Flosstube #12 - How I Stitch With A Laying Tool And A Trolley Needle [CC Available]

[Intro Music] Hi, everybody! It's Christine at Stitch ALL The Things. I had someone ask me yesterday if I would
do a video on how I use a trolley needle. That's this. And I said of course I would.

But I wanted to start out with... I moved to a trolley needle from a laying
tool. This is a wooden laying tool I got from a
shop off etsy. I will link that below.

I will also link below where you can get a
laying tool... Er, sorry a trolley needle. I may interchange those two, I don't mean
too but, they essentially do the same thing. A trolley needle is a laying tool, this is
just a bigger wooden laying tool.

Now when I started cross stitching, I wanted
my stitches to lie flat and straight so I. Railroaded them all the time. But that takes a lot of time. So I decided to start using a laying tool.

And how I would use the laying tool... I don't
really use it when I'm stitching across... The bottom leg. And I know that stitch backwards from a lot
of people.

But I just hold the laying tool in my hand
while I stitch, and I'm stitching at a bit of an angle so you can get a better view so
I'm sorry for that and I'm sorry if I bounce the thing [the Q-Snap]. So anyway, I'm gonna speed this part up because
I don't really... I hold the laying tool in my hand when I"m
stitching the bottom legs, but I don't use it for the bottom legs. Okay.

Now here's where I use the laying tool. I keep it... And uh, I'm sorry I didn't mention
this before, I stitch two-handed. My right hand is always under the fabric.

I will put... Sorry I hit the camera... I put the needle in and start pulling the
floss through and for my laying tool I just bring it over like this and then just pull
it down the rest of the way. And the point is simply to keep your two strands of floss
seperated but side-by-side.

So I pull it out one way and then just carry
it over and you can see right there it had a little bit of a twist and I just do that [use the laying tool to fix it]. Now my laying tool has been damaged because
I pop it in a, um, I just drop it point down, shouldn't do that, into a ceramic cup. And
I stopped using my laying tool because I switched to the trolley needle. So I don't really care that my point is damaged.

So I just shift it around in my hand and I'll
pull the needle up, start to put it down in to the hole, and then shift my laying tool
to where I can use it. Now. For the trolley needle, I always put the needle
on my ring finger. It's just the most comfortable for me because
when I'm resting my hand here waiting for the needle to pop up, the, uh, I have to keep
it on this finger so that I don't accidentally poke my fabric.

And a lot of people, um, that's one of their
complaints is they poke their fabric. So my hand just sort of rests and you can
see I just sort of keep my ring finger scrunched up out of the way and then when I need to
use it, I just tuck it in the loop... Oops, did I go over one too far? Oh, yes I didn't even put it in the right
hole to begin with. How ridiculous.

Okay. Let's get it in the right hole. Okay. So bring the needle up, don't drop it like
that.

Put the needle down and then just tuck the,
the, um, trolley needle right into the thing. Under the floss loop. I call it a loop once it's... The needle's
in there 'cause basically it's a big old loop of fabric [floss].

And, so, I just hold the floss back and then
bring it up and around. And just sort of guide it into place. And I don't get too worried or hung up about
it, I just wanna make sure that my floss is laying side-by-side. And if it's not, I will kind of poke that
needle in there and make it go side-by-side.

I usually can stitch much faster than this. Also when I'm facing it straight on, but... Obviously. And I'm not nervous 'cause the camera's on.

And I'm worried about my shaky hands. That's how I use it. So you see I kind of keep my hand, my, um,
ring finger curled up out of the way, sort of let it rest, and then just tuck inside
that loop as I pull the floss down. And it keeps my, um, floss side-by-side...

You should be able to see it right there. Um... Hang on... Use my other finger; nope, that's not working.

Hopefully you can see it, if not, oh well. Um, and that's how I, that's how I use the
trolley needle. Now I will say, uh, someone just bought a
trolley needle and the instructions for this said uh, be sure and use safety glasses and
a couple people were laughing about that. People, I am here to tell you I have almost
poked my eyeball out with this trolley needle! Because I forget that I'm wearing it.

And I'll go to scratch my face and then look
what's coming right towards you. Uh, yeah... Nice, big, sharp point. Right towards your eyeball.

I have hit my glasses twice with this, um,
and I'd much rather scratch my eyeball, er, [laughs] scratch my glasses than poke my eye out with
this thing. So just something to be aware of when you're
using these. I always have magnifiers on. I am always and ever wearing these things
[when stitching] so that I can see.

So when I've gone to scratch my eye or  my nose
or whatever, it pokes right here and I'm okay with that, 'cause at least it protects my
eye. If you have any questions please leave me
a comment below. I will try to answer them. If you notice I did one [row] across already.

I had already recorded this video and then
realized I forgot to tell you some things and then my husband came out and said we need
to buy a new faucet. So, yeah, we had to run to Lowe's and do that
and he's actually in there fixing it and I. Probably should go help. Leave me questions, leave me comments if I
didn't cover anything well enough.

And if, I don't know, I didn't describe it
properly. And that's all. Thank you for watching, thank you for subscribing,
um, I appreciate all of your comments and your likes and I appreciate you taking the
time to watch! Thanks and happy stitching! Stitch ALL The Things! [Closing music].