Noot noot! Pingu™ has brought his friends all the way from Antarctica to join you in these gorgeous StitchReady™ Half Stitch Pouches!

1. Getting Started

What's inside your kit

Inside your Pingu™ Half Stitch Kits, you'll find everything you need to get started.

• Pre-printed StitchReady™ Pouch
• Paper instructions & pattern
• Needle & threader
• Pre-cut coloured yarn
  

Please not that there are no zipper pulls included in the Pingu™ kits. With the flower zipper tag, there's no need for them.

Understanding your pattern

In half stitch, we are covering the canvas intersections rather than the stitch spaces.

• Each square on your paper pattern = a single diagonal half stitch on the ‘+’ of your canvas.
• Don’t count from the edge of your canvas, but from a middle aspect of your pattern.
• If you’re unsure which colour you should use, stitch the most dominant colour, or take a look at the aspect on your pattern and match the stitches of that.

2. Let's Get Stitching

How to half stitch

Half stitch is a needlepoint stitch that is simple and works well to create detail. If you’ve done cross stitch, you’ll notice it’s half of a cross stitch. Half stitch consists of a single diagonal line across a ‘+’ on the needlepoint canvas.

• Start with a larger section of your canvas.
• Take your needle and push it up from behind your canvas.
• Bring it diagonally across the intersection to the top right.
• Pull through to the back of the canvas.
• The stitch should be going from bottom left to top right.

Half stitch tips & tricks

Here are some ways you can make half stitching easier for yourself

• Prepare your space.
• Put on some entertainment.
• Begin with the background.
• Take care stitching the edges.
• Learn how to reverse stitches.
• Learn what thread crossing at the back will do.

Speed stitching

We would recommend using this method with larger areas using a single colour. It will probably be easier to stitch details in the individual way.

• Push your needle up through a space.
• Bend your canvas so that there’s a slight point on the row you’re working on.
• Slide your needle underneath the bar of the row. This not only finishes your previous stitch, but starts your next one - all in the one action!
• To finish a row, make sure the needle ends up behind the canvas. 
• To start a new row, push the needle up through the next space, and repeat the steps above, noting that you’ll be pushing the needle in the opposite direction that you were before.