Balanced fabric

Cross-stitch on even-weave fabric, Hungary, mid-20th century

Even-weave fabric or canvas is any woven textile where the warp and weft threads are of the same size.

Even-weave fabrics are typically required as foundations for counted-thread embroidery styles such as cross-stitch, needlepoint, and blackwork so that a stitch of the same "count" (that is, crossing the same number of fabric threads) will be the same length whether it crosses warp or weft threads.

Even-weave fabrics include even-weave linen, aida cloth, and needlepoint canvas.

References

Readers Digest Complete Guide to Needlework, 1979, ISBN 0895770598.

S.F.A. Caulfield and B.C. Saward, The Dictionary of Needlework, 1885.

Virginia Churchill Bath, Needlework in America, Viking Press, 1979 ISBN 0670505757.