Winter Book Review

Little Shoppe Canvas Co., 2016, no ISBN

Winter is a very different approach to a stitch dictionary. It’s very creative but it may not fit with your stitching style.

In the Introduction, the authors say that the book is “an innovative spin on stitching shapes and base patterns.” The book delivers well on this promise, taking a dozen different kinds of winter shapes from ornaments to bows, and creating several stitch patterns with one or more versions of the base shape.

The first variation for each version is always straightforward with the shape lined up in rows and columns. The second puts the same shape in a half-drop arrangement. In the other variations additional shapes and motifs are added often making for large complex patterns.

As is the case with the other books from this company, the charts are done in black, white, and grey. They often include stitch numbers for the additions. Because the patterns are large only two diagrams are included per page.

The beginning of each chapter gives an overview of the shape and includes charts for each of the base shapes included. Following this are some stitch examples which give ideas for threads to use on some of the variations.

The book does not have any photos of stitched examples, in keeping with the other Little Shoppe books. in the case of the other books (Landscape – reviewed here and Stitch Ins & Outs – reviewed here), seeing these patterns stitched makes a difference. These patterns are large, some over 20 threads before a repeat, and have open threads. This makes them difficult to use on many canvases. If you follow the rule of three repeats for a stitch to fit, you might be looking at canvases over 5″ square to fit these stitches.

I would really have liked to see examples of how these stitches could be used. I understand that they are very creative and interesting patterns. I can also see that I might not be thinking about these stitches in a way that makes best use of them. Having pictures, even if they were on a website referred to in the book, would help me figure out how to use Winter.

Because I mostly stitch small pieces without large areas of background, I can’t easily see me using this book in my stitching. However it’s a well-done book and could be just the ticket for your own stitcching.