One of needlepoint's quiet virtues is how well it travels. There is no pattern chart to spread out, no loose pieces to lose, no counting to keep in your head — just a printed canvas, a threaded needle and wherever you happen to be sitting. Trains, ferries, waiting rooms, a deckchair outside a holiday cottage: all of them become stitching spots.
Why needlepoint is the perfect travelling craft
With a printed needlepoint canvas, the design is already on the fabric, so you can stop mid-row, stuff everything into a bag when your station is called, and pick up again hours later without losing your place. The canvas is sturdy and doesn't crease like fine embroidery linen, and a 16-inch project rolls up neatly into a very modest bundle. Many stitchers find travel stitching the most pleasant kind of all — the gentle motion of a train and the rhythm of the needle suit each other remarkably well.
Packing a simple stitching bag
You need less than you might think. A drawstring bag or zipped pouch will hold a rolled canvas, the colours you are currently using (leave the rest at home), two or three needles in a small needle case, and a pair of blunt-tipped travel scissors or a thread cutter pendant — kinder to airport security than sharp points. Wind a few generous lengths of each working colour onto a card before you leave, and you won't need to manage full skeins in your lap on a moving train.
Choosing a project that travels well
Bold designs with large areas of a single colour are ideal on the move — long stretches of the same thread mean fewer changes and less rummaging. Save the intricate, many-coloured sections for home, and bring the sky, the background or the border along on the journey. Some stitchers keep a dedicated “travel canvas” on the go all year, finished entirely in stolen half-hours away from home.
Stitching light on the move
Daylight through a train window is some of the loveliest stitching light there is, but for evenings away, a small clip-on light folds flat in the bag and weighs almost nothing. Choose a seat where light falls over your shoulder, and give your eyes a rest now and then by looking up at the scenery — which is, after all, part of the point of travelling.
A souvenir you stitched yourself
There is a lovely circularity in stitching a place you have visited — a Venice canal, a Paris street, a seaside scene — while actually travelling. The finished pillow becomes a double memory: of the place, and of the journeys during which it grew. If that idea appeals, our Cities & Travel needlepoint collection is full of destinations waiting to be stitched, wherever you happen to be sitting.