All About Aida
Aida (ay-dah) is the fabric or cloth we use to cross-stitch. Cross-stitching can be done on other materials, like linen, but aida is the easiest to use and offer a variety of options to suit your cross-stitching needs.
The Colour
Aida can be purchased in a variety of colours. More common colours, and what you’ll generally find in stores, are light colours like white, anitque white or oatmeal. These lighter colours make it easy for pretty much any design.
Additionally, you can purchase aida in pretty much any colour - blue, green, red, pink, etc., with a more commonly found option is black. Changing the colour of your aida can help colours of your design pop or be more subtle, or imply a whole new meaning!
Lastly, aida can also be dyed. Fabric dye can normally be found at your local craft or sewing store (like Michaels or Fabricland).
The Count
Aida comes in different sizes. Not just the size of the piece of fabric, but the size of the holes and spacing between them, called the ‘count’.
A piece of aida’s count number is equal to the number of stitches per inch. The higher the number, the smaller the stitches to allow more stitches in each inch. This can sound more complicated than it is so let’s look at the difference:
14 count aida is most commonly used, especially for beginners (this is what you’ll find in our kits). As the count increases and the stitches get smaller, the more likely you will need a magnifying glass! Other aida counts you may see are 11, 18, 20 or 22.
Why is this important? You’ll need to know the count of your aida before you can cut your aida to size. There’s nothing worse than starting a cross-stitch and realizing your aida is too small!! Stitching a pattern onto aida with a higher count means more stitches per inch, meaning your design is going to be smaller than if you stitch on a lower count. You also need this to get the right sized hoop!
You may also come across patterns that outline a patterns dimensions based on a specific count. There are aida size calculators available online if you’re NOT into the math ;) without making this sound like an elementary school quiz, here’s a quick rundown of how to calculate the new size of your design when switching aida counts:
You’re looking at a pattern that is 5”x4” on 18 count aida, but you want to stitch this on 14 count aida instead. Start by finding the total number of stitches at this size:
5”x18 stitches and 4”x18 stitches means the pattern is 90x72 stitches in size.
Now that we have the size in stitches, we can divide by 14 (as we will now have 14 stitches per inch) to determine the new size in inches:
90/14 and 72/14 means our new pattern size is 6.4”x5.1” on 14 count aida.
The Cut
Now that you know how big your design will be, you’ll need to cut your aida to this size PLUS extra to feed through the hoop and keep it securely in place. You’ll want to add about 2.5”-3” of aida on each side (or 5”-6” on the top and side) of your design size. You may not need quite this much extra, but give yourself atleast an extra 2” per side.