What Are Needle Minders and How Do You Use One?

One of the great things about cross stitching is that you can get started without a lot of supplies. Really just a bit of fabric, some embroidery floss and a needle are all that you need to try it out.

But like any craft, there are accessories and special tools that might not be essential, but they do make the work a little easier. And sometimes they can even make it a little more fun, too.

Take needle minders, for example.

I didn’t know these existed until a few years ago. I always just stabbed my needle through a couple of holes in the cross stitch fabric (ideally outside of the stitching area because that can stretch out the holes) when I wasn’t using it so I wouldn’t lose it.

But clever stitchers figured out a way to hold their needle close without damaging their fabric, and that’s a needle minder.

It’s basically a couple of magnets that you place your fabric between; then the top magnet can hold the needle while you’re not using it. You can also attach it to your paper pattern if you like instead.

Of course just using plain magnets for this is possible, but it’s not very exciting, so there are all sorts of designs of needle minders that you can buy (which we’ll get to in a minute). I’ve got an idea for making my own which I will share as soon as I try it out.

In the meantime, check out this post from Catkin and Kindle that goes into a lot more detail about how needle minders are made and different ways you can use them, as well as potential pitfalls of using them.

As for where to buy your own, I’ll probably do a whole post on that soon, too, but here are a couple of fun options from Etsy:

Caffeinated Cat Crafts has a wide variety of needle minders ranging from gnomes to a steampunk octopus, bees and ouija planchettes.
Adventure Needlework has a decided witchy/cat vibe, including needle minders of both a cat and a mushroom holding a knife.
Needles Notions and More focuses on seasonal designs including a bunny holding a carrot, candy corn and a snowman, but I really had to share this one because they have a Highland Cow needle minder!

[Photo: Catkin and Kindle]

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Tools to Make Your Cross Stitch Life Easier

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year celebration, and it’s a time full of special symbols and meaningful happenings that are perfect for stitching. Anything with a bee or honeycomb, apple, pomegranate or challah on it would be a great choice for stitching this time of year.

Or how about a towel to cover your challah that includes all those other symbols? This pattern from Sew Perfectly Designed has bees, honeycomb, an apple and a pomegranate, as well as stars of David. (This is really a hand towel but you could also stitch the design on a tea towel to use on the table.) The original design includes some partial stitches but the designer says you can make them all full stitches and backstitch to get the proper effect on the lettering if you’d rather. It uses 15 colors and measures 178 by 24 stitches and is good for intermediate stitchers.

Speaking a challah covers, there’s also this design from Sew Marie Studio, worked in a single color. The pattern is 197 by 301 stitches, which comes out to 14 by 21.5 inches, or 35.7 by 55 cm, on 14 count fabric (sizes for other counts are given as well if you don’t need a cover that big). The designer recommends adding a fabric border as shown and includes instructions for how to do that.

This kit to make an apple and honey coaster would be a great project to make for the holiday. It comes from Siman Kriaa and the kit includes perforated paperboard for stitching, thread, a needle, the chart and instructions in English and Hebrew.

And because I love a good(?) pun, I couldn’t resist sharing this Shofar Sho Good pattern from The Kosher Stitcher. (The shofar is the ram’s horn that is blown through at Rosh Hashanah.) The deisgn uses five colors and measures 60 by 37 stitches, which comes out to 4.3 by 2.6 inches, or 10.9 by 6.7 cm on 14 count fabric.

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