Making Friends with Parking - New Question Jan24

[NeedleAndFork]

You can always start below where you're stitching, rather than to the right.. I do that sometimes depending on which part I'm stitching.

And so what happens when you reach the bottom of the design? When working over 1 on a high count fabric, how do you anchor the tails at the end when there's no more stitching to capture them?

I can't speak for everyone else - I stitch in a way that has me going all over the piece.. so I'm giving some serious consideration to where I'll end it.. most likely in a fairly low confetti area so that I always have an unstitched area to start/end my tails at.. and at the very end hopefully I'll have just a few threads to have to work under in the back rather than dozens.

If you want to see the way I stitch, you can go through my HAED's gallery on photobucket.. http://i1295.photobucket.com/albums/b62 ... 6c41d5.jpg" target="_blank

I don't bother to cut off the tails form the starts/ends before photographing like many people do on their WIP pictures, so you'll get a pretty good idea which direction I'm working in. Just be warned.. if you're the sort that gets twitchy with lots of messy thread everywhere.. this will really set you off. I call it controlled chaos at best!

[Allyn]

...most likely in a fairly low confetti area so that I always have an unstitched area to start/end my tails at.. and at the very end hopefully I'll have just a few threads to have to work under in the back rather than dozens.

So you anchor them by running under a few stitches. That's all I was asking. I didn't know if there was some trick when working over 1 on high-count fabrics since it's pretty tough getting the needle under the back of the stitches.

[NeedleAndFork]

I haven't had to do it yet, but yes, unless I come up with a better way, that's what I'll probably do. I've identified a part of my HAED that has very little confetti and plan on stitching around all edges and finishing in that area as it has several bands of single colors. I'll do the last stitches as individual stitchs, doing the / and then the \ for each stitch rather than rows of /// followed by \\\ ... this will give the backs a bit more room to run my thread under.

[Kathy_A]

I've never done parking or waste knots, but I'm interested in trying both with my next project (an SQ map).

Question about waste knots: y'all were talking upthread about just working the tail under subsequent stitches. Now, are you talking about doing that on the back side of the fabric or on the front? Because if you have the tail on the front side of the fabric but are working it under later stitches, do you then move the tail to the back of the fabric before working it under those stitches?

I am very confused by the entire concept, to be honest! I've only done the usual "secure the tail with the next five stitches in the back of the fabric" technique that I was taught when I first started stitching.

[cairee]

waste knots: tie a knot in the end of your thread, go down from the front of your fabric 5-6 holes to the right of where you will start your stitches (thats just the number I use, not set in stone) come up where your first stitch starts and stitch as normal. the back ||| of your stitches will tie down the tail in the back of your fabric, once you have enough ||| to cover that tail snip the knot in the front of your fabric and your tail is secure in the back, nothing up front but stitches
you can finish a thread the same way, just come up leaving a tail in the back that will be secured by future stitches, tie a knot to keep it there until its secured

[NeedleAndFork]

I've never done parking or waste knots, but I'm interested in trying both with my next project (an SQ map).

Question about waste knots: y'all were talking upthread about just working the tail under subsequent stitches. Now, are you talking about doing that on the back side of the fabric or on the front? Because if you have the tail on the front side of the fabric but are working it under later stitches, do you then move the tail to the back of the fabric before working it under those stitches?

I am very confused by the entire concept, to be honest! I've only done the usual "secure the tail with the next five stitches in the back of the fabric" technique that I was taught when I first started stitching.

The tail is secured on the back underneath the stitches like normal. But to start it, you put a knot in the end of the thread, and from the front, several stitches awayfrom where you're about to stitch, you push the thread to the back so the knot holds the end of the tail in the front. This way there is a short length of thread on the back of the work going from where you put the waste knot to where you started stitching. As you stitch, that length of thread gets covered up, and you can snip the waste knot away from the front. I tend to use a pair of tweezers to help hold that little bit that's on the front taut and then snip as close to the fabric as I can. This way when the tension on the thread is released by cutting it, the end disappears into the back. I looked through my photos to see if I could find a good example.. I think this is the best one I have..



You can see towards the bottom-left of the flowery area that I have lots of short little tails there. Each of those is a start (or end) of a new color in the area left to it. I start the thread 2 stitches to the left of the edge of the column I'm stitching in and a coupleof rows below where it is needed, and as I stitch, it gets covered up. I end the same way, to the right and a couple of rows below where the thread was last used by just bringing the tail up and snipping it about an inch from the fabric. As I work, I am left with a fringe of sorts along the unstitched edge of the area i'm working on that I trim every now and then.

For stitches that start right against the edge of the area I'm stitching, since they won't get stitched over if I just start them 2 stitches over from the edge, I start them below the area I'm working on. Basically, you just have to look ahead at your stitching and make sure that you start your thread in an area that will get stitched over as you work. Also.. you don't HAVE to put a knot in the end of the thread, with fabrics that have a reasonably high count (like the 28 I'm using) the small holes of the fabric will keep the thread from falling through the hole as long as you hang onto it while taking the first stitch.

[Allyn]

waste knots: tie a knot in the end of your thread, go down from the front of your fabric 5-6 holes to the right of where you will start your stitches (thats just the number I use, not set in stone) come up where your first stitch starts and stitch as normal. the back ||| of your stitches will tie down the tail in the back of your fabric, once you have enough ||| to cover that tail snip the knot in the front of your fabric and your tail is secure in the back, nothing up front but stitches
you can finish a thread the same way, just come up leaving a tail in the back that will be secured by future stitches, tie a knot to keep it there until its secured

What Cairee and NeedleandFork said.
If you position your knot a few stitches away and in line with where you'll be placing subsequent stitches, that tail is 'captured'. When you stitch up to the knot, you clip it off.
To end, you finish the last stitch and then bring your needle up a few holes away in line with subsequent stitches -- maybe in line with the stitches you'll do in the next color -- and leave a short tail. Then when you do those subsequent stitches, you capture the tail of the previous thread and then clip the tail off.
Doing it this way, you don't have to keep flipping the work over to anchor the tails. You'd only flip the work and anchor the tails 'normally' when there are no more stitches to be done to capture the tails on the back.

Here is a photo-tutorial on starting the thread:
http://needlepoint.about.com/od/needlep ... teknot.htm" target="_blank" target="_blank
The demonstration is on needlepoint, but it's the same concept. Put the knot in line with where you'll be stitching and capture the tail as you go.

[littleturtlegirl]

I do parking like I have ADD, I call it cross country parking with ADD. However I do no have it with my waist knots. I did in the beginning, but they got in the way when I cross country parked. I put them one 10x10 block away from where I am stitching on the first row to the right of where I am stitching. I know it further away than what others say, but I find with my crazy way of stitching some of the string were not getting pinned down. Then I cut them before I start the block.

I learned from these two videos and then took off on my own:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuTXsIRttTA" target="_blank

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C-qFbH-cjE" target="_blank