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1.FABRICS

Begin with either aida or evenweave.

Aida is best for beginners, with regular woven blocks and obvious holes. It’s stiffer than evenweave, but will soften slightly as you work. The most common fabric is 14-count aida. It’s harder to work fractional stitches on aida, as you’ll need to make an extra hole in the fabric, in the centre of the aida block.

is a lovely fabric to work on when you have a little more experience. The fibres aren’t woven in blocks as with aida, so it’s softer and the fine weave has more threads-per-inch – the most commonly used is 28-count. One stitch is usually worked over two threads of the fabric so it has an equivalent design size of 14-count aida. Cross stitching fractional stitches is easier on evenweave,