What Cross Stitch Fabric to Use: Aida or Linen

Three cloths, and what actually separates them

Aida is cotton woven so that groups of threads sit together as blocks, with a visible hole at each corner. You work one cross over one block. It is stiff, it holds its shape in a hoop, and you can see where the needle goes without looking hard. Every kit you have ever seen came with it.

Evenweave is cotton or a cotton blend woven with the same number of threads per inch both ways, but with no blocks. It is softer than aida and the surface is smooth rather than pebbled.

Linen is flax, woven the same way as evenweave and deliberately imperfect: slubs, thick and thin threads, a colour that varies across the piece. Most people who move off aida are chasing that surface.

The important difference is not softness or price. It is that aida is worked over one and the other two are worked over two.

The over-two rule, which is the whole thing

On evenweave and linen there are no blocks, so a single thread of the cloth is too fine to carry a cross. You work each stitch over two threads in both directions instead. That halves the number on the label.

So a 28 count linen gives 14 stitches to the inch, and a design worked on it comes out the same size as it would on 14 count aida. This is the single fact that makes shop labels readable, and it is the same arithmetic that makes waste canvas work on a shirt, which is set out in stitching on clothes.

Below is the same chart, 140 squares by 112, on every cloth you are likely to be offered. Only the cloth changes.

Read down the finished column and the pairs jump out. These are the same size:

• Aida 11 and Hardanger 22 over two
• Aida 14 and 28 count evenweave or linen over two
• Aida 16 and 32 count linen over two
• Aida 18 and 36 count linen over two

That second line is the one worth memorising, because 28 count linen is the standard step up from 14 count aida and the reason is that nothing about your chart, your frame or your planning has to change.

The number that catches people out at the till

Cloth is sold by threads per inch. Charts are written in stitches. On aida those are the same number and nobody notices there is a distinction. On linen they are not.

Buy 32 count linen expecting 32 stitches to the inch and your piece comes out at half the size you planned. Buy 28 count expecting it to be much finer than 14 count aida and it is not finer at all, it is identical in scale and merely different in surface.

The label is not lying. It is answering a different question from the one you are asking. There is more on how count decides everything downstream in what the aida count number means.

Working over one on linen

You can, at 28 count and above, and it produces very fine work: a 140 by 112 chart on 28 count over one finishes at 5.0 by 4.0 inches, with each stitch 0.91 mm across.

It is a specialist choice: coverage is poor, since one strand over one thread leaves flax showing between the arms of the cross, and the counting is unforgiving. Try it on a small motif first.

Strands, which follow the stitches per inch and not the label

Coarser cloth needs more thread in the needle or the fabric shows through. The number to look up is stitches per inch after the over-two division, not the number printed on the bolt.

So 28 count linen over two takes two strands, not one, because it behaves as 14. Getting this wrong is the most common reason a first linen piece looks thin and patchy compared with the aida the person came from.

Colour, and one thing worth knowing about black

White and cream are the defaults and cream is easier on the eyes over a long evening.

Black cloth changes more than the mood. Pale threads read brighter on it, dark threads nearly vanish, and the holes become hard to see, which is why people who work on black keep a white cloth over their knees.

How much to buy

Three inches more than the design in each direction, which is the right hand column in the table above. That gives an inch and a half of spare on every side: enough for a hoop to grip and enough to fold over a mounting board at the end.

Aida for a 10 by 8 inch design costs about a dollar and a half at US shop prices, so cutting it tight to save that is a false economy you make exactly once. What the margin is eventually used for is set out in washing and framing a finished piece.

So which one

Fourteen count aida for a first project, and for any project where you want the stitching to be the easy part.

Twenty eight count evenweave when the aida blocks start to annoy you. Same size, same charts, same strands, softer surface, and cotton evenweave is more regular than linen so the counting stays honest while you get used to working over two.

Linen when you want the look, and specifically 28 or 32 count. Below that the slubs read as flaws; above it, you should already know you enjoy this.

Every size, stitch pitch and cutting figure on this page was computed by the model that Flossgrid runs on, from the same 140 by 112 chart put onto each cloth in turn.