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After seeing all the amazing HAED projects here, I'm thinkinb about trying one -- a SMALL one. But I'm used to using patterns with colour and symbols, and find it very difficult to follow my place on black and white charts. I also find 14 count to be my favourite size, so one over one on 25 count (!) sounds impossibly tiny.

Any suggestions from those experienced with HAED? I know I should probably try gridding and marking the pattern as I go. Any other good tips?

Thanks!

I've not done a HAED, but as you will have seen looking through the SAL thread, people do HAEDs on a great variety of fabrics, and there is no reason why you shouldn't choose a fabric you are comfortable with -- in fact, as it is such a big project that you will be working on for a long time, there is every reason to choose a fabric you're comfortable with!
14ct might make even a small HAED rather large in finished size, but as a compromise you could go for 16 or 18ct aida -- try a small project on some scrap fabric just to see whether you're happy working on it, and also to try how many strands you would need for the coverage you want.
Others will be able to tell you all about gridding and so on!
Happy HAEDing

I will second what Mabel said even though I am not a HEAD head. But you can stitch on anysize tha you can be comfortable. There is a post going right now in the general section that the posters are talking about the size of material that they are using. I know someone has said they are going to use 18ct aida. Take some time to experiment and choose a fabric that you like becauser it is you that has to work with it and with the size of HEADS you need to be happy. To much work goes into thes to hate working on your fabric.

Yes I agree - have a go at some different types of fabric and see what you like best. Also have a go maybe at tent stitch - to me it feels a lot less fiddly (I doubt I would be able to see to do full crosses on my 28ct!) and of course gets it done twice as fast!! Just because the pattern advises full crosses on 25ct certainly doesn't mean that's what you have to do!

I don't grid, I just keep my place very very carefully and don't do anything risky like cross country stitching!! Aside from being more likely to go wrong, I need to discipline myself to get each page done before moving on to the next one, otherwise I'd do all the interesting bits and then not want to do the background!

And as for the symbols, I've found that they make them bold and recognisable enough that you can usually kind of 'see' the pattern by looking at the page, if you know what I mean, especially if you go for the large format style. In comparison, Mystic Stitch just use numbers and letters of the alphabet for theirs, so no contrast in boldness, shape etc so much harder to spot the stitches (like a wordsearch!!!)

Finally, make sure you really, really, really are in LOVE with the artwork, because you'll be looking at it for a loooong time!!

Louise

Thanks for the great ideas!

I just had to chime in here. I am new to HAED also but not cross stitch (having been doing it off and on for 20 yrs) I recently bought a pattern and got material that I thought would work (monoco 28) going 1x1 but didn't like that so I went to aida 22 2x1 didn't like that so tried 1x1 on the 22 and didn't like that either....so I am now using 2x1 on aida 18 and I like the way it is turning out. You can see my post and my frustration in general topics.
I will say that if I had to do it all over I would get some material and do a few practice stitches with the darkest color in the pattern to see if it covered well and to see how 1x1 1x2 etc looks before going full bore (like I did )
Good Luck

So many of us have started and then restarted before finding something that suits. Try testing a little patch of the real chart, say a 10 x 10 square until you get a look you like. You can look at different fabric counts, 1 or 2 strands of floss and what stitch you like. There are so many different options. It's much harder starting the real thing and then having to frog or buy new material. It's also much more demoralising too!!

Just for the record, mine (which has not been worked on for a while ) is on 25 count Lugana, 2 over 1 and tent stitch and I am very happy with this combination

Another idea to use a coloured fabric that compliments the design rather than plain white. It tends to make any small coverage problems less noticeable than if it is stitched on a white fabric.

Absolutely the girls are right.....test, test, test.....

try a small sample size fabric of 14ct, 16ct, 18ct, 22ct and 25ct and just do a 10x10 square of stitching, it is a great idea and helps to see
one, what you are comfortable with
two, what you prefer to stitch...full cross stitches or tent stitch
three, the number of threads you wish to use...whether it be one two or three.

I did this on advise from Becca and Sarah and it really helped I decided to use the 25ct lugana and whilst it seemed really smal the more I worked the more familiar it felt...IYKWIM.

