Black Kitten with Jack-o'-Lanterns Cross Stitch Pattern

About this black cat cross stitch pattern

The kitten hurries along carrying three grinning pumpkins stacked higher than its own head, with candy corn bouncing off the top and scattered on the ground. It’s classic Halloween imagery, black cat, pumpkins and witch hat, drawn cute rather than spooky, so it works on a front door or in a kids’ room as well as on a mantel.

More than half the fabric stays bare and the orange is bright, so it reads from across a room. It makes a witch-cat set with the Witch Cat on a Broomstick; our witchy Halloween round-up and cat round-up have more.

What you need

• Fabric: 14-count Aida in white, cut to at least 17“ x 17“ (3“ around the design for hooping and framing).
• Thread: 14 DMC colors, about 16 skeins in total, stitched with two strands. The main colors are 939 Navy Blue – Very Dark (2,899 stitches), 741 Tangerine – Medium (2,572) and 29 Eggplant (1,893).
• Needle: a size 24 tapestry needle.
• Stitches: full cross stitches only, with no backstitch.

Difficulty and stitching time

It’s rated Intermediate. The shapes are bold and simple, and three colors do most of the work, so it’s a comfortable step up from a first pattern. The carved faces and the candy corn are the only small details.

Expect roughly 95 to 160 hours at a steady 60 to 100 stitches an hour.

Tips for stitching this pattern

• Don’t carry yellow across the back. The candy corn, 146 stitches of 973 Canary – Bright plus 93 of B5200 Snow White, is scattered from top to bottom. End off between pieces, because thread carried across the back shows through the bare white fabric.
• Mark the face colors. The eyes use 3855 Autumn Gold – Light and 422 Hazelnut Brown – Light, and the tongue is 9 stitches of 152 Shell Pink – Medium Light, all in a small area.
• Keep the kitten navy. DMC 939 is a near-black navy rather than true black. It stops the kitten looking flat next to the orange, so don’t swap in black.

Size, fabric and framing

On 14-count Aida the finished design measures 10.1“ x 10.8“ (25.7 x 27.4 cm). On 16-count it comes out at 8.8“ x 9.4“, and on 18-count at 7.8“ x 8.4“. For the 14-count version, a 14“ x 18“ frame leaves room for a mat.

The design is close to square, so it also suits a square frame or a large round hoop on a door for October.

What’s in the free PDF

• A cover page and a one-page overview with a preview of the design
• The chart, split across as many printable pages as you choose, in color or black and white, with a symbol for every DMC color, center lines, a mini-map showing which part of the design each page covers and a color key on every page
• The thread list: DMC number, color name, number of stitches and skeins to buy for each color
• The finished size on 11-, 14-, 16-, 18- and 28-count Aida