| Size | 47 × 47 stitches |
|---|---|
| Colours | 3 · DMC |
| Total stitches | 301 |
| Difficulty | Intermediate (3/5) |
| Finished on 14-count | 3.4 × 3.4 in (8.5 × 8.5 cm) |
| Finished on 16-count | 2.9 × 2.9 in (7.5 × 7.5 cm) |
| Finished on 18-count | 2.6 × 2.6 in (6.6 × 6.6 cm) |
| Licence | CC BY-NC 4.0 — free for personal use with credit |
Materials
About this design
This snowflake is the largest of our winter set but uses only around 300 stitches, so it covers a lot of fabric very quickly. The long arms are stitched in DMC 414 Steel Gray Dark, which looks like dull silver against a light ground, and their fine tips in 762 Pearl Gray Very Light make them seem to fade into frost. A diamond of 3865 Winter White marks the centre. Each straight arm carries several pairs of branches, and the diagonal arms end in small open lozenges.
How to stitch it
We rate this a three because of the long single-stitch lines. Each arm runs more than twenty stitches from the centre, and many of its stitches meet only at a corner, so it is easy to drift by one hole. Count each arm out in full before you stitch it, or run a tacking thread along the line first. Stitch arms and branches together as one journey and finish your thread at the end of each arm; dark grey carried across open fabric shows clearly. If you would like a little shimmer, stitch the tips with one strand of 762 and one strand of a silver blending filament.
Finishing ideas
On 14-count Aida the snowflake is about 3.4 inches across, rising to about 4.3 inches on 11-count for a bolder piece, or shrinking to 2.6 inches on 18-count. The pale tips need some contrast, so choose cream, oatmeal or a soft mid-blue fabric rather than white. It fills a 5-inch hoop nicely and makes a striking centre for a winter table runner or a cushion.
Colour plan
DMC 414 Steel Gray Dk does the most work, 73% of the 301 stitches, followed by DMC 762 Pearl Gray Vy Lt at 19%. Every colour is used at least 25 times, so there are no tiny one-off details to hunt for. 86% of the grid is left empty.
Working notes
128 squares stand alone in their colour, with no same-coloured neighbour along a side; stitch those as you pass rather than starting a new thread for each. The busiest row changes colour 16 times.
Anchor equivalents
The nearest Anchor colour for each DMC colour in this pattern, measured as ΔE 2000: up to 3 is very close, up to 6 close, up to 10 approximate.
This is an original CraftPatterns design, licensed CC BY-NC 4.0: stitch it, share it and gift what you make — please credit craftpatterns.app and don't sell the pattern itself. Want to change it? Open it in the cross stitch editor.
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