SBQ from http://blondelibrarian.net/stitching/archives/2006/11/to-knot-or-not/ :

How do you secure your thread when you begin a new one? Specifically,do you or have you ever used a waste knot?

The short answer to this is: depends. If I'm just doing plain counted cross stitch, then I will either use a loop start (for pieces I'm stitching for myself) or I will hold the tail at the back and cross stitch over it (when I'm working on models). If I'm doing specialty stitches (such as on the ornament in my previous post) then I will usually use a waste knot simply because there is no easy way to secure the thread and have sufficient tension to make the stitch look 'nice'. I try to ensure that the thread from the waste knot will lie in the path of my stitching, then when I'm done a particular stitch I don't have to bury the thread from my waste knot - it's already done. Clip and go! Makes it quicker at the end. I don't really like to bury threads.... :-)

The rest of my world keeps spinning - my youngest DS is now on some groovy drugs that are helping with what we now know to be a bronchial infection, we go to school tonight for parent-teacher interviews for both boys and somewhere in there we need to fit in dinner and getting oldest DS to his cub meeting. The fun never ends!

I'm still stitching Christmas ornaments, but no pictures today. :-)