Two-Sided Plaited Spanish Stitch

This is the latest stitch I have learned on my 100 Stitches journey.  As you can see from the title, this is the Two-Sided Plaited Spanish Stitch.  This is a decorative border stitch.    

I learned this stitch from the book Embroidery Stitches by Mary Webb.  According to the instructions, this is a stitch worked from left to right in two rows.

To begin, I used a ruler to draw three guidelines - top, center and bottom.  I started on the left side of the bottom line: 

I brought the needle up through the fabric and pulled all the way through.  Next, I went back into the fabric at a slant - the book suggests using an even weave fabric so that you can count the "spaces" created by the woven fabric.  In the case of this stitch, they counted five spaces vertically and three spaces horizontally to make their slant. 

I pulled the thread all the way through and then started my next slanted stitch from the bottom row:

and continued to the end of the row:

For the top row, I made the same slanted stitches, 

making sure they met on the middle row: