A couple of questions for a HAED-like project

[bookknurd]

Disclaimer: I have never done a HAED so this may not be anything like one. It seems so from what I've seen.

So hopefully in the near future, I will be making my own chart of one of my mother's watercolors. The painting itself is relatively detailed, so I wanted to do it on 28ct evenweave, either 1 over 1 or 2 over 1. I'll have to experiment with both and cross stitching vs. tent stitching, but that's beside the point.

Since this would be a fairly large project with possibly many stitches (something I've never done before), I had some questions.

1. So far I have been using a hoop, but I think a scroll frame would work better for this project. Can you use scroll frames in hand (i.e. not on a stand) and if so, is it easy/comfortable to? Would you recommend scroll frames or Q-snaps? Are Q-snaps easy to use in hand? A stand would be nice, but I'm not sure I want to invest in one until I'm sure this is a long-time hobby (read: I'm sure my husband will not one to invest in one until I show I'm committed to stitching long-term).

2. Parking vs. Cross-country: I have seen these two terms all over the place since I joined the forum, and I have a general idea of what they mean. However, could someone explain to me precisely what these methods are and how you do them? I'm trying to figure out which one I will probably lean towards and try out first.

Any other advice on taking on a larger project would be appreciated. Thank you in advance!

[Lessa54]

Hi,

I can't help with all your questions but between us all, we can certainly cover all the points.

I stitch in hand on even large projects, so don't worry about frames, qsnaps etc. You'll find that people vary in what they prefer and there are people here who use frames and stands, qsnaps/hoops and stands, qsnaps in the hand or nothing like me. If you're used to a hoop, it might be worth trying the project with your largest sized hoop to see how you get on, before deciding to invest in a frame or anything else. If you don't like stitching a large project with a hoop, then you know to look at different methods.

On parking v cross country, I stitch cross country with occasional parking (there's another combination! ) Stitching cross country simply describes when you follow the symbol as far as it goes, past the 10x10 squares. It's sort of hard to explain without a chart to hand, but most charts will be divided into larger boxes of 10 x 10 stitches. If you look at one of your charts and see that a symbol stretches across the page and down it a bit, then a cross country stitcher will stitch all of that symbol at once, then move to the next colour.

Of course there are more variants. Some people will stitch in regions - say 30 x 30 stitches and stitch cross country within that region. Some will do a chart colour by colour. Some grid to help with cross country stitching, others like me don't.

Parking at its simplest describes when you make a stitch in a colour and then instead of finishing the thread, bring it up at the start of where the next stitch of that colour is and leave the thread there before moving on to your next colour. Again there are lots of methods. Some park in columns, some in rows. The best way is to try things out and see what works for you.

As for other tips, the main thing we always say with a huge project is make sure you love it before you start. Big projects often take years to stitch, so its important to be motivated to finish, especially with something like you describe, which sounds like it will involve a lot of confetti (a lot of areas where the colour changes from stitch to stitch)

Best of luck and do share photos with us

[bookknurd]

Thanks for the advice! Parking and cross-country make a lot more sense now.

I think for the bigger project, I'm worried about the hoop messing up stitches when I have to move it around. I haven't had to move a hoop over stitches yet, so I'm not sure how my hoop will affect work I've already done.

I think that's awesome that you stitch in hand, I don't think I could do that for anything other than very small projects. I like the tension too much.

[Rose]

I have done many projects were you move the hoop/q-snap around to finish the stitching. I have never had a stitch ruined because it had a hoop/q-snap placed over it. I like the tightness of hoops/q-snaps. I have never found a scroll type frame that givs me the type of tightness that I require for stitching. I use my snaps in had and I find it works well although I have just placed an order for a lapstand and I am impatiently waiting for it. A q-snap is a bit heavier then a hoop and it will take a bit to find the most comfortable way to handle it but oh it is so worth it.

As for cross country stitching I do that most of the time and how I do it is, I find the symbol that I want and work that color for the area that I am stitching. This could mean a few stitches and then end as there are no other colors within a 5-8 square area. I will not carry a thread more then that. Or I will finish off the thread entirely if there is a big enough area to stitch of that color. If the block of color is big enough I may use several threads to finish the color.

Lessa described the parking quite well. And if you go to the search button and type in parking lots of threads will come up were there are pictures of people who use that method.

[bookknurd]

I've seen the pictures of parking, and while a visual is helpful, I wasn't exactly sure what they were doing in terms of process.

I might just stick with the hoop for a while and see how that works out. I think in the long-term a stand would be nice for longer period of stitching, but I'll just wait and see.

Thanks everyone for all the advice, it is really helpful!

[BizzieLizzie]

I've seen the pictures of parking, and while a visual is helpful, I wasn't exactly sure what they were doing in terms of process.

This is the parking method I use: Scarlet Quince Parking Tutorial

Once you get your head round it, it's actually very logical and doesn't take long to become second nature.

