Now that you know the basics about cross stitching and you have the basic supplies you are ready to begin your project. But one thing that you want to do before you start your first project is to gather some important tips about counting in cross stitch. Counting is one of the most important things in cross stitching because in order to place the design on the material you have to match the weave of the fabric to the squares of the pattern. The way this is done is by counting the squares on the pattern and matching them to the threads of the fabric, which is what allows each stitch to appear in the right place.
Here are some tips about things you need to know about counting in cross stitch.
Tip one:
With cross stitching the first thing that you have to do before you start your project is to find the center of the fabric. The easiest way to find the center is to fold the piece of fabric in half both vertically and horizontally and where the points meet is in the center, even if you are off by a few fabric threads in most projects it won’t make that much of a difference. But if you are doing projects such as towels or mugs you need to find the exact center because you are working with a set number of threads. On of the easiest ways to find the vertical center of a towel is to count in from both ends and place pins every ten stitches.
Tip two:
If you are going to be stitching on a single weave fabric, such as linen, then you want to start stitching to the left of a vertical thread. The reason that you want to start stitching to the left of the vertical thread is that if you have made a mistake in counting it will be easier to spot. And the sooner you realize the mistake the less work you have to undo to correct that mistake.
Tip three:
One way to try and avoid counting mistakes is to stitch color areas right next to each other. What usually happens is that you can miscount the empty spaces when you are trying to switch to an area with the same colored floss rather than switching to a new color that is right next the previous color.
Tip four:
Another thing that you should know about counting for cross stitch is that you can buy certain types of fabrics called waste canvas. This canvas is a grid that is held together with water soluble glue and is available in various fabric counts. Waste canvas usually comes with a blue thread that is interwoven every ten stitches. The thread is woven in to help you with making counting easier and then at the end you simply pull out the blue thread. If you don’t want to buy waste canvas another thing you can do to help you keep track of your counting is to insert a pin every ten stitches so that you don’t lose track.
Tip five:
One other thing that you need to know about counting in cross stitch is how to count your stitches. Many times your project directions will tell you to complete twenty stitches of a certain color and a certain stitch, so you have to keep track of how many you have done, which can be hard if you get sidetracked and have to put down the project. The best way to count your stitches is to start counting from the end you began at, not at the end you left off at. This helps you keep an accurate count of how many stitches you have completed, and leaves off any uncompleted stitches.