Most hated part of Cross Stitching

[Starchild]

Mistakes on my plan.

I've only done it once so far (I'd accidentally crossed out one square that I hadnt stitched), and I spent ten minutes freaking out and trying to find out what I'd stitched wrong before I realised.

[Crimson Star]

When I have to tie the thread up and finish the thread. I hate doing that so much!

[no_need]

The knots...the KNOTS!!!! ... I get bummed when I'm stitching along and then you turn it over and your have this bulbous knot 20 stitches back that you didn't notice.

^This. I usually catch the knots after only a few stitches, so I can go back and fix it, but sometimes I'm on the next row before I realise and I just can't bring myself to pick out that many stitches! I knot the start of my threads anyway, so it's not like an accidental knot is going to be the only bump in the fabric, so it won't be obvious enough for me to be bothered by it

[bethimusprime]

But I hate mistakes and I always seem to make them. I don't know what it is about me and counting but I always seem to get it wrong but don't notice until days later and there is no way in hades that I'm going to go back and undo any of it so I have to adjust the pattern so you hopefully won't notice the mistake when I'm done! There have been very few things I've stitched that I haven't had to adjust part way though!

Definitely this! I hate it when I spend a day or so stitching and when I switch to a new color, I suddenly realize all the mistakes I made with the old one because I apparently counted incorrectly. I always have a little mini panic attack and start thinking "Can I adjust the pattern or do I /really/ need to undo all that work?"

[Miss Clawful]

Cutting the material (I'm not very good with scissors), and picking out the appropriate floss colors, I hate all the preparation stuff. Another is when I thought I had a good color choice, then far into my work I'm finding that I'm not satisfied with it, that I should've done it this color instead, then I gotta tear it all out to try again with a possible better color choice.

[evilcarrot]

Like many others have said, I hate when I have been merrily stitching for like an hour before realizing that I've got a knot in the back. It's happened twice with my current project and I just couldn't bear to undo ALLLLLL that stitching to fix it, so I just sewed the little loop down and made it as flat as possible. Also, I hate trying to cram the needle into the backs of stitches when starting a new thread. If I can do it in half-stitches it's not so bad, but it's just waaay too tight when I have to go through the backs of completed stitches. I keep a pair of needlenose pliers handy to help get the needle through, but it still makes my fingers ache (and often bleed) trying to push it through enough to grab the tip with the pliers.

I've seen some talk of beeswax in this thread... Someone enlighten me please? What do you use it for?

[blackberrybear]

I got tired of threading the needle under finished stitches to start a new thread (for similer reasons). Now when ever starting a new color I trap the end of thread as I stitch (like you would at the beginning of a project).