Poll - Do You Prefer Charts or Kits?
Monday June 29, 2009
I have stitched a lot of Cross Stitch projects in my life-time. Personally, for small projects like ornaments or gift tags, I do not mind using a kit, but for larger projects, I prefer to stitch from a chart and choose my own material and floss. Which would you rather get as a gift - a chart or a kit? Vote in the poll and let us know!
If you select "Other" please explain your answer in the comments section. You may also use the comments area to let us know more about what you think about charts vs. kits or to tell us about your experiences with both.
Of course, your family may be like mine - they rarely give me gifts related to my hobby because they are afraid I will already have the item. To that I say, "Gift Cards, people!" Is your family like that?
If you select "Other" please explain your answer in the comments section. You may also use the comments area to let us know more about what you think about charts vs. kits or to tell us about your experiences with both.
Of course, your family may be like mine - they rarely give me gifts related to my hobby because they are afraid I will already have the item. To that I say, "Gift Cards, people!" Is your family like that?
Comments
Sometimes I prefer kits(small) for speed but it’s nicer to choose everything myself! Donna
I prefer to do charts as I have found that with kits sometimes I want to stitch on a larger count fabric and then I know there will never be enough floss. When the companies put the floss in their cute little number systems so that you never can figure out what the DMC equivilent is. I then decide whether or not I will ever use that company’s products again. Usually not is my feeling.
I also have found that there are substitution floss guides on the web so I can convert, thankfully. Then the kits are somewhat recoverable.
I like them both. But, the problem that I have with kits is that in some of them, it is nearly impossible to tell the colors apart when you are separating them. I bought a kit to make for a friend, and it had six shades of tan!!! And that was how they were listed in the chart that came with the kit. And even when I handed the floss to my wife to get her help with separating the colors, she could only find four shades. LOL. So, I crossed the colors to DMC shades and went and bought my own floss anyway. Problem solved.
The only other complaint I’ve had about kits is this. Just how many people out there can finish a project larger than about 4″ x 4″ with just one needle? And I’ve never bought a kit that included more than one needle. Even the “good ones”.
But, for the most part, I do like the kits. And let’s face it, how easy is it to find that 9 x 12 piece of burgundy colored, 18 count aida?
Ken
I prefer charts for any projects. I like when the artist-creator indicates colours . It gives a schema for positioning dark and light and I choose my colours seldom what I want to express . Some patterns created for Spring I stitched with Fall colours for example
Any way I enjoy your site
Thank you very much for everything
Cordially
michele
Thanks to everyone for taking the time to share your opinions (and kind words, michele). I too prefer charts, but I have chosen to stitch from kits now and again too.
I use both charts and kits (depending what I fancy at the time) but my real preference it to start from scratch and design my own. They are usually for someone, I have done a number of baby samplers, and I find that I can do something much more personal this way.
I’ve done kits and charts but I also do cross stitch of my own creation from photos that I’ve taken. Mostly flowers. I did I did one years ago of one of my daughters nursing her new born first child. That was hard getting the skin colors right.
I prefer charts, especially from my favorite magazine Cross Stitch & Country Crafts. Their **** rated charts interest and challange me the most. The only time I do kits is when I am in a hurry and need something to do for an unexpected travel trip. I have been burned with a kit once or twice when the quality of the floss was poor (was dry, hard to pull through and tangled constantly) or the material was so stiff that it was hard to handle until I could work it at home. Sometimes a kit especially strikes my fancy or is one I find while traveling that will not be available anywhere close to home. If I have the time in advance, I would much rather prefer to put together my own project.
I prefer to use charts as I prefer to select my own materials for both color and quality reasons. I will buy kits buy not for the pattern. I especially like to use hand-dyed fabrics which frequently cause me to need to change the colors to reach the look. I have also found that the kits can be frustrating in that they don’t provide enough thread, it’s a mush when you get it or the quality is bad.
I prefer kits for smaller projects, but charts for larger projects. The creases in the fabric usually can’t be permanently ironed out, even when starched.
even if i get a kit there is always thigns i change about it, but then there are times i like the kits picture then a chart or book
It depends on the project. If I can find just the chart I will do my own floss, etc. I find that some kits have colors so close in the floss they supply that it is an annoying challenge to separate them according to the color descriptions. That really comes into play when they have their own special floss which means using the DMC or Anchor color charts doesn’t help. So I avoid those kits, even if it is something I would like to do. Sometimes I have pulled my own colors to do a kit and that works well.
What I don’t like about most kits is that the piece of fabric is too small to be framed in an attractive manner. Some designs leave you less than two inches on all sides for matting and framing. Some pieces of fabric aren’t cut on the grain properly so you can lose fabric that way also. I change floss colors frequently for all most anything I do.
It really depends on the project. If I am only going to do the project once, a kit it is. Multiple times like baby bibs, then charts are better.
