Cozy Snowman & Holly Berries

If you want a piece like this hanging by the first week of December, October is when you thread the first drill onto the pen. Thirty-odd hours does not sound like much until you count how many evenings you actually get.

What you are building: a snowman bundled into a teal knit hat and a scarf of the same yarn, a satin bow at his throat with a silver bell hanging off it, and holly berries tucked in around him in the particular cherry red that only looks right next to cold colors. His cheeks are flushed. The background carries silvery snowflake tones with teal deepening toward the edges, lit as though the snow itself is throwing light back up at him.

Twenty-three DMC colors, running 159 to 3835. You notice it most in the knitwear. A hat and a scarf cut from the same yarn still have to read as two separate pieces of fabric, and that takes several closely spaced blues rather than one flat block of color.

The details

• 45 x 60 cm (approx. 18 x 24 in)
• Full coverage, round drills
• 23 DMC colors, DMC 159 to DMC 3835
• Adhesive canvas with printed symbols and color legend
• Sealed, numbered, DMC color-coded drill packets
• Stylus pen, grooved tray, wax refill and tweezers included
• Kit only, no frame included

Straight talk

Roughly 30 to 35 hours of actual placing, which is the number to plan around rather than the number of days you own the kit. The usual mistake at this size is opening all 23 packets on day one. Open four or five, work those symbols, then move on. Round drills forgive a crooked placement, so this is a reasonable step up rather than a punishment. The canvas ships rolled and no frame comes with it.

Hang it up and the small silver bell, the last thing you place, is the first thing every visitor reaches out to touch.