Cross-Stitch

Charts, patterns and everything needlepoint

How to Keep Your Place in a Cross Stitch Chart

by

I love to help my fellow cross stitchers to make this craft easier and more enjoyable, so I love sharing tips when I come across them that will make it easier to have success.

When you’re working a small project, it’s generally pretty easy to keep track of where you are in the project relative to the chart. I usually stitch something small from one side across (or up or down) rather than from the middle out, because it’s just easier to follow the chart that way.

But when you’re working on a big project and you need it to fit exactly, starting from the center is the way to go, which can also make it harder to keep track of where you are in the pattern. Add in working in a lot of different colors, and it’s a potential recipe for confusion.

These tips on how to keep track of where you are in a cross stitch pattern from Stitched Modern are super helpful. The idea of having a working copy of you pattern that you can mark up and make notes on is a great one, so if you ever want to stitch it again you’ll have a clean copy.

I have learned through the years doing a lot more knitting than cross stitch that the more notes I can leave myself the better, and the same applies to working big cross stitch projects. Especially if there’s any possibility you might stop working on it for a short (or a long!) time, you want to make it as easy on yourself as possible when you come back to it.

Check out the tips from Stitched Modern, maybe go buy some highlighter tape, and let me know if you have any other tips for keeping your place in a cross stitch pattern.

[Photo: Stitched Modern]

Next Pattern:

Have you read?

Do You Park Your Cross Stitch Thread? Try The Royal Roads Method

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]