How to Do a Split Stitch

This one detail decides whether the stitch works at all. The needle has to pass through the middle of the previous stitch, so you want an even number of strands that can split cleanly in half. Four strands of cotton floss is used here, and two or six work just as well.

An odd number leaves one strand that has to go one way or the other, and the line ends up looking uneven along its length. Six-strand floss pulls apart easily, so take the full length and separate out what you need.

Knot one end of the floss and thread the other through the needle. A simple knot is fine for practice. On a finished piece where the back will show, start with a couple of tiny anchoring stitches under where the line will run instead.

Keep the working length under about 45 centimetres. Longer than that and the floss frays from being dragged through the fabric over and over, and the texture goes fuzzy.

With the fabric drum-tight in the hoop, push the needle up from the back at the start of your line and pull the floss all the way through until the knot catches underneath.

Tension in the hoop matters more here than on many stitches. Slack fabric puckers as soon as the split stitches start pulling against each other, and there is no fixing that afterward.

Go back down a short distance further along the line and pull through. That single stitch is the foundation, and everything after it is built by splitting the one before.

Keep the stitches short, around three to five millimetres. Long split stitches sag, and on a curve they cut the corner and give you a line made of straight chords rather than a curve.

Bring the needle up from underneath, straight through the centre of the stitch you just made, so it separates the strands into two even halves. Wiggle the needle a little as it comes through to find the true middle.

Even halves are the whole trick. If the needle comes up off to one side you get a lump instead of the neat twist, and it shows immediately against the stitches either side of it.

Pull the floss all the way through, then take the needle down the same short distance further along the line. That is the second stitch made, and the rhythm from here is just up through the middle, down ahead, over and over.

Pull with the same firmness each time. Uneven tension is the main reason a beginner's split stitch line looks bumpy, and it is far easier to fix by being consistent than by trying to correct individual stitches.

Every few stitches the floss picks up twist and starts to kink. Roll it between thumb and finger the other way to take that out, then keep going.

Untwisted floss lies flat and covers properly. Twisted floss goes ropey and thin, and it is the difference between a line that looks deliberate and one that looks tired.

The second version works the other way around. Come up ahead of where your line ends, then push the needle back down into the middle of the previous stitch, splitting it from the front rather than from behind.

Some people find this far easier because you can see exactly where the needle is going in. There is no hunting blind for the centre of a stitch from underneath.

Worked side by side, the two methods are nearly identical on the front. Both give the same twisted rope. The difference is underneath: the split back stitch lays a full length of floss along the back for every stitch, while the first method barely uses any.

So use method one when floss economy matters or when the back of the work will be seen, and method two when you want the easier, more controlled motion. On a large filled piece the saving on the first method is genuinely substantial.