Navidad / ChristmasSaint Nicholas dressed as a bishop, with his mitre, a golden crozier curling at the top and a red cope edged in gold over a white alb. He has the same face as the gnomes in this family — the beard over his mouth and his nose peeking out — and instead of the three bags of gold from the legend, he is holding a heart. It is 86 x 124 stitches in 10 colors, about 16 by 22 centimetres on 14-count.
His feast day is 6 December, and everything else comes from him: a fourth-century bishop of Myra, known for leaving gifts in secret, later Sinterklaas in the Netherlands, and in the United States, at the end of the road, Santa Claus. Stitching him is telling where Father Christmas came from. And since the pattern is free, if you would rather have the three bags of gold than the heart, change them: the legend holds up either way.
Saint Nicholas
This pattern is free: open it, change it however you like and publish your version in the gallery, under your name.
Files open with the Puntotek app.
The numbers
Size by fabric count
| Count | Stitches/cm | The design | In inches | Fabric to buy * |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 ct | 4.3 | 19.9 x 28.6 cm | 7.8 x 11.3 in | 36 x 45 cm |
| 14 ct | 5.5 | 15.6 x 22.5 cm | 6.1 x 8.9 in | 32 x 38 cm |
| 16 ct | 6.3 | 13.7 x 19.7 cm | 5.4 x 7.8 in | 30 x 36 cm |
| 18 ct | 7.1 | 12.1 x 17.5 cm | 4.8 x 6.9 in | 28 x 33 cm |
| 20 ct | 7.9 | 10.9 x 15.7 cm | 4.3 x 6.2 in | 27 x 32 cm |
| 22 ct | 8.7 | 9.9 x 14.3 cm | 3.9 x 5.6 in | 26 x 30 cm |
* The fabric to buy allows 8 cm on each side for the hoop and the frame. The highlighted row is 14-count, the most common: the pattern has the same number of stitches on every fabric, what changes is how big each one is.
Suggested fabric: white.
The threads
| Thread | Stitches | Of the total | Skeins * |
|---|---|---|---|
| DMC 666 | 1,298 | 21.3 % | 1 |
| DMC BLANC | 1,252 | 20.6 % | 1 |
| DMC 310 | 1,175 | 19.3 % | 1 |
| DMC 743 | 871 | 14.3 % | 1 |
| DMC 972 | 402 | 6.6 % | 1 |
| DMC 814 | 348 | 5.7 % | 1 |
| DMC 762 | 326 | 5.4 % | 1 |
| DMC 413 | 305 | 5.0 % | 1 |
| DMC 321 | 59 | 1.0 % | 1 |
| DMC 818 | 44 | 0.7 % | 1 |
| 10 threads | 6,080 | 100 % | 10 skeins |
* The skeins are a guide: they assume about 1,700 stitches per skein with two strands on 14-count, rounded up. Finer thread goes further, doubled thread goes less far.
What this one asks of you
All 6,080 stitches are full cross stitch: no half stitches and no backstitch to follow.
It has 149 lone stitches, 2.5 % of the total, and 7 of those have no neighbour of their color at all. The more there are, the more the needle jumps.
