Penguin Chick in a Winter Beanie Cross Stitch Pattern

About this penguin chick cross stitch pattern

A round, fluffy penguin chick in soft grays sits on top of a pine cone, its little flippers out and its feet dangling. It has a dark cap of feathers, pink cheeks and a small smile, and it wears a gray, cream and blue striped beanie with a big pale bobble and a matching scarf. The pine cone is drawn scale by scale in browns, with snow on its tips and a pale blue patch of snow underneath.

It’s a tall winter piece that can hang from the first frost to the end of February. For a smaller penguin in the same season, try the Penguin in a Top Hat and Puffer Vest, or the Baby Fox in a Winter Beanie for another baby animal in a knitted hat. Our winter round-up has more cold-weather designs.

What you need

• Fabric: 14-count Aida in white, cut to at least 17“ x 23“ (3“ around the design for hooping and framing).
• Thread: 31 DMC colors, about 34 skeins in total, stitched with two strands. The main colors are 762 Pearl Gray – Very Light (4,326 stitches), 310 Black (2,840) and 779 Cocoa – Dark (2,125).
• Needle: a size 24 tapestry needle.
• Stitches: full cross stitches only, with no backstitch.

Difficulty and stitching time

It’s rated Advanced for its size and its 31 colors. The chick’s fluff is shaded with several close grays, and the pine cone uses many browns. At 19,448 stitches it takes roughly 194 to 324 hours at a steady 60 to 100 stitches an hour. Almost half the fabric (43.1%) stays bare around the figure.

Tips for stitching this pattern

• Buy three skeins of 762. 762 Pearl Gray – Very Light (4,326 stitches) is the chick’s body and needs three skeins. Buy them together so the gray doesn’t change halfway down the chick.
• Keep the grays apart with labels. 762, 02 Tin (2,105 stitches), 414 Steel Gray – Dark (812), 317 Pewter Gray (743), 169 Pewter – Light (681) and 168 Pewter – Very Light (470) all shade the chick and the beanie. A labeled thread card stops you swapping them under artificial light.
• Stitch the pine cone scale by scale. 779 Cocoa – Dark (2,125 stitches) and 3864 Mocha Beige – Light (1,349) form the scales. Finish one scale, dark edge first, then the light inside, before moving on; working color by color across the whole cone makes it easy to lose your place.

Size, fabric and framing

On 14-count Aida the finished design measures 10.7“ x 16.3“ (27.2 x 41.4 cm). On 16-count it comes out at 9.4“ x 14.2“, and on 18-count at 8.3“ x 12.7“. A 16“ x 20“ frame hung portrait leaves room for a mat.

A pale blue or gray mat picks up the snow and keeps the picture wintry.

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