Stay (Close to) Home Cross-Stitch Pattern

4 December 2020
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For years, cross stitch has been my second craft, after knitting. I adore how entirely absorbing it is: It’s simply not possible to pay attention to anything else while stitching. This year in particular, I’ve appreciated that.

My favourite types of projects are word-based, and I’ve been making up my own designs for years… some of them entirely not safe for delicate constitutions, or public consumption. (I will just say that I find it oddly satisfying to stitch a profanity.) This is the first pattern I’ve ever shared publicly.

And this is where I make a confession: I’ve never finished a cross stitch. I always complete the stitching, but I’ve never taken the final steps, to tidy up the threads, to trim the edges – what do you do with the loose strings on the Aida cloth? –  to frame or display them. I’m absolutely and without regret a process stitcher: I do it for the joy and not for the finished object. I have a file folder in which I keep my finished projects, some of them going back nearly twenty years. This one, though? I think it might be worth showing off!

Close to Home / Restez Chez Vous cross-stitch pattern image
Copyright © Kate Atherley except as indicated.

About Kate Atherley

Kate Atherley (she/her) is a co-founder, editor and publisher at Digits & Threads and Nine Ten Publications. She has worked in the crafts industry in one way or another since 2002 as a designer, editor, writer, and instructor. She's authored eight books about knitting, from a next-steps guide for newbie knitters to the industry's only guide to professional knitting pattern writing. Kate lives in Toronto, Ontario, with her husband and their rescue dog Winnie.

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