetting thread can work against you the one time you’re playing with a thread that has been unfortunate enough not to hold on to its dye. In these days of hand over-dyed thread, risking a mark on clean fabric is not really worth it.
3. If you work with silk embroidery threads, I’m pretty sure that licking silk is something akin to sacreligious. Silk also weakens when it’s wet.
Tomorrow, I’ll show you some photos of hand-made Japanese needles. And to top off the whole needle discussion, I’d love to hear how all you non-lickers out there thread your needles! I’ll cover how I do it, too.
No licking?
OK, I’ll get a needlethreader.
Thanks
I lick. oops
I have to admit… I’m a licker. My teacher licks too – I’ll have to check with her and see if that’s how they teach it at Souzhou, or if it’s a habit she learned here. I have found an ultra-fine needle threader will get the thread through even the #12′s (with some squeaking) but I find that I still lick the thread *after* threading, to make it stay on the needle easier. I use my teeth as snips a lot, too – they’re just so handy! I never nip anything that would be tough on them, though. I look forward to reading your thoughts on how to thread!
Mary,
Very interesting on the needles. I would love to try some.
I guess we should all get used to running our thread through some Thread Heaven before we put it through the needle. Thanks for the info!
Mary, thank you for this really informative article. I recently bought a package of #12 crewels from Lacis and they happen to be Pony brand. I haven’t tried them yet; I was just happy to find some #12s. After your article I’m looking forward to trying them out.
A comment on using #12 crewels (vicious little things that they are!)…. I took Royal School of Needlework goldwork classes last year in Iowa where we used both #10 and #12 crewels. Although we primarily used #10 crewels, the #12s were used to tack down leather (it was easier to pass the smaller needles through the leather than the #10s) and for sewing bright check purl #6 chips (#10 won’t fit through the chips).
On threading…. (no licking, of course…oooooo, germs!
#10 – I fold the thread/floss over the needle eye, pinch it tightly, slide it off the needle and then thread the pinched ‘point’ into the needle.
I can also thread the #10s just by sticking the end of the floss in the needle eye, but I find the ‘pinch’ method works better for me.
I learned another method a few years ago where you kind of rub the eye of the needle over the floss and it just kind of picks up the floss for you. Then you can pull the floss through. This is kind of fun, but I find I have to practise doing it and my other methods work fine for me so I don’t do it this way very often.
#12 – I can’t thread these with the ‘pinch’ method, but can thread them by sticking the end of the thread in the eye. However, I now have a couple of fine needle threaders and they do make life easier. I tried using a garden variety needle threader with a #12 and the threading wire ripped right out of the threader! Also, the threading wire was really too big for the needle so it wasn’t a good working relationship.
I bought a fine threader from Lacis and it works great. The other threader, which I kind of like better, is by Clover and it is a double ended threader, one side being finer than the other. I like it better, I think, because it’s a little longer than the one from Lacis and I just feel that I can get a better grip on it. I bought the Clover threader at a local craft store. There’s a picture of it here: http://www.shopatron.com/product/part_number=462%20NV/181.0
I really like #10 crewels, but I now want to try #11s. I am not a fan of #12s because I got stabbed by the eye end several times using one to attach gold leather to a project.
I use Pony needles for all my embroidery and crochet and Knitting for the last 20 years
I have been using #10 for Kasuthi embroidery that is done with a single strand of the Anchor skein and I swear by their quality.
When do you use 6 strands? I usually use 2 or 3. I am a novice but really enoy the process and result. Your web site is beautiful. The information you posted was very helpful. If you answer, I’ll stop licking! Thanks Jo Ann
I saw this tip in an embroidery book (if I could remember the author’s name I would give her credit. But here goes…tape the end of the embroidery floss to a piece of paper. Cut out the paper as close to the thread as possible (1/16″ is close enough) and then thread through the needle. I have not tried this yet but I am certain it will work like a charm every time!
Hedgehog doesn’t seem to list them on their website. I did a search and found Pony beading needles on the Beadcats website, where they mention the needles are extra stiff. So perhaps they are not the same as the ones you reviewed? I’ll keep searching.
Joady Gorelick of Hedgehog Handworks now has a good stock of Pony Needles, sizes 9 through 12. Find them on the home page!
http://www.hedgehoghandworks.com/catalog/index.php
I work exclusively in hand dyed silk fabric and hand dyed silk threads. The average thickness of thread that I use is about half the thickness of a single thread of DMC embroidery floss.
I am a huge licker. I do not just lick the ends. I lick the entire thread. Why you ask? Well, licking removes the “memory” from the thread, that is, the kinks that form when you wind the thread onto a storage card. It also makes the thread less likely to snag and knot while you are embroidering with it. After I have licked the thread I pass it through a thread conditioner called “Thread Heaven”. Using thread heaven without licking will not remove the memory from the thread. I find the combination of licking and thread heaven makes the thread easy to handle without having any negative effects on the lusture or texture of the thread once embroidered.