Thanks for all the good advice! And for taking the time to type it down. I was wondering about the knot actually, thanks for clarifying that.
I love the idea of playing with the number of strands to emphasize parts of the design, hopefully will soon be designing original work. The compression glove seems to be a must, I didn’t even know they existed!
Thanks! Very useful advice really. I’m the kind of person who wouldn’t have thought about this until way too late. So far I’m just starting to get the hang of it. My goal is to get to the point where I can design original art that I can then cross-stitch and frame. My first project is a doodle my 5 year-old made the other day that I traced using an app meant for pixel art and then made into a very basic pattern (one colour, no backstitching or half stitches). Time to work on it is limited but I’m having lots of fun so far