Aida is a Four-Letter Word

Three Penny Opera

Hardanger on aida 3ft. X 12"

painted with varnish and gold with cotton and gold threads

I have worked on many grounds in my stitching life and have even worked puntos in aria (stitches in air) For doing pure, beautiful embroidery there is nothing like linen. High quality linen has a sheen to it and a hand to it that is unequaled in any other ground. The "count" of evenweave fabric is how many threads per inch. So the higher the number, the smaller the holes. I prefer working on 28 to 32 count, but have happily worked on 48 count. There are tinier counts, however 48 is my personal upper limit. Glenshee is my favorite linen to work on, but I can rarely get my hands on that brand.

Evenweave cotton is pretty good to work on too. Egyptian cotton which is long staple is very soft and luxurious. It is an excellent ground. I like to work on cotton sometimes because the threads are rounds while the linen threads tend to be flatter. I truly like Hardanger done on cotton. The cotton gives it a slightly crisper look. These cottons I am talking about are the tabby weaves and look very much like evenweave linen.

Derwentwater

Hardanger on hand-dyed cotton with cotton threads

14" X 20", I dyed this in an exhaust bath of blue indigo

Hardanger is classically done on hardanger fabric which is a double tabby. Hardanger comes in a couple of sizes, but the most familiar is 22-count. Classic Hardanger done on this looks tremendous, a hand in a custom-made glove. I like the highest quality of the hardanger fabrics. In this case price is an indication of quality. Hardanger weave and count is also available in linen for a wonderful look. But unless I am going to actually use the item I stitch, the cotton is just fine with me. You might have noticed that I use Hardanger/hardanger in two ways. The name of the embroidery from Norway is capitalized (according to EGA) while the name of the fabric it is done on is in small case.

Coleus 1

Hardanger on hardanger cloth, 16" X 20"

This was painted with Dye-Na-Flow before the stitching was done.

Aida is another type of fabric to do embroidery on and it is also the cheapest of the fabrics. It is a complex evenweave that looks like a waffle. I do not like this fabric at all. Using linen or cotton, an embroiderer generally does stitch over two threads. So a cross-stitch would be done over two threads diagonally in one direction and over two threads diagonally across in the other. With aida, a stitcher stitches over the waffle. One cannot make half stitches or quarter stitches. Aida cannot be cut nicely for Hardanger. In Hardanger embroidery, after stabilizing the ground with the kloster units, the fabric is cut away in a pattern to reveal a grid to stitch upon further. There is no possibility of this with aida. However, having said this, one of my best pieces of American-style, non-traditional Hardanger is done on aida. It was one of those things where I was greatly inspired to do a piece of Hardanger and I needed to start Right Then. The only piece of fabric in my stash that was the right color was a large block of aida that someone had given me to do some demonstrating on. So I used it. It turned out very nicely. This piece of Hardanger and one piece of cross-stitch are the only things I have done in aida. I do not like it and do not recommend it to any one but very beginning stitchers.

Another ground I have used very often and with which I am very pleased is perforated paper. This is archival stuff that normally comes in 9" X 12" pieces (though I have seen larger and smaller). It is fourteen count and comes in various colors. I like to get the white or off-white and then color it as I please. It is easy to do and the customizing can be extraordinarily beautiful. Perforated paper has been around at least a hundred and fifty years, so we know it lasts. The museums in Salt Lake City are full of paper samplers done in the late 1860s and later. Many pieces of mine can be seen in other posts in this blog.


I have worked on exotic grounds too, like window screening, paper I have perforated myself, ribbons, a steel grid. And with all of the above, from linen to cotton to paper to the exotics, I am just talking about counted work. Surface work or free surface design work can be done on these things, plus a wide variety of other things.


And the "stitches in air"--that is lace. When needlelace is done, it is done over threads. The threads are covered by more threads in buttonhole stitch, It just looks like stitches in air. Again it is the strong thread that binds us.