LearnFollow your chart
How to keep your place on a cross-stitch chart
To keep your place on a cross-stitch chart, mark off every stitch you finish and work in small blocks counted from the chart’s bold tens lines. A ruler or magnetic strip under your row, and a note of where you stopped, do the rest.
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Why it is easy to lose your place
A chart is a grid of hundreds or thousands of squares, and many of them look alike. Miss one square while counting and everything after it shifts by one. Often you only notice when two parts of the design fail to meet.
Every method below does two jobs: it shows what is already stitched, and it keeps the next square easy to find. Most stitchers combine two or three.
Mark off what you stitch
Highlighter
Print or copy a working chart, if the designer’s terms allow it, and keep the original clean. After each run of stitches, colour over those squares. Choose a light highlighter so the symbols stay readable underneath. Some stitchers use a new colour each session, which also shows how the work grew.
Pencil
A pencil tick, cross or light shading does the same job and rubs out. That matters when you unpick a mistake: the chart can say what the fabric says.
Mark straight away
Mark a run as soon as you finish it, before you thread the next colour. “I’ll mark it later” is how most places get lost.
Keep the row in view
A magnetic board holds the chart on a metal sheet, with a magnetic strip laid just under the row you are stitching. Move the strip as you go, and your eye always lands on the right row.
A ruler, a strip of card or a sticky note does the same on a table or your lap. Some stitchers prefer to cover the rows they have finished, others the rows still to come; either works, as long as you always do the same.
Work in 10×10 blocks
Most charts print a bolder line every ten squares. Use those lines as fences. Finish one 10×10 block, check it against the chart, then move on.
A miscount then stays inside one block, and you never count more than ten squares from a bold line. When you start a new area, count from the nearest stitch you have already made, not from the edge of the design.
Grid your fabric
Gridding puts the chart’s bold lines onto the fabric. With a thin, smooth thread in a contrasting colour, run a line of long running stitches every ten squares, across and down. Line the grid up with the chart: find where the centre falls between the chart’s bold lines and count out from there.
Pull the grid thread out as you finish each area, or at the end. Some fabric is sold already gridded, with lines that wash out. Test any marking pen on a scrap before it touches your piece.
One colour at a time, or block by block
There are two ways to order the work, and both keep your place in their own way.
- One colour at a time (often called cross-country): you stitch every square of one colour across an area, then start the next colour. Fewer thread changes, and it suits large patches of one colour. The risk is long counts across empty fabric.
- Block by block: you finish every colour in a small area before moving on. Counts stay short and mistakes stay small. It suits confetti, scattered single stitches in many colours. The parking method makes it quick.
Many stitchers mix the two: big areas of one colour cross-country, busy areas block by block.
Note where you stopped
Before you put the work away, leave the needle at the start of the next stitch, or park it. Put a pin, a sticky arrow or a pencil dot on the chart at the same square. Five seconds now saves ten minutes of searching next time.
How an app keeps your place
A tracker app does the marking and the remembering for you. Crosstela is a free pattern tracker for iPhone, iPad and Mac. Open your PDF chart, then:
- Mark stitches. Tap a square, or drag along a row, and a sewn cross replaces the symbol. By default a mark waits for 👍, so a stray touch never counts. See Mark stitches.
- Go back to your last stitch. The chart opens where you left it. From anywhere else, Last stitch flies back and lights up the last stitch you marked. See Find your place.
- Keep the row in view. Rulers number the rows and columns. The Reading strip covers the rows past yours, like a magnetic board. Tools › Grid draws lines every five or ten squares and marks the centre.
- One colour at a time. Tap a colour on the rail: its stitches stay bright, the rest fade, and a capsule shows how many are left. ▶ takes you from one patch of that colour to the next. See Stitch one colour at a time.
- Block by block. A work area frames the part you are stitching; outside, the chart darkens and takes no marks. Under Sections, choose 10×10 (or up to 50×50) and step from block to block with ‹ and ›. See Work in one area.
- A highlighter that never runs out. Under Progress colours, Done marker fills stitched squares with one colour, and Show only what’s left to stitch takes finished stitches off the chart. See Change how the chart looks.
- See how far you are. Tap the percentage for stitches done of the total, and what you stitched today. See See your progress.
Your patterns and progress go through your own iCloud to your iPhone, iPad and Mac, so the place you marked on one is waiting on the other.
Questions people ask
What is the easiest way to keep track of a cross-stitch pattern?
Mark off each stitch as soon as you make it, and work in small blocks counted from the chart’s bold tens lines. On paper a highlighter on a working copy does this; in a tracker app a tap marks the square and the app remembers where you stopped.
Should I highlight my cross-stitch pattern?
Highlight a working copy, not the original, and choose a light colour so the symbols stay readable. If you often unpick stitches, a pencil is easier, because it rubs out.
How do I find my place after a break?
Look for the last marked square on the chart and your needle on the fabric, then check by counting from the nearest bold line. In Crosstela, Last stitch flies the chart back to the last stitch you marked.
Is it better to stitch one colour at a time or block by block?
One colour at a time suits large patches of the same colour. Block by block, often with parking, suits confetti and charts with many colours, because the counts stay short.
Do I need to grid my fabric?
No, but it helps on large or busy charts. A grid every ten squares matches the chart’s bold lines, so you always count from a line close by.