Using half stitches in place of full stitches

I've seen some very elegant things with mixes of half and full crosses. I went and looked at Solitude (neat piece BTW) - it could work. Caveat - what fabric are you doing it on?

Cheryl

Like some of the others here --- aida. My eyes just can't take the the detail of linen or other evenweaves. I love linen for small quick projects, but my eyes just aren't up to much more. Solitude's pattern calls for full stitches, no back stitches or half stitches - Do you think I should mix full and half stitches???

Denise

Like some of the others here --- aida. My eyes just can't take the the detail of linen or other evenweaves. I love linen for small quick projects, but my eyes just aren't up to much more. Solitude's pattern calls for full stitches, no back stitches or half stitches - Do you think I should mix full and half stitches???

Denise

What they're doing with the Mystic Stitch and Heaven and Earth Designs-type patterns is "tent stitch" (aka half cross), where they're going over 1 with 2 strands on small counts (e.g., 25-count lugana). I believe that's the classic needlepoint stitch, so they sometimes have to be blocked when when you're finished.

I personally wouldn't do it on Aida or anything bigger than, say

Using half stitches would probably make the project go faster, but it will also distort your fabric, making it more difficult to stretch and frame. I used to work for a cross stitch shop, and we saw that a lot on pieces that had the background done in half stitches.

Just my 2 cents, Mandy

deniseb wrote:

I did a pattern once, I think it was a Dimensions kit of three cats looking out of a window. Part of the sky was done with the same colour as full crosses, and some half crosses. The effect was beautiful, and it does make a difference to the look of the piece if you mix full and half stitches.

I agree - aida is a good choice. But I was more thinking along the lines of what color?

Cheryl

No matter how many strands you use the coverage will not be quite the same. Do a test block of ten by ten stitches to see how many strands look sufficient to you. You can use this method and it will be faster than full crosses. Tent stitch won't distort Aida as much as it would some other fabrics as long as you don't prewash the fabric or pull your stitches too tight. Aida tends to be rather stiff and hold its shape. Using a real tent stitch instead of merely a half cross stitch will also help keep the fabric from going askew. Examples (working from left to right):

Half-cross Up at A, down at B, up at C, down at D

B D

A C

Tent stitch Up at A, down at B, up at C, down at D

A C

B D

One thing to consider is you will have a lot less coverage on the back to hold your thread ends so you might want to run the thread under a few stitches, whip it around (the back of) a stitch, and then run it back the other direction under a few stitches to keep it secure. It will also be more obvious on the front where you have buried thread ends on the back because the stitches you have run the end through will be pulled tighter. Go back and gently lift the front of those stitches back up after burying an end. You also will not be able to carry thread from one location to another easily because that will be more visible from the front than when you stitch with full crosses. I'm not familiar with the chart so don't know if it has confetti stitches, but those will be much more of a pain if present.

I th> I believe I read in the Nordic Needle newsletter some time ago that

If you`ve finished Zuma - I`ll spit in your eye!!!

Pat P

Not only have I finished, I got clear through last night without losing any lives. Yeeeeeeeeeeeehaw!

Brenda Lewis skrev:

K try this game:

And why did you do this to me? LOL

Cheryl

I am off to practice the tent stitch. I never thought of the distortion that half crosses would make - thanks for the heads up. And I am also going to do the 10 x 10 blocks to see which coverage I like the best!

Wonderful advice everyone! Thanks alot. You brought up many points I hadn't considered.

Oh, Cheryl, After I pull all my floss I am going to pick my fabric color to match the white/greys in the picture. Probably ending up with the standard white aida.

Thanks again - everyone -- Denise B

I'll be looking forward to seeing your progress.

Cheryl

The original requestor wanted to know how other people finished more projects, and one of the answers was the subject line. Another way suggeted was doing half stitches first when you're able to concentrate, then doing the other half when you might not have the same quite situation, not worrying about counting.

Just my two cents.

Eva in Mostly Sunny Kent, WA, US