Designer Spotlight: Needle Minder Lair

As you might guess from the name of this Etsy shop, Needle Minder Lair sells a lot of different kinds of needle minders. We’ll get to that, but they also have a nice collection of cross stitch patterns, too, so let’s take a look!

Needle Minder Lair has a heavy emphasis on pop culture and video game designs, including Final Fantasy, Kirby, Resident Evil and Zelda. There are D&D themed designs and a section called gaming, which is more video game characters and controllers. You’ll also find an anime section and Pokemon game boy patterns, too.

There are a lot of pastels here, including in projects you might not expect to be pastel, like landscapes of Japan or witchy projects. For example, this pretty pastel rainbow plague doctor mask. The pattern measures 83 by 98 stitches, which comes out to 5.93 by 7 inches or 15.06 by 17.78 cm on 14 count fabric. It uses 11 colors and is all full stitches.

I like it on this pink background but it would look really cool on a black background, too.

In other cross stitch patterns in the shop you’ll find cats, nature and city landscapes, alphabets and kawaii patterns, which include lots of food, koi and other cute animals.

In addition to cross stitch patterns you will also find a great variety of needle minders in this shop (to review, a needle minder is a magnet and a magnetic thing that you stick to your cross stitch fabric that can then hold your needle when you aren’t stitching so it won’t fall off or make a hole in your fabric). There are single minders and sets with a bunch of themes, including animals, mermaids and tarot.

They also have some keychains, stickers and magnets, a lot of which are related to Resident Evil, but there are some other themes thrown in as well.

Check out all their goodies at Needle Minder Lair on Etsy.

[Photo: Needle Minder Lair]

As a knitter, I love a good sheep motif, so let’s take a look at some cute sheep cross stitch patterns.

If you want to stitch a little sheep, this mini square from Good Dog Needleworks is a nice choice. It uses just three colors and measures 32 by 32 stitches. That’s 2.2 inches or about 5.5 cm square if you stitch it on 14 count fabric.

I also love these two little sheep, which you can stitch together or in individual hoops and shown. The designs are form Threadbound Art and use six colors. They are slightly different in size, with one being 21 by 17 stitches and the other 21 by 20. They fit in four inch frames if you work them on 14 count fabric.

You can stitch a sweet sheep bookmark with this design from Kits by SA Stitch. This is not for the person who doesn’t like back stitch, because there’s a lot of that here, but it is really cute. It measures 30 by 91 stitches and uses 10 colors. That will make your bookmark about 2.4 by 6.5 inches, or 6 by 16.5 cm on 14 count fabric.

Stitch a pretty scene of sheep in a meadow with this design from Motok Nytok. It uses 21 colors and the design is 99 by 73 stitches. On 14 count fabric that makes it about 7.07 by 5.21 inches, or 17.96 by 13.24 cm.

This yarn full of cross stitch sheep has a bit of a knitting twist because the sheep all look like they have sweaters on. The design is from Soda Stitch Design and it measures 179 by 216 stitches. The full design uses 27 colors. On 14 count fabric it will work out to 12.78 by 15.42 inches, or 32.48 by 39.19 cm.

Another great one with a knitting theme is this one where the wool is coming off the sheep and straight onto the needles. This one is from Happy Cross Stitchers and uses 12 colors. The pattern is 137 by 137 stitches, which comes out to 9.7 inches or 24.86 cm square on 14 count fabric. This would be a fun one to stitch for the knitter in your life (even if that is you).

Or you can stitch the field of sheep of a knitter’s dreams with the Happy Sheep chart from Charts and Stuff. These per-colored sheep can be stitched as shown or worked in any colors you like. The eyes are French knots but you can just stitch them in white if you’d rather.

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