Craft Gossip

Independent craft blog since 2007

Wooly Hat Cross Stitch Pattern

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I’ve been talking a lot lately about how much I love knitting motifs expressed in cross stitch since I enjoy both crafts, so I couldn’t resist sharing this little knit hat cross stitch pattern when I found it.

It’s pretty easy to stitch in eight colors, some of which were metallic in the original but you can use whatever you have on hand. I love the classic star design. The design comes out to 5.79 by 5.29 inches on 14-count fabric.

This would be a great project to stitch for a knitter in your life. You can get the free DMC pattern from LoveCrafts.

[Photo: LoveCrafts.]

Looking for more Christmas Cross Stitch patterns? Check these out on Etsy. and these designs on DMC threads website. 

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Fine Motor Task Cards for Kids

I don’t know why Pinterest just suddenly decided I needed to see all the content about task cards and task boxes for kids, but these ideas are great for the classroom to keep in centers or have on hand for early finishers. You can also use them at home as quiet bags or boxes for kids to use when younger siblings might be sleeping, or in the car for a non-screen activity. 

Let’s take a look at some fine motor skill task cards and how you can use them to teach kids skills while they play. 

Pre-K Pages has a nice set of playdough task cards you can use in boxes or bags with a little tray (or they can just work on the table if they are sitting at a table). Working with clay or play dough is a great fine motor skill exercise, or you can add these to your playdough center if you have one to give them a little bit of direction while they work. 

Teaching Mama has a bunch of great ideas for fine motor task boxes, from practicing working a glue bottle to threading beads, using clothespins or scissors, dropping water, finger painting and more. There’s a free printable that shows all the task options she talks through in the post if you want to make your own little boxes, or just keep these ideas on hand when you’re ready to add some fine motor fun to your days. 

One of the ideas she mentions in that post is working with a hole punch, and Early Learning Ideas has a whole bunch (the urge to write “hole bunch” is strong) of ideas for printables that help kids practice hole punching, whether it’s a strip with circles on it for them to punch or pictures that include circles for punching, these ideas make it a little more fun to practice this important skill.

My Happy Place Teaching has a whole post about using fine motor task boxes in kindergarten, and her paid resource includes more than 100 task ideas with printables. But if you don’t need 100 boxes you can still get some good ideas from this post about different tasks to include and why and when you can use them. She also mentions using them in the morning while you’re busy with kids coming in at different times, which is a great idea.