Hoop-di-do Cross Stitch Gift Ideas

This week I have been posting about stocking stuffer ideas for stitchers. Of course, if you aren’t shopping for many stitchers this year, you can always add them to your wish list and leave it about for those who shop for YOU to find!

This item is one of my favorites. The Clover hoop, which comes in size small, which is 4 3/4 inches and size large, which is 7 inches. I personally started out with the smaller size and added the larger size to my collection recently. These hoops were designed for embroidery, so they hold the fabric snugly with a lip. There’s also this lovely feature – the hoop tightener is designed so that it doesn’t catch the floss.

These hoops are very sturdy, they are plastic so they are easily cleaned and don’t leave hoop marks like wooden hoops. I highly recommend the hoops and they are what I personally use. In case you wonder – I have no personal connection with Clover and I purchased both hoops and did not receive them for review.

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Clover Cross Stitch Patterns

I have not done a lot of big cross stitch projects, but sometimes even with small projects it can be hard to decide exactly where to begin and how to work through the chart if you’re working with multiple colors. The general categories for the possible methods are known as cross country and parking.

Cross country means that you’re working one color at a time, moving around the chart (or the section of the chart you’re working on) until you’re done with that color. Parking means you’re working in a smaller section and doing all the colors in that area, “parking” the threads by leaving them attached to the canvas but out of the way while you finish each section.

Royal Rows is a specific way of parking named by Alison Royal, which is explored in detail on a post on Stitching Daily.

The idea is that you’re working one “tower” of stitches at a time (she uses a section of 10 stitches across by 20 down, but you can do whatever makes sense to you). You work all the stitches of a color at a time, starting at the top left and working your way down. When you’re done with a color you can park it where needed in the section below your current tower (known as the dungeon) or in the “east tower,” which is the section to the right.

There’s also a specific way of dealing with thread ends when you’re done with a color. This is a super simplified version (head to the blog post at Stitching Daily to get all the details) but the basic idea is that you’re working from left to right and top to bottom across the work, parking the threads in the next section when you’re done with them and systematically choosing which color to work with next.

The whole idea of parking is kind of overwhelming to me though I will admit that it makes a lot of sense. I guess I need to try it on a smallish big project and see how it goes. Do you use the parking method of cross stitch? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo via Stitching Daily]

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