I also did what tracy is suggesting as my HAED has alot of blue background and I am working 1 over 1 I was worried that if at any stage you could see a smidge of the fabric I didn't want it to be a stark white that stood ot so I opted to stitch on a pale blue fabric, which is still light enough that I can see the holes easily.

Do what works best for you, enjoy

xxx

Is there any place where there are pictures of what the different stitches look like on different counts of fabric for these complex designs?

For $3 more you can request Michele to send you a colored chart

I say see if you can find a scrap pack of fabric on Ebay with a variety of counts (usually called LOTS). I did that and it helped tremedously before I purchased my HAED fabric. I opted for 25 ct Lugana. I originally planned to do 2 over 1 tent stitches, but once I had the actual fabric I decided 1 over 1 full crosses looked better to me. Since I'm going over 1 thread I'm still using the tent stitch though...it helps prevent losing my thread in the weave of the fabric.

I also have a piece of 22ct evenweave for another HAED that will be used to hang over my couch. I haven't decided what type of stitch to use for that yet. But I do recomend trying varying types of fabrics and counts and stitches to find what YOU like best.

As for the color chart...I have a pack of sharp colored pencils. So far I haven't had to make use of them. But I know when I reach an area that has more color changes they WILL be put to use! I take things page-by-page. It helps save my sanity. Gridding has been a huge help as well. I use a blue fabric marker to mark out 10x10 blocks and used 1 strand of a redish thread to mark off each page. So far any mistakes I've made have been caught within a few stitches because of the gridding.

I am doing a quick stitch haed and using 22 count. I started a bigger project on 25 count using the magic fabric (has 20x20 gridding on it which washes off at 40) unfortunatly i went off the pattern but got to say it wasnt too bad to stitch onto.

18 count is a good option though to start with if you are used to 14 count. I did same from 14 count to 22 count at first I thought it was difficult but now 14 count squares look massive!!

Have fun

I know I'm a little late posting to this, but, it is your own preference that is what matters. I did mine on 25 ct, but I am very comfortable with linens and the different counts of materials. I also took into account the finished size and would not want to stitch my project on anything bigger as that will make the picture bigger and it's already big enough. Just as with any project, you decide what you are comfortable working with and the suggestions are just that. I do agree that the chart and symbols are easy to read, even in regular print, but then mine is mostly black, sooo.... Another thing I've noticed people here do, is rotate projects with the HEAD so that you do not get that burned out feeling with the project because it is so many pages long. This is not for me, but is a suggestion. I do hope that you find what materials and number of strands you are happy with before starting on the whole project.

There is so much in this thread about different sizes and formats. One thing I encountered when I was thinking I might try a standard pattern by stitching over one, was you obviously can't have any fractional stitches in the pattern, or can you? So are HEAEDs without fractional stitches? They look so detailed, I can't imagine they are all full crosses. I never even seen on of their designs up close. Probably because I am in the US.

carolanne wrote:So are HEAEDs without fractional stitches? They look so detailed, I can't imagine they are all full crosses. I never even seen on of their designs up close. Probably because I am in the US.

HAEDs are all full crosses with no backstitch! - Don't ask me how Michelle manages to chart them with such detail - I guess that is why they contain a lot of colours and a lot of confetti stitching to get the blending right.

What do you mean by the term confetti stitching, that's another new term to me. Yes, those are amazing it there are only full cross stitches. Thanks for the response.

Definition: Stitchers often refer to scattered single stitches as confetti stitches. The stitches are spread across the fabric as if they had been sprinkled like confetti. (Taken from about.com)

HEAD's are extremely detailed, there are multiple shades of single stitches that create the shading and detail.

carolanne wrote:There is so much in this thread about different sizes and formats. One thing I encountered when I was thinking I might try a standard pattern by stitching over one, was you obviously can't have any fractional stitches in the pattern, or can you? So are HEAEDs without fractional stitches? They look so detailed, I can't imagine they are all full crosses. I never even seen on of their designs up close. Probably because I am in the US.

You can check out the Gallery and SAL sections on their website, it has a lot of finished and close-up pictures. And Michelle is located in Minnesota

Oh, I did look at their site once and didn't figure out it was in the US. and the term confetti stitches makes perfect sense. Just hadn't seen it till recently. thanks all.