When it comes to embroidery hoops, there are hoops, and then there are Hoops. Ideally, wooden embroidery hoops are made of smoooooooothly finished wood, and have good, strong metal hardware on them. The screw that tightens the hoop hardware normally has a slit in it, so that a screwdriver can be used for tightening the hoop further than the fingers can manage.

There aren’t a whole lot of Really Good wooden embroidery hoops available in the world today, but there are some. Hardwicke Manor hoops are a favorite of mine. If you’ve been reading Needle ‘n Thread for a while, this probably doesn’t surprise you, as I’ve covered the subject several times! Today, my purpose isn’t to be redundant. Sure, we’ve talked about embroidery hoops before. We’ve discussed what makes a good embroidery hoop, and we’ve talked about binding embroidery hoops. I’ve told you why I bind my hoops, and I’ve even shown you how to bind your own embroidery hoop if you want to.

So, why more hoop talk?