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Hi guys I was going through some older post in the SAL section and looking at the progress others have made on their work. I noticed on a couple of them the have different color of threads hanging on the front of their piece like theyre waiting to use them for later (i hope that makes some sense). Can anyone tell me what that is and how it helps with projects? Thanks!

What you are seeing is called parking. Some stitchers find that they do not want to finish off a color and restart it so they "park" the thread in the hole where the next stitch for that color would be used. If you use the search box you should find a better explanation from a member that does use this technique.

I personally have found that I get the colors all mixed up and it does not work for me. But others find it very helpful.

Yeah, not a big fan of parking myself either. I sometimes park one or two colors if I know I'll use in a bit, but otherwise I don't like how it frays the thread if it sits there too long.

I have often wondered how people who use the parking method and have a lot of threads hanging know which colour to pick up.

I have used it when I need to put and isolated different coloured stitch or two in but never more than that. However if you can cope with it I think in some ways it is quicker as you are not forever turning the piece over to end 1 colour and put in the next.

Sally

I have used some limited parking on my HAED but pretty much staying within a column, since I am mostly stitching it in 10 x 10 squares. I will do all of a color within that 10 x 10 and then if the color is in the next block of 10 x 10 I will park it. If not, I end the thread. I also have been able so far to keep the parked threads to no more than 5 or 6 and that gets a bit confusing also. If the confetti starts to get more complicated I expect that I will do one color down a column until the thread is used rather than parking, but I don't know yet. I have seen some with what look like nearly 20 threads hanging and I don't see how they can keep it straight, but maybe as I get more used to it, I will be able to also.

Carole

Not a fan of parking here either - although I am amazed by the stitchers that use this method! On some WIP pics you see up to 30 parked threads all wound up in a clip to keep them out of the way of the stitching - I would never be able to tell one thread from another!

I LOVE parking!! The piece I'm doing at the moment has so much confetti that parking is pretty much the only option to avoid miscounting, and I'm working in 10-stitch wide columns using this method: http://www.scarletquince.com/parking.php" target="_blank" target="_blank.

I've never had a problem with telling the different colours of the hanging threads apart because I always park the threads in the hole that I would start that stitch from (i.e. bottom left). I really can't imagine stitching any other way, now!

It sounds like parking has its merits.. but I dunno... I like my one needle and one thread at a time...
Faith

i was never able to have it work for me either..

I check I've got the right colour several times before I start stitching with it so I don't think I could cope with parking cos I'm always questioning myself, is this the right colour!!!!

thanks for the help guys! I am working on a project where I have alot on spots where Ill use the color once or twice in the square and I get aggervated cutting it and starting it back over. I think I am going to try this technique since my cross stitch is only 5X7.

I just finished a very small piece that I wished I had used 'parking' on! The front looks good but the back of the work is horrible, and I don't like that. Will definitely try parking on my next project.


Laughter and Friends
United in Love

I can't do Parking, needles fall out and then my boyfriend complains of sitting on needles in the couch.

I have a bad habit of loosing needles.