[LilacDragon]

I stitch cross country. Personally, I can't imagine having a bunch of thread in my way. How far I stitch depends on the pattern. I am doing my first HAED and, at this point, have found that stitching across the page I am working on works best for me.

I have passed all of my hoops on to other stitchers and use scroll frames. Again, it is a personal thing. It is easier to move material when you finish a section and are ready to move on to the next and I don't have to worry about stitches being damaged (not that I have ever had that problem with my hoops) or looking squashed. I hold my frame with my left hand against my left side and adjust it depending on the position of the stitches I am doing and the best angle under my magnifying light.

[bookknurd]

This is the parking method I use: Scarlet Quince Parking Tutorial

Once you get your head round it, it's actually very logical and doesn't take long to become second nature.

That made a lot of sense. I'll have to try it out and see how many colors I can manage.

I have passed all of my hoops on to other stitchers and use scroll frames. Again, it is a personal thing. It is easier to move material when you finish a section and are ready to move on to the next and I don't have to worry about stitches being damaged (not that I have ever had that problem with my hoops) or looking squashed. I hold my frame with my left hand against my left side and adjust it depending on the position of the stitches I am doing and the best angle under my magnifying light.

I think I'll try scroll frames for my first HAED. I really like the idea of being able to just roll it up or down to what area I want to work on. In the meantime, I'm doing fine with my hoop, though I haven't had to reposition it yet.

[bookknurd]

Does anyone have specific recommendations for a good scroll frame?

[NeedleAndFork]

I'm working on my first HAED, and had all the same questions as you, so here goes..

I started off in a hoop and hated it.. all that extra fabric draped over the edges, and I never got it quite tight enough. So I bought the cheapest scroll frame I could find. Right away it was an improvement over the hoop because all the fabric was rolled up and out of the way. Also, because I sit on the couch and stitch, with my knees up in front of me, I could balance the top of the frame against my knees and the bottom against my body and basically stitch two handed that way - something you simply can't do with a hoop or a qsnap (unless you get a huge one) The frame I got though was not good as far as frames go - it never did hold the fabric taut for too long. But like you, I didn't want to invest too much cash until I was sure I would stick with this. When a couple of months had gone by and I was peservering even though my frame by now was drving me nuts, needing to be adjusted every minute or so to tighten it up, I figured I was going to stick with this and started hunting for better frames. I ended up getting what I think is probably the gold standard of frames - the Millenium Frame. I've had it a week now and it is spectacular! The fabric is so taut that I quite literally can bounce pennies off it (yes, I tried!) and I am stitching much faster now than I was before, as well as the entire experience being much more enjoyable. Again, I stitch the same way with it, propping it up betwen my knees and body so that it is held in place while I stitch with both hands.

As for parking vs cross country - I'm a big fan of parking. The reason for this is that if you stitch in a solid block rather than rambling all over the place, there is a much smaller risk of making mistakes. You are essentially working on a cross stitch that is 10x10 stitches, and when that is done, you move onto the next one. Once you get a bit more familiar with parking, you can if you want break out of the 10x10 boxes - I no longer stitch in blocks, but use the parking method to work entire swaths that have similar colors at a time. My only rule is that I (almost) never work a stitch that doesn't have the stitch above it already completed. The reason for this is that on a fabric with as small a weave as 28 count (which is what I am using too) it is hard to get your needle up precisely without splitting threads on a hole that already has multiple threads going through it. The goal whenever possible is to bring my needle up from behind in an empty hole and from the front, push it down into a hole that is already shared with surrounding stitches. By parking, you can do that because you are stitching in an orderly manner, row by row. When you cross country stitch, you end up with little gaps all over the place that you have to fill in, and in my eyes that is never as neat as going row by row, atleast not in the high counts. On aida, I think it works just fine. The trick I have found to keep track of what is going on when parking is to use 2 different colors of highlighters. When you bring a thread up to the front to park it, use a lighter color and MARK that square in your pattern. Or put a dot in it.. or an x.. something to mark that it has a thread in it already. Continue that way, parking threads and stitching along. Then when you reach a parked thread, you have a confirmation in your pattern that it is in the right place and therefore the right color by seeing that it is already marked as supposd to be there. Before I started doing that, I spent a lot of time confused and worried whether I'd accidently parked a thread in the wrong place. Since starting to highlight not just the completed stitches but also the parked threads, I've not had a problem with that at all.

Best of luck with your pattern making and stitching!

[bookknurd]

I think if I got a bigger frame, like the Millennium frame, I would try parking again. But having to hold my q-snaps in hand, it was just to big of a mess. Even then, I think there's a good chance I'll be partial to cross country. It's just the way my brain works, apparently.

We're probably moving in a couple of months, so I'm going to wait until we're settled down again before investing in a bigger setup. But I can't wait until I'm able to, since I think my HAED would go much faster!