How Far a Skein Goes: A Needlepoint Thread Coverage Chart
How many skeins a canvas needs is a question with a real answer, because the thread makers publish coverage numbers. They just publish them in different corners of different websites, one thread at a time. This is all of them in one place: how many square inches one skein or card covers, stitched in basketweave, straight from the makers. Bookmark it and the register math gets short.
The needlepoint thread coverage chart
| Thread | Put-up | Yards | Covers on 13 mesh | Covers on 18 mesh |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essentials | Card | 10 | 4 sq in | |
| Essentials | Skein | 30 | 16 sq in | |
| Jumbuck | Skein | 22 | no published figure; see below | |
| Milan | Card | 10 | 5 sq in | |
| Milan | Skein | 30 | 20 sq in | |
| Pepper Pot | Skein | 30 | 20 sq in | 15 sq in |
| Planet Earth Silk | Skein | 30 | 20 sq in | |
| Silk & Ivory | Skein | 28.8 | 20 sq in | |
Blank cells mean the maker does not publish a number for that mesh, usually because the thread is not commonly stitched there.
How to use it
Measure the stitched area of your design, width times height in inches. Divide by the coverage number for your thread and mesh. Round up, because no one sells 0.2 of a skein.
A 4 by 6 inch design is 24 square inches. In Silk & Ivory on 13 mesh, 24 divided by 20 is 1.2, so you buy two skeins. Buying for a background, measure the whole design area and let the motif's share be your margin.
Two caveats carry over from the estimating post. The chart assumes basketweave, which uses about a third more thread than continental; a decorative stitch usually wants more. And buy every skein of a color from the same dye lot, from the start.
Why cards cover less than their yardage suggests
Look at the Essentials line: the 30-yard skein covers 16 square inches, but the 10-yard card covers 4, not 5.3. Milan runs the same direction. That is the makers being honest about short lengths, since every start and stop costs thread, and a 10-yard card is mostly starts and stops. Cards are priced and sized for accents and small color areas. Buying cards to stitch a background is how you end up back at the shop mid-project, negotiating with a different dye lot.
The threads, with their fine print
Silk & Ivory (Brown Paper Packages): 28.8-yard skeins, 50 percent silk, 50 percent merino, non-strandable. The maker also rates it for 14, 16, and 18 mesh with coverage stepping down to 15 square inches on 18, but on the tables I see, it lives on 13.
Pepper Pot Silk (Planet Earth): 30-yard skeins, 100 percent silk, single strand. The one thread on this chart with real numbers on both counts: 20 square inches on 13, 15 on 18, with 14 and 16 mesh rated in between.
Essentials (Tilli Tomas): 50 percent silk, 50 percent merino, the 18 mesh workhorse. The 10-yard card is the format to reach for when a canvas needs a small amount of one color.
Milan (Tilli Tomas): same fiber blend in a heavier weight, 20 square inches per skein on 13 mesh per the maker.
Planet Earth Silk: 30-yard skeins of straight silk for 13 mesh, 20 square inches per skein.
Jumbuck (Dinky Dyes): 22-yard skeins of hand-dyed silk-wool, sized for 13 or 18 mesh straight off the skein. Dinky Dyes publishes no coverage figure, and I am not going to invent one. The shop rule of 1.5 to 2 yards per square inch puts a skein somewhere around 11 to 14 square inches; a test square will pin it down for your tension. Because it is hand dyed, the same-dye-lot rule applies with no exceptions. Ecru and the rest of the Jumbuck wall are here when the math says two.
What the chart cannot know
Your tension, your stitch, and how much you rip. The makers' numbers assume basketweave at an average hand, and they are good numbers, which is why they are the chart. If your project is in a decorative stitch, or a thread that is not here, stitch a measured square inch and count what it takes. The method is in How Much Thread Do I Need for Needlepoint, along with the arithmetic for multi-color canvases.
Round up. The spare skein is cheaper than the second shipping charge.
The chart, in a format you can save. The full walkthrough, from measuring the canvas to the number of skeins, is a carousel on @thestitchladi.