I prefer charts. It seems to me that kits can actually end up being more expensive. Not to mention, it can be time consuming and a hassle to separate the floss and then figure out which color is which on the chart.
Charts only has the “cost-effective” bonus, added to the fact that I can use floss & fabric from my stash. Kits on the other hand provide me with “hard to find” materials.
I’M LIKE YOU…GIFT CARDS!!! I LOVE THEM…THEN I CAN CHOOSE WHAT I NEED OR WANT!!!
I have always done kits up till now, but recently I had a couple of bad experiences with kits having poor quality thread and also not including enough to complete the project. I feel thta kits are very expensive and its frustrating when you have to buy extra to complete.
I have decided to use charts from the stitching mags I subscribe to as there are loads of lovely ideas and the added bonus of having floss left to do other items!
I very much prefer charts. The frustration of separating similar looking threads with same number of strands is not worth the convenience of having ‘all in one place’. I also prefer the flexibility of choosing my own fabric (prefer high count linen to aida) and colors. Having said this, I am working on a kit now and still have my fingers crossed that I separated and called the 8 shades of green correctly!
I prefer charts for the most part. I don’t generally care for the thread that’s in the kits as it tends to snap and break at the worst time, and there’s never enough. With a chart, I can find a material I like better and can separate the different colors easier.
I sometimes do use kits, but mostly they are special ones, crewel work or canvas, that have specialty threads I might not have. I like to choose my own fabric & floss – I can use a better linen & use what I have in my stash (like silks). Many kits have aida in them & I do NOT use that anymore.
Like many of the other posters, I sometimes have trouble figuring out the different shades of a color. Also, large kits are usually more expensive. If it is small project, such as mini Christmas stockings that hold cash or a candy cane and I need to make several, i will use a kit, but mostly I prefer to use a chart. I admire the stitchers that like to make their own charts. As long as I have been stitching, I never tried making my own. Should try it sometime.
I would perfer to give a chart and a gift certificate for the receiver to use in the fabric or for the floss.
I prefer high-quality counted cross stitch kits but always change the fabric. I like to paint a background on my fabric before I start stitching. I usually choose a fabric with a higher thread count so that the floss covers completely. I sometimes increase to 3 strands of floss to insure a smooth finish. And I’ll add beads, charms, etc. either left over from other kits or specifically purchased for the current project.
I find that I end up with too much floss for my needs if I use charts. However, I have used charts with great success.
Hi. I loved both, since they have their advantages. I like charts since I can choose the size of the fabric and colors. I have at home binders w/different colors so is not hard to get them. My problem is to get the fabric; I dont have a craft shop nearby and only Walmart have the floss, but not variety of fabric. I do my byuing for both kits and materials in the net.
Kits advantages is that you have all in one place. When I buy in the net I fall in love w/a project, but most of the times that project is available only or as a kit or a pattern, they dont give you the option of both. The big projects I have bought lately are available in kits only. But one of my favorites designers (Paula Vaughn)just comes in patterns, so I get to choose the size of the fabric and the color (which is the hardest since almost all the colors I find are white and cream….not the other colors). But still, the important thing is that I have the projects I like, the health and desire to do them and the time….that is what is important.
God bless
I like both, I prefer to change things to my own floss and fabric choices, but when i want something simple and quick a kit is great for that.
Quality is a major concern when purchasing a kit. If I am able to actually see the kit, or know it is from a reliable source, then I might select it. If I cannot be assured of high quality, the kit is not purchased.
I have had “bad” experiences with kits. My mother bought one in which there was the wrong floss. It contained colors that were not in the design, of other colors there was either far too little or far too much floss.
I just had a mini-kit (well, it was a giveaway with a needlework magazine) that contained barely enough of one of the colors and nothing at all for the background. Would you frame something done on waste canvas without a stitched background? I definitely would not. And in a kit that I bought for my daughter to learn stitching the yarn was of such a terrible quality that it began to dissolve after five or six stitches.
So I decided that the only acceptable kits for me are the plastic canvas ones and only when the plastic canvas in it is at least as cheap as when I buy it without a kit.
Also the printing on the fabric is often so bad that it would be easyer to count.
I usually laminate my charts, so they will keep intact and I can even mark places on them and get my marks off again when I no longer need them. My nine years old daughter wanted to do a kit with a cute dog as her first stitching project. The yarn dissolved, the printing is so terrible that even an experienced stitcher gets into trouble – she did not even finish one third of the thing. My six year old did a duck on plastic canvas. She had to count the stitches but she finished her first project. The chart and the piece of plastic canvas are from a kit – the yarn went off to the bin immediately because it was so bad quality and terrible colors (too neon-yellow even for a kid who likes bright colors…).
Perhaps those really expensive kits are better quality, but I lack the will and the money to experiment.
I prefer charts mostly because they are easier to store (they take up much less room) and I never know when I might do any particular chart. It’s always easy enough to get the materials I need when I am ready to do the project.