I seem to use a lot of waffle stitches in various shapes and sizes, so it’s only natural that waffle stitches should appear here as well.
You can download the instructions for the next part here: Stitch Along Part 8
So, what’s so special about waffle stitches? For one thing, they’re very versatile; a waffle stitch can be square, rectangular, diamond shaped, star shaped or round. Waffle stitches are also very flat, so with highly textured areas around them it’s a useful design device to introduce a flatter area. When you stitch a waffle stitch with an overdyed or variegated thread, most of the color changes remain on top of the canvas. And, since most of the thread is on top of the canvas, it’s a good way to use an expensive thread!
You can make a waffle stitch a solid color, as I’ve used it here, or you can introduce other textures and/or colors by making every other round with a different thread. I’ve done this quite a bit, but have spared you the quirks of my imagination for this project!
To stitch a waffle stitch, begin with a large cross stitch. Since this one is square, I started with a large cross stitch over 10 canvas threads. From this point on, I think of stitching a waffle stitch as “rounds” – laying stitches next to the previous ones in a specific order. One thing to remember is that the the side where the needle goes down, is the side where it will come up again.
This diagram only shows numbers at the beginning of the stitches. The first large cross stitch is formed by the 1 and 2 stitch. Then, from there we start stitching in rounds. The third stitch (3) comes up on the same side where the second stitch (2) ended. That stitch ends at the top, then stitch 4 will come up on the same side. The waffle stitch continues like this until the end of the last stitch – that stitch, 18 will slide under the first stitch of that round, 15, before ending, to put a thread on top of the last stitch too.
I hope you’re enjoying our stitch along – I am! I know what the next stitches will be, but I’m not sure after that. We’ll find out together!