What is the difference between parking and cross country cross stitch

Two ways to work through a chart

A counted cross stitch chart can be stitched in any order, and stitchers have settled on two main approaches. Wikipedia's cross-stitch article sums them up this way: in the cross country method one color is stitched at a time, and in the parking method one block of fabric is stitched at a time, with the end of each thread parked at the next point where the same color occurs in the pattern.

The two names are sometimes mixed up. Working through one symbol at a time is cross country. Parking is the block-by-block method, and it is the one that leaves threads hanging from the front of the fabric while they wait for their next stitch.

Neither is the correct way. Two Little Kits stresses that parking is not a requirement or a measure of how skilled a stitcher is, and Stitching Daily, whose writer parks on most projects, says the most efficient method is simply the one that works for you on the project in front of you.

How cross country works

In cross country you thread one color and stitch every square of it in the area you have chosen, skipping over squares of other colors, before you start the next color. Stitching Daily describes that area as the whole project, a page or a section. Running one color across the entire chart is sometimes called extreme cross country, while limiting it to one motif or page lets the picture appear sooner.

How far the thread travels across the back is the practical limit. Stitching Daily's writer usually carries thread no more than 1 to 1.5 inches, about 2.5 to 4 cm, and ends the thread and starts a new one for anything farther.

Lord Libidan suggests opening a large piece by stitching black across the whole chart first, because it outlines almost everything and cuts down on grid lines and counting afterwards. Dana Batho of Peacock & Fig, who mostly stitches cross country, counts longer threads and the freedom to travel across the piece among its advantages. The drawback she names is placement: the first colors go into open fabric with nothing stitched around them, and if one is misplaced, everything around that area is affected. She recommends a tracking system such as gridding the fabric or highlighting the chart.

How parking works, step by step

1. Pick a small working area. Stitching Daily's tutorial uses a 10 by 10 block, 10 columns across and 10 rows down; the same writer also likes 10 by 20 blocks, and some stitchers park along a whole row instead.
2. Stitch every square of one color inside the block. When that color is finished there, bring the needle up at the next square of the same color outside the block, looking first in the block to the right and then in the block below, and leave the thread there. That thread is now parked.
3. Mark the finished stitches and the parked square on your chart, pick the next color and repeat. When you move on to the next block, the parked threads are already sitting in the right holes, counted and ready.

Stitching Daily's one firm rule is to park in the same corner of the stitch for the whole project. Some stitchers keep a needle on every parked thread; most take the needles off and rethread when they come back. Two Little Kits admits that a parked work in progress often looks chaotic, with needles attached to the fabric and threads hanging in several directions, and that threads tangle, especially early on. None of that affects the finished stitching, but you will want some way to manage several active needles at once.

Which method suits your chart

Stitching Daily frames the choice as four questions. If you are happy carrying thread a long way across the back, try cross country; that writer dislikes carries of more than 2 inches, about 5 cm. If loose threads dangling in front of the work bother you, try cross country. If you dislike threading needles, try cross country, since parking usually means rethreading each color. And if you are not confident counting the gaps between stitches, try parking, which keeps every count within a small area.

The design matters too. Stitching Daily finds that patterns with large blocks of one color are easier in cross country, while areas full of confetti, meaning many different colors scattered through a small space, go better with parking because they lead to fewer counting mistakes. The same writer parks only on full-coverage pieces, where every square is stitched, because threads carried behind empty fabric may show through.

Lord Libidan adds a caution about small blocks. Stitching block by block, sometimes 10 by 10, can leave block lines visible across the finished work that are hard to wash out, so the site suggests not stitching in blocks smaller than a page.

The simplest test comes from Stitching Daily: set a timer for five minutes and stitch with one method, then do the same with the other. Plenty of stitchers end up somewhere in between. Dana Batho works mostly cross country but parks a thread in a nearby stitch at the end of a large section, and you can switch methods partway through a project.

Keeping track of the chart with each method

For cross country, marking is simple: color over each square once it is stitched. Stitching Daily recommends marking in a way that keeps the symbols visible, so a square stitched in the wrong color can still be caught later. For digital charts, Peacock & Fig notes that the highlighting tool in a PDF reader does the job.

Parking needs two marks. On a paper chart, Stitching Daily marks squares where a thread is parked in a light color such as yellow, then colors over them in a darker color such as blue once they are stitched. In the tutorial only half of the parked square is highlighted, to show which corner the thread is waiting in.

Some phone trackers follow the cross country habit. In Stitchkeep, for instance, you pick a symbol and only its squares stay bright while the rest of the chart dims, with a count of how many of that symbol are left and a rough date range for finishing it. Each square is simply marked or not, with no separate mark for a parked thread, so if you park you would still note parked squares on paper.

Common mistakes with either method

Carrying thread too far. Stitching Daily's writer, who stitches in hand rather than in a frame, explains that a 5 inch carry between two stitches can cause tension problems or leave loose thread hanging on the back. End the thread and start again instead.

Parking on a sparse design. Carried threads can show through empty fabric. On designs that are not full coverage, Stitching Daily carries thread only over short distances and ends it and starts fresh when the gap is long or the fabric weave is open.

Switching parking corners. Stitching Daily's rule is to park in the same corner of the stitch, and start each X the same way, for the entire project, so every parked thread sits where you expect it.

Starting cross country with nothing to count from. The first colors of a cross country piece sit in open fabric, and Peacock & Fig warns that one misplaced early color throws off everything around it. Grid the fabric, begin with a color that outlines the design, as Lord Libidan does with black, and count from the nearest bold line on the chart.

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