Counting Cross Stitch: How to Find the Center and Keep Your Place

Blank fabric is the defining feature of counted work: nothing is printed on the cloth, so every stitch is placed by counting cross stitch squares on the chart and matching them on the Aida. Counting is the skill that decides whether a motif ends up centered, complete and the right shape. It is not difficult, but it rewards a few steady habits, and it helps to know what to do when the numbers stop agreeing.

Find the Center of the Fabric

Most designs are stitched from the middle outward. Starting at the center guarantees an equal margin on every side, as long as the fabric was cut with enough spare cloth to begin with.

1. Fold the fabric in half lengthwise and pinch the fold lightly. Do not press a hard crease.
2. Fold it in half again the other way.
3. The corner where the two folds meet is the center. Mark it with a pin, or with a single loose stitch of sewing thread that you remove later.

For a more lasting guide, run a line of long basting stitches along each fold in a pale sewing thread. The two lines cross at the center and stay visible while you work.

Find the Center of the Chart

Charts mark their midpoint with small arrows or triangles on the top and side edges. Follow one arrow straight down and the other straight across; the square where the two paths meet is the center of the design. If you are new to chart symbols and keys, the guide on how to read a cross stitch chart explains each part.

The exact center is not always a stitch. Sometimes it falls on an empty square, or on a line between two squares when the design has an even number of stitches. In that case, count from the center to the nearest stitched square and begin there.

Count Squares, Not Holes

One square on the chart equals one block of Aida, and each block has a hole at all four corners. A common early slip is to count holes instead of blocks. A row of five stitches covers five blocks but touches six holes along its lower edge, so counting holes puts you one out.

Two habits help:

• Touch the tip of the needle to each block as you count it, rather than judging by eye.
• Count in small groups. Counting to three or four several times is more reliable than counting to nineteen once.

Fabric count affects how small the blocks are and how easy they are to see. If counting is a strain, a lower count such as 11 or 14 is kinder to the eyes; the Aida fabric guide compares the options.

Counting Across Gaps

Most miscounts happen in empty space. Stitching the next square along is easy; jumping across eight blank squares to begin a new area is where errors creep in.

To cross a gap safely:

1. Count the empty squares on the chart between the last stitch you made and the next one.
2. Count the same number of empty blocks on the fabric, touching each with the needle.
3. Check the position against a second landmark, such as a stitch in the row above or the nearest basted grid line.
4. Only then make the stitch.

Where possible, avoid long jumps altogether. Work outward from what is already stitched so that each new stitch has a neighbor to count from. If the gap is both across and down, count one direction first, pause on that block, then count the other.

Gridding Your Fabric

Gridding means marking the fabric with the same 10-by-10 grid that the chart uses. Each box on the cloth then matches a box on the chart, and no count is ever longer than ten.

Thread gridding

Baste straight lines every ten blocks, across and down, with a smooth sewing thread in a color that stands out from both the fabric and your floss. Start from the center lines and work outward. Take long, even running stitches, for example over five blocks and under five. Stitch over the grid lines without piercing them, so they pull out cleanly at the end.

Marker gridding

A fabric marker made to wash out with water can be used instead. Test it on a scrap of the same fabric first and make sure the lines disappear completely before trusting it on a project.

Gridding takes time, and for a small motif the two basted center lines are usually enough. On a design with scattered areas or a lot of open background, a full grid repays the effort.

Use a Reference Stitch

When a new area sits far from the rest of the design, place one stitch first and treat it as a landmark. Count to its position twice, by two different routes if you can, such as from the center line and from the nearest stitched area. Once that one stitch is confirmed, everything else in the area is counted from it rather than from across the fabric.

Parking the thread is a related habit. After finishing one patch of a color, bring the needle up at the first hole of the next place that color is needed and leave the thread resting on the front. The parked thread marks the spot, so the count is already done when you return. Keep the distance short, because the thread still travels across the back to get there.

How to Fix a Miscount

First find where the count went wrong. Compare the stitching with the chart row by row, working back from the place where things stopped matching, until you reach the last stitch that is certainly correct.

• A few stitches are wrong. Unpick them. Slide the eye end of the needle under each leg and lift it out one stitch at a time, in the reverse order to the stitching. Do not pull hard on the thread, which stretches the holes.
• A whole section is wrong. Snip the stitches carefully on the front with fine scissors, taking care not to cut the fabric, and pull the pieces out from the back. Secure any neighboring thread that comes loose, using the method in the guide to starting and finishing a thread.
• One row is out and nothing else depends on it. In a loose, organic shape such as foliage, a single stray stitch can sometimes be left alone or balanced by adjusting the stitches next to it. In borders, lettering and symmetric motifs, correct it, because the error will not close up.

Habits That Prevent Miscounts

• Mark completed stitches on a working copy of the chart, so your eye returns to the right place.
• Stitch in good light, and stop when you are tired.
• Check the count against the chart at the end of every row or color block.
• Finish one area before moving on to the next.

Miscounting sits near the top of any list of common cross stitch mistakes, but it is also one of the easiest to catch early. If you would like a small design to practice counting on, the motif in the first-day guide to cross stitch is only a few stitches across.