The parking method for cross stitch, explained
Instead of finishing a colour and starting the next, you leave each needle parked where it will be needed again.
The idea
Work the chart one row (or one ten-by-ten block) at a time, stitching every colour that appears in it. When a colour is done for that row, bring the needle up through the hole where that colour next appears and leave it there, parked, on the front. Pick up the next colour and continue.
Why bother
Charts with many single stitches of different colours — confetti — are slow by the usual method because every colour is started and finished again and again. Parking means each thread is started once and the back stays tidy, and nothing is ever miscounted because you never leave the row.
Keeping control
Park needles in a line above the working area, each in the hole it will next stitch. Four or five parked threads is comfortable; a dozen is possible with practice. Use a needle for every colour rather than rethreading.
Do our charts need it
Rarely. Every chart here is cleaned of stray single stitches before it is sold, so colours arrive in blocks. Parking is still a pleasant way to work a chart in order, but a 16-colour pattern on black aida does not demand it.
