Embroidery Definitions — definitions of embroidery techniques, stitches and needlework terms from Apparel Search
Counted-thread embroidery is any embroidery in which the fabric threads are counted by the embroiderer before inserting the needle into the fabric. Evenweave fabric is usually used, producing a symmetrical image because both warp and weft fabric threads are evenly spaced. The opposite of counted-thread embroidery is free embroidery. Techniques in the counted family include cross-stitch, Hardanger embroidery, Assisi embroidery and needlepoint.
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The opposite of counted-thread embroidery is free embroidery.
Among the counted-thread embroidery techniques are:
| The above article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/counted-thread_embroidery). 5/1/05 |
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Counting turns fabric into graph paper. A charted design can be sold, copied and worked by someone who has never seen the finished piece, because the instructions are purely numerical: so many threads across, so many down, in this color. That reproducibility is what made counted work the natural partner of printed pattern publishing — Berlin wool work charts and modern cross-stitch charts are the same idea two centuries apart. It also makes counted work self-checking in a way free embroidery is not: a mistake of one thread shows up as a motif drifting against its border, and can be located by counting back to the last point where chart and cloth agreed.
Precision is only the first consequence. Counting also enables techniques that alter the fabric itself on a measured plan: drawn thread work and Hardanger withdraw threads at counted intervals and rebuild the remaining grid with woven bars, which would be impossible if the spacing were irregular. Negative techniques depend on it too — Assisi embroidery's voided motif is only as clean as the counted background surrounding it. The constraint cuts the other way for curves: a counted design approximates a diagonal or a circle in steps, and much of the character of cross-stitch, blackwork and needlepoint comes from how designers turn that stepped grid into shading, outlines and stylized forms rather than fighting it.
Counted work is specified by the fabric count — threads per inch — and the span each stitch covers, so the same chart yields a large motif on coarse fabric and a miniature on fine linen. Stitchers choose the count to suit the object's life: coarse counts for household pieces that must be worked and washed quickly, fine counts where a design must sit on a garment or a small framed piece. Evenweave made for the purpose, such as Aida cloth with its woven blocks, lowers the counting burden by grouping threads visibly, which is why beginners meet counted technique through Aida before moving to plain linens.
The stitcher counts a set number of warp or weft threads and places each stitch over exactly that span, following a chart. Because every stitch occupies a known number of fabric threads, the chart on paper and the work on cloth stay in exact correspondence, square for square.
Evenweave has warp and weft threads evenly spaced, the same count in both directions. That regularity is what makes the image symmetrical and keeps a charted design from stretching taller or wider on the cloth than it is on the chart.
Cross-stitch, Hardanger embroidery, Assisi embroidery and needlepoint are counted-thread techniques. Blackwork and canvas work also belong to the counted family, since their stitches are placed by the fabric grid rather than by a drawn line.