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CRISS-CROSS HUNGARIAN

The criss-cross hungarian is a wonderfully versatile and textured stitch. Because it is stitched at a true diagonal angle, it is easy to compensate, although because of the complexity of the stitch, it can sometimes be difficult to know where to put compensating stitches if you try to do them too soon. It is usually easiest to stitch full rows of criss-cross hungarian stitch, and then to add compensating stitches around the outer edge as a final step.

The criss-cross hungarian stitch is made up of small blocks stitched over two threads, three threads and two threads, after which you skip one canvas thread, and repeat. At the end of the row, you drop down a thread and change the angle of the stitch as you reverse direction. After you make several rows of this, you will notice that unstitched canvas intersections remain dotted in a regular pattern. These empty areas can be embellished in a number of ways. It can be particularly effective to use a thread that is the same color as the main thread, but in a different texture (such as a metallic thread or rayon thread if the main stitch has been done in a wool or cotton thread). You can stitch these open areas in french knots, a single tent stitch or a cross stitch, or you may prefer instead to sew a bead on in these spaces. If you would like to create more of a polka dot texture, you can use a contrasting color for these embellishments.

The first diagram shows the first row of criss-cross hungarian stitch, if you choose to make the first row in the left-to-right direction:

Note that to get from the first block of three threads to the second block of three threads, you are skipping one canvas thread (and dropping down one canvas thread from where your needle went down at number 6).

The second diagram shows the first row of criss-cross hungarian stitch completed, with the second row done from right to left (for purposes of clarity, this second row is shown in aqua):

The third row of criss-cross hungarian stitch is a repeat of the first row:

So far, to keep things less confusing, we have only shown full stitches, with no compensating stitches. The next diagram shows how compensating stitches would look if you were using this stitch in an area with straight edges (for purposes of clarity, the compensating stitches are shown in aqua):

Next we will see various ways to embellish the open intersections. The first diagram shows what it would look like with either a bead or a french knot in the intersection:

Next is an illustration of the criss-cross hungarian stitch with a cross stitch in the empty space (the cross stitch is shown in aqua):

This is what the criss-cross hungarian stitch would look like with a tent stitch in the empty area (again, the tent stitch is shown in aqua for the sake of clarity; this does not mean that you must use a different color of thread for this stitch):

Here is a picture of this stitch, with the open intersections left unstitched:

Diagrams and text copyright 2005, Denise Davis, Threadneedle Street