How to keep your place on a cross stitch chart

Why it is easy to lose your place

A counted cross stitch chart is a grid in which each square stands for one stitch, and the symbol inside the square tells you which thread to use. Stitched Modern explains that darker lines divide the grid into 10 by 10 sections and that numbers along the top and side count the rows and columns, both there to help you keep your place. On a small motif that is usually enough. On a large piece with thousands of squares, it often is not.

The trouble grows with size and with how alike the symbols look. Little Lion Stitchery points out that black and white charts are the easiest to get lost in, because everything is one color and some symbols look the same. Charts that run across several pages add another step, since you have to line up the overlap between pages every time you cross from one to the next.

Losing your place is more than an annoyance. A stitch placed one square off shifts everything you stitch around it. Stitched Modern's advice is to fix an off-target stitch as soon as you notice it, because each stitch added around the mistake makes it bigger to undo later.

Start with a working copy

Most stitchers mark up a copy rather than the chart they bought. Stitched Modern suggests a photocopy as a working copy you can highlight freely and fold up for stitching away from home, and notes that you can enlarge tiny symbols while copying. For PDF patterns, StitchiStudio recommends printing as large as your printer allows, with A3 or US tabloid (11 by 17 inches) as the size where each square is big enough to read without squinting.

For charts that span pages, the writer at Little Lion Stitchery prints the pages, trims the excess and tapes them into one sheet, which saves flipping back and forth. Lord Libidan gives the same advice for page breaks: tape the pattern together at the break to make one larger grid.

Copies have limits. Jane Greenoff of The Cross Stitch Guild writes that there is nothing wrong with copying and enlarging charts you own purely for your personal use, but that copying a chart for use by anyone other than the person who bought it, or received it as a gift, is illegal. Stitched Modern adds that you should plan on destroying your working copy when you are done with it.

This is general information, not legal advice. Copyright rules differ between countries, so check the designer's own terms for a pattern, and talk to a lawyer if you need a firm answer.

Count from the bold lines, and consider gridding the fabric

The bold lines are the most useful landmark on the chart. StitchiStudio's advice is to count from one bold line to the next rather than from the edge of the chart every time. A count of ten or fewer squares is much harder to get wrong than a count of sixty.

Gridding carries the same idea over to the fabric. You mark a line on the fabric every 10 squares so it matches the bold lines on the chart. Little Lion Stitchery notes that some stitchers draw full lines while others mark only a small plus at each 10 by 10 intersection. Lord Libidan recommends gridding for large patterns, and for any project started from an edge or corner instead of the center, because it helps with counting and placement.

What you grid with matters. Dana Batho of Peacock & Fig warns that pencil graphite can rub off onto light colored floss, and that lines drawn with some water-erasable fabric markers can reappear if the fabric gets cold. She now stitches grid lines in with thin nylon thread, which pulls out cleanly at the end. DMC also makes Magic Guide, a pre-gridded fabric whose lines wash away with water, though Little Lion Stitchery lists it only in 14 count white Aida, cut to 14 by 18 inches.

Mark the area you are working on

Apart from what is finished, you need a marker for where you are right now. Stitched Modern recommends highlighter tape, which is transparent so the chart reads through it, and can be lifted and moved without damaging the page. Different tape colors can mark the current area, stitches you skipped and need to come back to, and anything else you want to find again.

A metal board with magnets does the same job. Stitched Modern describes holding the chart to a small whiteboard or metal clipboard with small magnets, then laying long flat magnet strips along the rows you are on and moving them as you progress through the chart.

If you park threads, you need one more kind of mark. Parking means leaving a thread waiting in the hole where its color is next needed instead of finishing it off. Stitching Daily marks parked squares with a bright highlighter, such as neon yellow, and colors over them with a darker one, such as blue, once those stitches are done.

Mark finished stitches as you go

Once an area is stitched, mark it. Stitched Modern suggests highlighter pens or a pencil, and the writer at Little Lion Stitchery prefers a highlighter to a pen because it makes the finished and unfinished parts stand out at a glance. StitchiStudio describes two rhythms: cross out each square as you stitch it, or cross out a whole 10 by 10 block when it is complete.

Mark lightly enough to read through. Stitching Daily's tip is to color over squares in a way that keeps the symbols visible, so you can still catch a square you stitched in the wrong color. The same site warns that some highlighters smudge inkjet printing and blur the symbol, so test yours on a corner of the chart before you start.

If you would rather not mark paper at all, StitchiStudio notes that many stitchers slide the chart into a clear plastic sleeve and check off rows with a dry-erase marker. For PDF charts, Peacock & Fig mentions the highlighting tool in a PDF reader.

Phone apps can do the same job on screen. Stitchkeep, for example, works from a photo of a paper chart or a page of a PDF you bought: each square you tap or drag over fills with a see-through color and a small check so the printed symbol still shows, and the eraser or a one-step undo takes back a mistake. It tracks full cross stitches only, so half, quarter and three-quarter stitches, backstitch, French knots and beads stay on your paper chart.

Common mistakes when tracking a chart

Marking the original. StitchiStudio's rule is to mark a photocopy, never the original. Stitching Daily gives the reason: the unmarked original is your backup if the working copy is lost or ruined.

Counting from the edge of the chart. Every long count is a chance to skip a square. Count from the nearest bold line instead, and check in both directions; the writer at Little Lion Stitchery counts horizontally and vertically to make sure stitches line up.

Mixing up similar symbols. StitchiStudio notes that a circle and a dot can look identical when you are tired, and suggests keeping a fresh copy of the key next to the chart. Little Lion Stitchery's broader advice is to stop when you start to get tired, since that is when errors creep in.

Leaving a mistake for later. Stitched Modern recommends fixing an off-target stitch right away, before more stitches are placed around it.

Frequently asked questions