Review: Cross Stitch with Cattitude

It’s no secret that I’m a cat person (I even shared a collection of black cat cross stitch patterns in honor of my favorite black cat, Baron) so when I saw that a book full of cat-themed cross stitch patterns existed I had to check it out immediately.

Cross Stitch with Cattitude by Emma Congdon includes 20 designs inspired by our feline companions, or should I say the cats that are gracious enough to put up with our human nonsense in exchange for food.

The patterns are colorful, sarcastic and full of cattitude, from sentiments like “feed me and tell my I’m pretty” to “you work and I judge” to “hiss off” and “how about no” for those days when we just don’t want to deal with humans. (You can see a few of the patterns on the Amazon listing for the book.)

The designs are mostly from the cat’s point of view but a few take the human’s side, for instance saying it’s not that we’re crazy cat ladies so much as everyone else are crazy people persons.

There are also a few designs that include different cat faces and activities more than text, which is a lot of fun. The different cats on the “purrsonalities” sampler could be stitched individually on a card or as a mini design for a cat-loving friend.

Each pattern includes a stitch count and size and tells you what kind of fabric was used. The charts are large, taking up either two or four pages, and all the DMC colors are listed with the pattern (there’s also a conversion chart if you like different thread).

The book is also filled with sarcastic notes from the cats, which, if you’ve ever met a housecat, will sound familiar.

If you’re a cat lover or you know a cat lover you’d like to stitch for, this book is a lot of fun and will let you create colorful, snarky and sweet cat cross stitch designs.

About the book: 112 pages, paperback, 20 patterns. Published 2023 by David & Charles. Suggested retail price

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.

Have you read?