Expert: Kris - 7/8/2009

Question
Hi Kris, what does this mean to stitch over 2 threads? I
am going to cross stitch on a receiving blanket that is a
18 ct. My pattern is a 14 ct. I would like to keep the "snoopy" the same size as the 14ct. Does this mean stitch over 2 squares vs. 1 square?

Answer
Theresa,

I will be happy to help you with this! Stitching over 2 means that instead of your stitch covering one square of the fabric it will actually cover 4! Two horizontally and two vertically. When you are stitching over 1, you bring the thread up and count over 1 and up (or down) 1 and then place the needle back through to the underside of the fabric. You then go over one on the back side of the fabric and bring the needle up to complete the X. Well, when stitching over 2 you do the exact same thing, except instead of counting over and up 1, you count over 2 and up 2.

Now this greatly changes the size of the piece. On 14 count, over 1 means 14 stitches to the inch. If you work over 2, you will only get 7 stitches to the inch. Doubling the size of your piece. If the blanket you are working on is 18 count and you work it over 1 it will be smaller than the 14 count size. But is you work it over 2, it will be slightly larger than the 14 count.

Here is an example of the difference in size for you - if your stitch count is 140 x 180 and you worked it over 1 on 14 count, then your design size would be about 10"x13". Over 2 on 14 count, your design size would be about 20"x26". On 18 count, over 1, your design size would be approx. 8"x10" and over 2 it would be about 16"x20".

If the blanket is 18 count and you stitch the pattern over 1 it will be smaller than what you want and if you stitch over 2, it will be larger than what you want.

I hope this was helpful to you! Please feel free to ask me more questions if you would like! Your project sounds adorable.

Happy Stitching!
Kris