New Pattern Release and a French Knot Tutorial!

Hi all! So it's Friday and I promised I'd be back to share something very exciting and fun, so here I am! You know The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery, owned by the super-talented Amanda and Ashleigh, right? Well, they approached me a few months ago about being a guest designer at The Frosted Pumpkin and I am happy to say that my first cross stitch pattern for them, Itching to be Stitching, is being released today! How exciting is that??!!

Itching to be Stitching features cute sewing notions including a vintage-inspired sewing machine, buttons, thread, and the ubiquitous tomato pincushion! The pattern itself features a colour chart, list of colours you'll need, and a very handy stitch guide. Since this is the first Frosted Pumpkin pattern to feature french knots (leave it up to me to throw a little wrench in), they are not included in the stitch guide, however I offered to write a little tutorial with photos that you can find below.


Itching to be Stitching is available for purchase from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery as a PDF download and I am here to answer any questions you might have about the pattern. I am so excited to be working with Amanda and Ashleigh (and didn't Ashleigh do just a fabulous job with the pattern cover? I love it!) on such a fun project, and can not thank them enough for asking me to come on-board for a little bit - I think I've now officially earned the nickname Kaye Pumpkin ;)

Cross Stitch French Knot Tutorial

So I stitched up the little tomato pincushion from the pattern for you to demonstrate the french knot technique - as you can see the french knots are used to create the heads on the pins. And remember, you can make any of the pictures larger by clicking on them! Oh, and just as a note, I use three strands of floss rather than the normal two (this will effect the size of your french knot).

Using the specified colour, bring your floss up through the aida using the same hole where you finished stitching the pin.

Bring the floss all the way through. Now wrap the floss three times around the bottom half of your needle. Note to self: paint fingernails before taking closeups of your hands next time!

Holding the excess tread taut, but not tight, with your left thumb (if you stitch right-handed) use your right hand to put the needle down through the hole diagonally opposite (i.e you brought your needle up through the bottom left hole of the square, put it down through the top right hole of the square). Keep holding the floss taut with your left thumb as you pull it through the knot - don't pull too tight or you could cause the knot to pop through the hole and onto the back of your aida.

And you're done! There are a few different ways to do a french knot (some people use one hole to come up and then go back down at the centre point of the square, and others use a colonial knot for cross stitch instead) - this is just the way I do them! If you like to do your french knots a little differently or would like to use a different knot altogether - go ahead! It's all part of the fun of cross stitching!

I'd really love to hear your thoughts on Itching to be Stitching and I hope y'all like it! And don't worry, if you like this pattern, I may just have a few more things up my sleeve!