Sneak Peek: The Christmas Mitten

Good morning, and welcome to November!

Next week, on Monday and Wednesday, we will be finishing up Harvest Hues. I think I said it was this week in our last installment (I’ve since corrected it), but in fact, I was looking at the Wrong Week on the calendar. I thought it was moving too fast!

Today, in joyful anticipation of finishing one project and starting another, I want to sneak peek our Christmas ornament stitch-along for this year!

I’m excited about this little ornament on so many levels – because it pairs well with my mini sampler stockings that I designed a few years ago, because it has a unique finish with a real cuff, because it is customizable, because it uses great materials, because the techniques are accessible and oh-so-satisfactory, because it makes a great gift (or a keeper!), and because, darn it, it’s just so dang cute!

The last Stitch Snippet stitch-along for 2024 is The Christmas Mitten, a hand embroidered Christmas ornament worked in sampler-style stitching, with a variety of stitch techniques, in floss, metallics, and beads. It’s finished with wool felt and more beads and a charming charm.

In the stitch-along, you’ll learn how to set up the project, how to stitch it – including techniques for working with metallic threads and beads, how to personalize the mitten and make it unique to you (if you want), and how to finish it in a quick and easy way, for a professional looking, clean finish.

We wanted The Christmas Mitten to be large enough to use as an adorable and thoughtful way of presenting small gifts, notes, or gift cards. You can tuck miniature candy canes, little gifts (like earrings on a card, a pair of scissors, any flat and small items), hand written notes, or gift cards into the back of the mitten.

Over the years, I’ve received a lot of inquiries on making ornaments that hold gift cards, and this mitten seemed perfectly suited for that!

The stitches on the piece are a combination stitches associated both with counted work and with surface embroidery.

The linen that serves as the ground fabric supplies a very nice, serviceable guide for comfortably achieving straight lines and consistent spacing – although you certainly aren’t meant to be constrained by this approach. You can free style your lines, too, especially if you choose to experiment with other ground fabrics.

Besides finishing off with an engraved snowflake charm, the mitten finishes with a “real” cuff, in the real sense of the word. The little cuffing at the top adds weight and dimension to the top edge of the mitten.

It’s also a good spot to add some customization with a name, if you want. We’ll talk about different ways you can do that.

The wool felt used for the back of the mitten is also a great place to add a date or further personalization.

Will There Be Kits?

Of course there will be kits! We’re even ahead of the game with this one for a change – the kits are pretty much ready to go!

The materials kit will contain everything you need to complete this project: beautiful linen ground fabric, interfacing, high quality 100% wool felt, full spools of metallic threads, full skeins of floss, plenty of beads, and the decorative charm.

We planned ahead on this project and brought all the kit supplies in well before October arrived. Since we had our Christmas Open House planned, we didn’t want to be scurrying with kitting and shipping at the last minute!

In previous years, we’ve usually launched similar ornament projects right before or around Thanksgiving. This year, we will be launching the kits here on Needle ‘n Thread on Monday, November 11th. We’ll be starting the stitch-along by Friday of that week.

This will give you plenty of time to create an ornament (or two! or more!) before Christmas, and it will help take a little pressure off us during the two weekends following Thanksgiving, when we’ll be hosting our first ever Holiday Open House at Needle ‘n Thread.

And that’s it for now! I hope November is off to a great start for you – and I hope you have a lovely weekend!