incoherenceisbliss:

loosethreadstitchery:

I can try! Bear in mind that I’m self-taught in a “keep stabbing it til it looks right and turn to books/YouTube only if I’m really stuck” way, so people who were actually trained could probably do this better, and I’m open to being corrected.

Cross stitch is a type of embroidery where each stitch forms an X. It’s often, but not always, done on Aida cloth, which looks like this:

Each X covers a square of the cloth, so the result is a bit like pixel art:

If you have a line of stitches of the same colour, a lot of people will do a line of half-stitches, then work their way back (called the Danish method):

That’s really down to preference. Personally I switch between Danish and English (where you complete each X before moving on to the next one) depending on the geometry of the pattern I’m working on. The main thing is that the top arm of each X should be facing the same way to keep the piece looking tidy.

That’s the basic idea, and there are plenty of patterns out there that only use cross stitches. Some patterns will also use back-stitching for outlines or details. Generally you do the cross stitching first, then back-stitch over top.

The majority of what I do is actually blackwork, which is related to cross stitch in that it’s a type of counted work (each stitch covers a set number of threads of the fabric). I mostly use Aida cloth, but any evenweave fabric would work. There are a number of different styles of blackwork, but the one I do most often involves back-stitching geometric motifs to fill a section of a larger design. The pattern will show lines on a grid corresponding to the grid of the cloth:

A few things that might help if you’re getting into cross stitch:

• Aida cloth comes in different sizes. You’ll see it labeled as 11-count, 14-count, 18-count, etc. That tells you how many squares/stitches there are per inch, so your stitches on 18-count will be much smaller than on 11-count.
• If you buy 6-strand embroidery floss, you’ll want to separate it into individual strands. If you’re cross stitching, then usually the lower the count of your fabric, the more strands you’ll need to make each X form a solid square and avoid having fabric show between your stitches. I use fewer strands with blackwork, because it keeps the lines sharp and makes the motifs stand out better. The pictures above are on 18-count. I used 2 strands for the cross stitch, and 1 strand for the blackwork (note that varying the number of strands can also be a method of shading in blackwork, but I haven’t really used that technique before).
• Some stitchers will tell you that the back of your work should look as neat as the front. If you want to aim for that, go for it. I’m really only careful about the back of my work if I know it’s going to be visible in the finished piece; other than that, my backs are chaos and I’m fine with that.

This was at best a really basic overview of cross stitch. Some patterns use things like half-stitches and three-quarter-stitches to get different effects or smoother shapes. Some patterns will call for higher count cloth (like 28-count or more) and have each stitch cover two threads instead of one (called working “over 2”). There are all sorts of YouTube videos and tutorials that cover these things better than I can, but feel free to ask any questions you have, and I’ll do my best.

Above all, have fun with it, and I hope it becomes something you enjoy!

This is a nice explanation. One thing I see people get confused about when starting in cross-stitch is stamped vs counted. Stamped cross-stitch is very popular in kits, which typically come with fabric with the design stamped on it and floss, and sometimes an embroidery hoop and needle, as well. And then you kind of color in the pattern on the fabric with stitches.

Counted cross-stitch can also come in kits, but usually takes a little more entry effort - beyond getting your supplies, you also have to make a decision about the best point (often but not always the center of the design) to start translating a charted pattern on to blank fabric. There’s more flexibility in what the final product looks like - from fabric color to overall size of the design to modifying colors - but it is a little more work to get started. So if you’re looking at kits, it’s helpful to know that they’re not all using the same starting approach.

Patterns are also sometimes called cross-stitch when the majority of the stitches are variations on the full cross, even though they include other embroidery styles. OP mentioned backstitch, and couple other embroidery techniques that show up in cross-stitch reasonably often in my experience, usually to add dimension to pieces, are French knots and satin stitch. There are also some lovely solid-color cross-stitch patterns that are called blackwork, but technically aren’t (I have a white-on-white pattern on linen in mind for a future project when I have a lot more patience), since as OP says, blackwork traditionally relies mainly on running stitches.

I also recommend checking out Assisi embroidery if you like blackwork and cross-stitch.

camilleflyingrotten:

neil-gaiman:

Quite a few. Ones that we had planned as possible for Season 2 (that either didn’t get written or didn’t get filmed) included a Wild West one, a 15th century Papal one, an Arabian Nights one, and a 1960s American one with Crowley and Aziraphale female presenting. And we have the whole of human history as a canvas. But for now the ones you’ve got are all.

« 60s American where they’re female presenting » had me on my KNEES.