Hi
I have been cross stitching for many years (since I was 7) and am currently doing my 1st HAED piece. I have always been a cross country stitcher but I am now interested in the parking method.
I have youtubed and googled and have a fair idea what I'm doing. My question is do you work in 10 across blocks top to bottom? and if so does this not leave lines in your finished work?
Another HAED case! I sort of vaguely use parking for exactly the reason you state -- lines and stripes. I'm a cross country stitcher, myself, generally, but HAEDs have so much confetti that all that starting and stopping would be unworkable. The important thing is to do what you're comfortable doing when you stitch. I sometimes find parking does the job and sometimes it doesn't.
I don't park myself, but I know that some people will follow a color into the next block if there's a square of the same color connecting. This can helps reduce the appearance of lines I think.
I tried parking a couple of time, but all of those threads hanging drove me absolutely nuts.
**Signature Under Construction**
(will update soon with current WIPs and other info )
I also don't park as the hanging threads drove me nuts the one time that I tried. But others love it and I think it makes their stitching faster, especially in high confetti areas. If you do a forum search on "parking" you will get a huge list of posts but there may be some threads that are very useful. Also on the Our Friends" HAED SAL there is a brief tutorial about parking. You can get to that blog by clicking on the link underneath the picture on the HAED Home page. You will see lots of examples of different designs in progress.
Carole
WIPs
Star Wars Afghan:Chewbaca
HAEDs:
O Kitten Tree
Dancing with the Cat
Everything else "on hold"
2022 Finished: Star Wars Afghan: Princess Leia, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, Finn, Rey, Poe, Han Solo,Darth Vader, BB8,Luke Skywalker
I don't park as I like to work by following a thread from start to finish as much as I can. But in the latest issue of "The Stitchery that came I was looking through and they had this product.........http://www.stitchery.com/itemdy00.aspx? ... k%20avenue" target="_blank don't know if it would be an asset or not but there you have it.
I don't park as much but when I do, I put a needle minder on the corner of my material that I am working on and when I need a different color to stitch, I will park my needle on the needle minder and work on the other thread. I usually have about 5 needles parking at a time. Too many threads gets me confused and sometimes the threads get tangled with other threads. So I limited my number of parking to less than 5. This is sometimes necessary if the threads are all similar in colors. ( light grey, med grey, dark grey)
I love parking and can't imagine stitching any other way now. I use the Scarlet Quince method and work in 10-stitch wide blocks either top-to-bottom-left-to-right or left-to-right-top-to-bottom, depending on the pattern. I use the first method if the pattern is mostly vertical (like the trees in Coniferous Forest) and the second if it is mostly horizontal (like the background and fur in Adobe White). I stitch symbols into an adjacent block where the symbol continues across the boundary and have never had any problems with lines.
I sort of vaguely use parking for exactly the reason you state -- lines and stripes. I'm a cross country stitcher, myself, generally, but HAEDs have so much confetti that all that starting and stopping would be unworkable. 
The important thing is to do what you're comfortable doing when you stitch. I sometimes find parking does the job and sometimes it doesn't. 
)
