This cross stitch depicts the female Eastern Brook Trout. This fish is found nearly everywhere in the United States that has trout habitat due to the efforts of many people to introduce it into their local fisheries. Probably a misguided effort as it eventually will drive out the trout species native to those areas or worse, interbreed with them. Consequently many states make it easy to keep more of these when caught. It's a fine fish, lovely colors, can grow big, tastes great cooked over a campfire or preserved via smoking over fruit wood prunings. It's a complicated fish for cross stitch designers because the yellow and green pattern and the distinctive blue ring around the red spots are fairly tiny features that just disappear in an 18-count design. So it's a 28-count design with 142 DMC floss colors and fewer stitches than most fish (so far!). For fish taxonomists, this one is an example of common names overpowering scientific names. How so? The common name says it's a trout, the scientific name (genus Salvelinus) says it's a char. How can you tell? The bottom fins of char have a white stripe on the leading edge, trout (genus Oncorhynchus) don't. About half the Salvelinus species in North America have this "problem". Maybe in the internet age of rapid, broad communication we can convince people to call it "Eastern Brook Char" in the state fishing guides.

Stitch Count: 28,626
Stitch Area: 14.11 x 5.68 inches
Stitches: 395 x 159
DMC Colors: 142
Cloth: 28 count

This chart is meant to be stitched 1 over 1 on 28 count fabric. The Stitch Area listed above is just the size of the stitched shape, not the size of the fabric you will need. Please adjust the fabric size you use for framing or other use. There is one chart in the download file. The pattern is supported in the download file by a photo of the finished stitching, a list of the DMC floss colors needed, the chart, a list of the symbol used for each floss color and the number of stitches, labels to tape onto your project boxes and links to our website for additional directions on successfully completing the project as well as other useful information.