Why stitch this way?

[Krysta]

Makes more sense to me than that whole 'simple math' post.
Also, I think I am one of the very few who does the lines vertically instead of horizontally. That's just the way my mother taught me (when I was but a wee one). So I stick to that. I get confused when I see others doing it horizontally. I guess it doesn't matter anyway, it uses up the same amount of thread.

[dark_king999]

When I'm stitching, I don't have a set way I stitch, really. I tend to do half stitches for large chunks of color or outlines, but at times, I go for a full cross. It all depends on if I'm moving from a large area to a small area or whatever. Also, my top stitch on my crosses alternate as well, due to the randomness of which stitch I add next. I honestly never noticed it till I saw this thread (see what I did there?), and I'll never be able to unsee it now. I guess it's partly because I don't strictly move left to right or up and down. I'll go all over the place to get what I need done x3 I'll have to practice more!

[Sheetaaa]

I always do the whole cross, but not when I must do half stitches and go backwards to avoid wasting thread!

[SofaraStarfyre]

When I started cross stitching as a teen, I learned by the english method (doing the whole cross and moving onto the next stitch), but as I got better at it, I started varying into what I learned the other day is called the continental stitch (doing a row of half stitch and then filling it in on the way back). I think I might try doing continental on my next project and see what happens. If as others have suggested, it makes taking mistakes out easier, I am all for that... I HATE removing TONS of completed stitches when I find I have screwed up like what happened to me the other day...

[RMDC]

I try to do halves when I can to save thread. HOWEVER: I'm usually looking ahead to my "end points". If I've got a linear path which goes from point A to point B, I stick with half-stitches. But if I'm going off on branches from a central path or node, I tend to do full crosses when moving one-way down the path with no need to return, and only use half-stitches when going down a branch - I lay down halves like a bread crumb trail until I reach the end of the branch, then follow the trail back to the main path.

Take lettering, for example: If I'm jumping from a "u" to an "h", working left to right, I can go full-cross on the "u", then skip over to the "h" - but I'm starting at the middle of the long side of the "h". The long line side has top and bottom branches off the main path that goes to the next letter. So I half my way up the tail, finish my way down, then do the same thing for the bottom half of the line. Now I'm back at the middle of the long line and ready to move "forward".

OH MY GOD OVEREXPLANATION

[Meowgan]

But if I'm going off on branches from a central path or node, I tend to do full crosses when moving one-way down the path with no need to return, and only use half-stitches when going down a branch - I lay down halves like a bread crumb trail until I reach the end of the branch, then follow the trail back to the main path.

I do it similar to this, but I always do my stitches in halves.

If I have a line that has a few branches. I will do half stitches all the way to the end of the original line, then as I'm crossing them on the way back I will stop at the first junction, do half stitches to the end of that branch and then follow my "trail of breadcrumbs" (nice analogy!) back to my original line. And then I continue stitching back along my original line and when I get to the next junction I'll rinse and repeat. Sometimes there's not really a "branch", instead there's just 1 or 2 blocks in the row above or below. But I treat those the same way.

And sometimes, if it's surrounded by plain canvas and I really don't want the thread to show through the holes like it would if I jumped a few stitches away, I do the same thing but with branches upon branches upon branches.

And then I really feel like a computer nerd because I'm doing recursion on my cross stitch. Maybe this needs a diagram later.

[Ally]

I always do rows of half stitch then go back, but only for large amounts of one colour. I think it looks much neater and isn't as bulky around the back. Plus the project seems to come together quicker this way.