Nutcracker needlepoint patterns

Nutcracker soldiers in tall hats, a rabbit dressed as a nutcracker in four styles, and a nutcracker with a squirrel on his shoulder.

The soldiers stand and face front, drawn in two styles. In the whimsical nutcracker and squirrel, a nutcracker in a red hat and red coat, with white hair and beard, is shown from the shoulders up with a walnut in his open mouth; a gold and brown squirrel on his shoulder holds an acorn, and white snowflakes dot the navy sky. Most can be made as a round ornament as well as a four-inch square on 18 mesh. A nutcracker is built of small blocks of color, one above the other. Count each band before you fill it, and start early if it is for the tree: finishing takes time on top of the stitching.