Beginner Canvases

A first canvas has three jobs: to be finished, to be finished soon enough that you want another, and to teach you something on the way. The designs below were chosen with those jobs in mind. Each is printed at 14 mesh, where the holes are easy to see and each stitch covers ground; each keeps to clear areas of color rather than fine shading; and each is small enough to complete in a few evenings. I have put them in the order I would hand them to a friend, so that every canvas asks one new thing of you and no more.

Begin with two colors

Beginner's Luck of the Irish. A four-leaf clover in layered greens, and the canvas I would put in your hands first. There is nothing to count and nothing to shade; there is a shape, a plaid border, and a background, which is exactly the sequence in which the two stitches are learned. Work the clover in Continental, turn to Basketweave for the ground, and by the time the last corner is filled you will have both stitches in your hands. It begins at four inches square, which is a weekend.

Beginner's Luck of the Irish, from $48, kits available

Then a canvas with lettering

I Heart the Big Apple. Bold areas of red, cream, and green, and the first letters you will work. Lettering teaches the eye to follow a printed line exactly, stitch by stitch, and the apple around it is broad enough to forgive a wandering row. It is the canvas I recommend to anyone who wants their first finished piece to say something.

I Heart the Big Apple, from $48, kits available

Then a small portrait

Pigeon. A handful of colors, a teal and violet neck, red feet, and a great deal of personality in four inches. The pigeon is where you learn to change threads often and to keep track of a color key, and because every area is still a clear shape with a printed edge, the counting is done for you. It is the first canvas on this shelf that looks like a painting when it is finished, which is a very good feeling.

Pigeon, from $48, kits available

Then a background of your own

A Custom Monogram. Three initials of your choosing, and around them an open field that is yours to fill. This is where Basketweave earns its keep: a monogram is mostly background, and a background worked in Basketweave lies flat and square in a way that a beginner's Continental never quite does. Send me the initials in the order you would like them to appear, and choose the ornament size for a first attempt or the six-inch square for something to frame.

Custom Monogram, from $60, made to order

When you are ready for 18 mesh

Everything above is printed at 14 mesh. When you find yourself wanting finer detail, the Vintage Checker Taxi is the canvas I would hand you next: five inches square at 18 mesh, with the checker stripe as a small, satisfying test of precision, and a finished piece that makes a very good ornament.

Every canvas on this shelf is available as a kit, with the threads cut and labeled, a needle sized to the mesh, and a printed color key, so that the only decision left is which one. The whole beginner collection is here, and if you would like a word of advice about which to choose, please do not hesitate to write to me at atelier@pierrepontneedlepoint.com. I would be so happy to help.