White aida and dark colours

by Betley
(Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England)

I've started a cross stitch of my sister's dog as a present for her. I'm using venus floss on white aida. I've done lots of x stitch in the past, designing my own from photos etc., and I've never had a problem before.

I am working with an off white aida (14 count) as I always use, but this pattern has a lot of dark colours and therefore you can see the white of the aida and the stitching looks really untidy. Almost like a child has done it! I've abandoned it twice because it doesn't look that good.

What I wondered was should dark colours really be worked on dark aida rather than white?

Any help would be appreciated.

Carol answers

Betley,

Have you tried stitching with three strands instead of two? That may give a better coverage.