Stitching Lines

[Pyper]

I have noticed with some of my projects that filling in large blocks of colour gives lines in the texture of the stitches, in the direction of the along-and-back direction I stitched it it. I think it is from having one side pull thread upwards and the other side the thread pulls down through the work. Does anyone else have this problem, and does anyone know how to easily avoid it?

For example the vertical lines over the top of Aus, and some horizontal in the south eastern part of Aus

[Knittenkitten]

Did you sew in those directions? That might be your problem. If you did everything in rows or columns and didn't mix the directions it should clear those lines up.

Also if you have all the stitches going in the same direction ( this way / first and then going back \ the other way) might solve some of it too.

[stitchingmama]

I also think that making all your top stitches in the same direction should fix most of your troubles.

I've found that when I stitch my first & last stitches are never perfect so I try to avoid having them line up (I'll purposely end a thread early so that all my last stitches don't end up in the same column).

[Eliste]

I think your biggest issue is that the top stitch is going in opposite directions on occasion. That can make a lot of things look "funny". Most of your stitches end looking like this \ so when you change that and end them like / your eye notices the difference. It also means that the way the light is reflected off the thread changes which makes it look less uniform.

If you were to just simply ensure that all your top stitches were facing the same direction, I don't think you'd be thinking there was a problem.

[Pyper]

The problem only seems to occur when all my finished stitches are in the same direction.

Sorry I guess I should have explained only half that picture is finished stitches (/ above Australia). In the picture there are half done rows \ and fully stitched rows /. I went up one row and down the next filling in half the stitches, then once it was full I started going back the other way to finish the stitches. The problem area is the finished stitches, which look stripy. I think this may be due to the needle pulling thread up or down next to completed stitches, basically tilting them.

What techniques do people use to fill in large areas of the same colour without getting stripes?

[Eliste]

I'll be honest, I don't see the stripes you're talking about. But I will say that judging how your final thing will be before you wash, block and iron your project is a little premature to me. 99% of all stitching sins with cross stitching can be fixed by washing, blocking, and ironing your piece once you've finished.

If your stitches are pulling the ones next to them, you may be using too many threads for the fabric. Your half stitches are lying just fine and seem to provide plenty of coverage, so going back for the full cross with too many threads may be the issue. You might find that does not happen with fewer threads.

I never go up and down the rows, except when I'm changing rows. I always go side to side when stitching. That provides for a similar up/down pull on each thread as the pulling is always in the same direction rather than half up and half down.

[funkymonkey]

I know the issue you're talking about. Maybe they are better described as "ridges" or just "not flat-looking". I am really OCD about my stitching, so I try to avoid ever changing which direction my stitching row is going. As with most good things in life, I find myself best expressed by animated gif:

stitch.gif (299.45 KiB) Viewed 5968 times

1. Notice that every square starts in the bottom left hole of the stitch, the row goes right as far as it can go without skipping, and then goes back to the left across the half stitches that were made (now starting from the bottom right hole).

2. When it jumps down a row, go to the bottom left corner of that row (even if that is slightly to the right or left of where you just finished.)

3. Avoid skipping over more than a few stitches. When possible, tie off and start again where you need to (like the blue does after it reaches the bottom of the image. Pretend the thread is tied down and restarted on row 2).

4. Whatever is stitched last will be slightly on top of what was stitched before it. Even rows of the same color "overlap" slightly, so if you started one row from the top right corner and then have an adjacent row starting in the bottom left (even if the top stitch is always facing like \) they will overlap the row above/below them inconsistently. To see what I mean, put your eyes really close to the screen when the image pauses after the yellow stitches, and see how the corners of the yellow slightly overlap the blue. When this happens with two different colors, it generally looks fine in cross stitch. When this happens with the same color going different directions, it gives you ridges.

5. When the blue is finished, if you were stitching this, you may have been tempted to turn the stitch and do the yellow sideways from bottom to top or top to bottom, since it would have been five / / / / / in a row before going back. This causes ridges, too. Keep starting from the bottom-left hole even if you have to go:
X
X
X
X
and just keep jumping down to the next row (so you're stitching complete x's at a time if you're doing a vertical row of stitches.) It uses slightly more thread, but keeps the orientation of the strands consistent.

Obviously, all of these steps are just the ones that work for me and I don't mean to offend anyone who stitches differenly. I don't think there's really a right/wrong way, just what works for each person. Hopefully this made sense and can work for you, too! (if you can handle being this anal with your stitching, haha.)

[blackmageheart]

I would also like to add to all the awesome help above by suggesting (and apologies if someone's already mentioned this) that you do make sure to untwist your thread every so often by letting it hang down, as when you stitch it will twist and also not lie as flat as it should.

[Pyper]

Thanks for the replies. I will try decreasing the number of threads I use and see if that fixes it. I typically use 3 strands on 18 ct. I will also change how I flood fill to go one line at a time like Funkymonkey suggests, rather than all one way then back the other.