rose cross stitch chart from Cross Me Not
Often I’m frustrated and a little jealous. As a needlepointer there are so many charts out there for cross stitchers. They’re free and often quite beautiful. But also, alas, often not adaptable to needlepoint.
Take heart! This isn’t always the case. If you know what makes a good chart to adapt, you’ll find lots of inspiration for free on the Web.
Most importantly, look for charts that have whole stitches only. The partial stitches that make curves in cross stitch can’t be done on needlepoint canvas. Also look for charts that have a minimum of backstitching, especially for important design elements. While you can Backstitch on needlepoint canvas, it’s hard to adapt and many charts like this won’t work well.
The best charts to adapt are those that have large blocks of color. These, once outlines or counted, can be done in a textured stitch.
This free rose chart from Cross Me Not is a perfect example of this. Stitch the outlines of the petal and leaf, then the darkest part of the rose, all in Tent Stitch.
Then, using an hand-dyed or overdyed thread in a lovely rose color, find a textured stitch (there’s lots under Stitch Dictionary in this blog) and stitch the rest of the petals. Pick another stitch and a matte thread for the leaves.
There’s plenty of inspiration for the needlepointer in the dozens of free cross stitch charts on the Internet. My favorite place to find them is Denise’s Needlework column on Craft Gossip.
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[...] Nuts About Needlepoint has an excellent post on how to do just that! Read the post here and start collecting those cross stitch designs. [...]
[...] Thinking Outside the Box – Adapting a Chart to Needlepoint [...]