Review: The Easy Guide Needle
Today, I walk you through my impressions of a new yet subtle craze hitting the cross stitch world: The Easy Guide Needle. Below, I'll talk about what makes this cross stitch needle so special, my impressions as I stitched with it, and ultimately whether I think it was worth the splurge.
Never heard of the Easy Guide Needle? Well, neither had I until I heard rumblings about it on the cross stitch subreddit. You can snag an Easy Guide Needle (EGN) for free there through some of the monthly competitions if you're lucky enough to win one (at least, this was true for a few months).
So what makes the EGN so special? Unlike an ordinary tapestry needle, the EGN has a very small ball-like tip at the end of the needle. Now I know what you might be thinking--that the little ball would actually enlarge the Aida and be quite annoying to work with. I thought this too, but when I first got it I noticed that it was much smaller than I was expecting. By having a needle tip shaped like this, the needle is easily "guided" through the natural holes in the aida. Hence, the EGN. This supposedly improves stitching because you're not as likely to pierce the aida like you might with a tapestry needle, despite its blunted tip.
My first impression of the needle was that not only was it a nice size, but it was a lot sturdier than a lot of the other needles I use. But what was my stitching experience like? I thought the EGN lived up to its name - the actual stitching was a lot smoother and I didn't have to work as hard as when I use other needles to find the Aida. I used this mostly for 14ct and 18ct Aida. I think I would find it difficult working with any higher count fabrics, though.
If I was basing this review purely off the experience of just making the stitches, I would say it is well worth the splurge. However, the difficulty came with ending the stitches. When I end a thread, I like to pull the needle through a few stitches to fasten them. The ball at the end of the EGN made this difficult to tuck them under. For that reason, I found myself abandoning the EGN more and more after the novelty of he enjoyable stitching experience wore off.
If you're anything like me, then the experience of stitching with the EGN is worth it just to have had it. However, if being able to fasten your thread by pulling them under a few stitches is something you want to be able to do with ease then you might find yourself slightly frustrated at the end of the thread.
Want to try it for yourself? You can pick up your own version of the EGN on Etsy here.
