Ellen Hooker 1843 – PDF Pattern

Ellen Hooker stitched this simple but striking alphabet sampler back in 1843, most likely in England, UK. I have not been able to locate the exact Ellen yet, but I think she would have been born around 1831, and would have learned to stitch her sampler with a teacher not only teaching her the letters, but quite a few different stitches as well.

Besides traditional full crosses (stitched over 2 linen threads), the sampler also includes Algerian eyelets, some letters and text over 1 thread, and finally some so-called “Four-Sided Stitches”. These stitches have the interesting characteristic that they are beautiful on both sides of the sampler: on the front they look like little squares, but on the back they look like full crosses. 

It would go beyond the scope of this pattern to explain how the four-sided stitch exactly is worked – however, a quick online search will give you some great tutorials on how to work this stitch. The great thing about the pattern though is that you do not have to work the stitching in a double-sided manner at all: it will be just as pretty to just stitch little squares in backstitch, especially when you are planning on framing your stitching (and never seeing the back again).

TECHNICAL DETAILS:

Ellen’s sampler measures 169 crosses wide and 183 crosses high. Worked over two threads on 32 count linen it would measure approximately 10 1/2” by 11 3/8” (27 x 29cm). The Algerian eyelets are represented by larger symbols, and are worked over 4 threads in total, as seen on the pattern.

This design has an equivalent of about 8587 crosses. On average, you can work approximately 1800 crosses with an 8 yard skein, when working with 2 pulled strands of floss over 2. This means that you need approximately 4.5 skeins of floss. I enjoy working all of my stitching with one pulled strand, but I would definitely recommend doing the backstitching and the eyelets with 1 pulled strand. This will not only give a lovely delicate effect, but it will also save you some floss for your next project!

The pattern has been split over 6 pages. After the 1st page you will notice a 3-cross wide greyed out border: this area is an overlap from the previous page, which will make it easier to find your way on the next page.