Cross stitch needles have two different eyes. And we don’t just mean those double eyed cross stitch needles either, one side of the cross stitch needle is slightly more open than the other. Let us explain.

How They’re Made

We’re not going to go into a lot of detail here, but we will talk about how cross stitch needles are made. You start with a length of wire and sharpen one end. The eye isn’t so easy to deal with though, and this is where the interest comes for us.
 
In order to create the needle eye, they stamp the shape, and hole into the wire. This stamping is important as the ‘upper die’ pushes the needles against a smaller ‘lower die’. This means that the side of the needle against the lower die gets opened up slightly more than the other, and the opening is slightly more rounded.

The Solution

So let’s say you’re struggling to thread your needle, you think you might have the wrong side; flip it.
 
The fact of the matter is, the differences that make the threading of the needle so much easier for one side is so small to see, that you can’t actually see it. The thread knows its there though, so simply spin the needle and thread the other side.
 
If your still struggling to thread your needle, you should check out our guide on the best needle threaders, or try out gold plated needles or even self threading needles