Guides / Getting started
What you need to start cross stitch
A first piece needs very little: fabric, thread, a needle and a pair of scissors. Here is what to ask for in the shop, and why.
Four things are enough for a first design: fabric, thread, a needle and scissors. Any haberdashery has them. The rest can wait: at the start, everybody buys too much.
What you need
- A piece of 14-count aida, white or ecru
- Stranded cotton, one skein per colour
- A size 24 tapestry needle
- A small pair of embroidery scissors
- A 15 to 20 cm hoop, if you like
The fabric: 14-count aida
Aida is woven in little blocks, with a hole at each corner: the fabric does the counting for you.
Aida up close: one square of weave between four holes, and one cross to each square. Photo: Yiota S Xstitch, CC BY 3.0- 18-count looks finer, but its small holes tire the eyes: keep it for later.
- White or ecru: look at it in daylight, as an ecru turns beige by a window.
- A 30 × 40 cm piece is often enough: see choosing your fabric and the fabric calculator.
14-count 5.5 stitches per centimetre: the count to start on
The thread: stranded cotton
Every colour has a number, the same in every shop. The number is what you ask for.
Skeins of stranded cotton, each held by its paper bands, which carry the colour's number. Photo: LornaWatt, CC BY 2.0- 310 is black, White the everyday white, 321 the Christmas red.
- A skein covers about 1,500 stitches: one per colour is enough for a small design.
- DMC, Anchor, Madeira, Cosmo: see the colour chart, which gives each thread's match.
8 m to a skein: six fine strands you separate before stitching
Tip. Bags of 50 unbranded skeins are fine for a try, but their colours have no number: you cannot buy a matching one halfway through.
The needle: tapestry, blunt-tipped
The tapestry needle's long eye takes the thread easily, and the needle is sized to the holes of the aida. Photo: Albarubescens, CC BY-SA 4.0- Size 22 for 11-count aida, 24 for 14-count, 26 for 16 or 18-count.
- The higher the number, the finer the needle.
- Buy a packet: they get lost, and a tarnished needle drags on the thread.
- ✓ A tapestry needle: its round tip slips through the holes without splitting the thread.
- ✗ A sewing needle: sharp, it goes in anywhere and snags the stitches next to it.
Scissors
A small pair with fine, pointed blades, to cut the thread close to the stitches.
Stork scissors, an embroidery classic: short, pointed blades that cut close to the stitches. Photo: Europeana 1914-1918, CC BY-SA 3.0- ✓ Small pointed scissors: the thread snipped clean, close to the back.
- ✗ Big dressmaking scissors near the stitches: that is how a piece gets nicked.
A hoop, if you want one
It holds the fabric taut, and taut fabric gives even stitches. On fairly stiff 14-count aida it is optional.
A wooden hoop: the fabric is held between the two rings, and the screw sets the tension. Photo: Clément Bucco-Lechat, CC BY-SA 3.0- Many stitchers simply hold the fabric in their hand.
- Square clip frames do the same job, and mark the fabric less.
15-20 cm across: the right size for a first hoop
Tip. Take the fabric out of the hoop after every session: left taut, it keeps a round mark that only washing removes.
What can wait
A threader, a lamp, a needle minder, a floor stand: all useful, none of them essential to start.
- Except a pencil: tick off what you stitch to find your place (reading a chart).
- A kit has it all, but it is someone else's design, with thread counted to the metre.
- Bought separately, you stitch what you like: a chart from the gallery, or your own photo.
- To start: fifty stitches wide, fewer than ten colours (choosing the size of a chart).
€20 or so for an eight-colour design, fabric and needles included