Picnic Basket – LAS Mini-sock

Updated November 18. 2022.
I have a friend who is already missing summer. In her honor, I thought it would be fun to celebrate with stitches that mimic either baskets or gingham, making for a picnic basket in needlepoint.

Both gingham stitches are done in three colors of Rainbow Gallery’s Pebbly Perle (no longer made, substitute Grandeur). The basket stitches are made in either Rainbow Linen or Olde Willow Stitchery Linen. The Olde Willow is no longer made.

Gingham is a fabric woven in alternating stripes of white and a color. The stripes occur in both the warp and the weft, so that solid blocks alternate with blocks that have both colors, making an intermediate shade. If you’ve stitched needlepoint plaids, you’ll realize that this makes gingham a simple plaid.

Baskets, and stitches representing them, have a distinctive woven look. You can enhance this by using two different threads or colors for the different parts of the weave. I did this for Double Linen in Patch 2.

Begin by tracing the outline onto your canvas. Then pick your threads and begin stitching. Click on the image for the full-size template.

Gingham Scotch

This stitch is done in three related colors of one thread, Mandarin Floss in this case. Scotch Stitches of any size can be used to make a gingham pattern. In this case, the Scotch Stitches are done over four threads.

Begin by making every other Scotch using the medium shade. Once this is done, the empty spaces alternate between white and the darker color. Stitch all the white units first, then the colored ones.

Double Linen

Double Linen is a pretty small woven stitch that’s great for adding texture and that makes a lovely background. It’s made of alternating blocks of two stitches over three threads.

The uneven coverage of this stitch comes largely from the linen thread used. Rainbow Linen, used here, like almost all linen threads, is uneven in width. This gives areas stitched in linen a rustic look. I love it, but many people don’t.

Patterned Threes

Patterned Threes expands Double Linen by using blocks of three stitches over four threads.

This block is stitched in Oriental Linen from The Thread Gatherer. It’s a two-ply silk & linen blend. It would give good coverage for diagonal stitches in 13 and 14 mesh and nice thick coverage for straight stitches on 18 mesh. It’s probably too thick for diagonal stitches on 18 mesh.

Wide Woven Basket

Because all three of the basket stitches are made similarly, I decided to leave this one partially unstitched so that you could see how they are constructed. In this stitch, there are five horizontal stitches and only two vertical stitches; the other two have equal numbers of both.

You make these stitches by making horizontal rows. It’s easiest if you either complete each block or make all the blocks in one direction first. This makes it easy to o the coverage properly.

This block was stitched using Londonderry Linen.

Gingham Mosaic

This stitch is done in three related colors of one thread, Mandarin Floss in this case. Mosaic Stitches make a pretty small gingham.

Begin by making every other Mosaic using the medium shade. Once this is done, the empty spaces alternate between white and the darker color. Stitch all the white units first, then the colored ones.

This stocking and all the other Learn-a-Stitch Mini-socks are available in a book. Find it here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/657421353/learn-a-stitch-mini-socks