Chicken Scratch For Brook

Thank you so much for all the nice comments about my Scottie dog! I guess I was disappointed that my cross stitches were so uneven. Let's blame the wacky gingham for it. (I think I read somewhere that it isn't always square.) I'm still going to finish it. I just won't take any more close-up shots when I'm done.

Brook asked if I knew of any patterns for chicken scratch. There are some free ones out there so I thought I'd link to all of them in one post.

Pegasus Originals has instructions and a heart pattern. You can also find books on chicken scratch for sale there.

You'll find half a star pattern (and more instructions) in this pdf from the University of Kentucky.

There's a tutorial for making a chicken scratch bookmark at Kerri Made.

About.com has patterns for a square, a heart (different than the heart at Pegasus Originals ) and a tree.

At Vick et pique et colle, you will find a link to a heart pattern, which is the same as the one at Pegasus Originals, but there's also a pattern for a flower made of four small hearts and a picture of another flower that is clear enough to figure out how to make it. Google's English translation of the page is here.

You'll find a small heart pattern and a tree at Crafttown (and more instructions).

Crafty Jan has an angel pattern.

Janet has posted photos of chicken scratch stitches at Primrose Design.

The first time I tried chicken scratch, I stitched several rows on the edge of a pillowcase. Since I only used one strand of floss, my design did not stand out at all. I ended up ripping out the stitches and had planned to start over with three strands of floss. Then I saw the pattern for an owl at Kissy-Cross so I decided to give that a shot.



See the puckering? That's because I pulled my threads too tight. I wish I had used a darker pink on the outline and on his eyes. And, even though I had read all of those instructions I linked to above, I screwed up when I did the woven circle stitch and only went around one time (you're supposed to go around twice oor go around once with double the strands of floss), so I later went back and did another circle on each stitch, which did not improve the look of some of my stitches. I should have just let them be.

Next, I did a heart on either side of the owl. Again, I have the puckering but I am happier with those stitches.

I will definitely do chicken scratch again -- I have another pillowcase and an entire flat sheet to play with -- and will remember not to pull my floss so tightly.