Frankly

One time when I was in a shop, I told a friend who doesn't stitch much that the designer of Mosey and Me was Frank from Trading Spaces. She didn't believe me but the shop owner confirmed it. Then the owner gave me the EGA discount automatically (back when I belonged to the EGA) because "anyone who knew that much about cross stitch designers must belong to the EGA." Well, maybe, but who's going to complain about a discount?

If I did needlepoint, I would totally have to do this adorable mug of hot cocoa from Frank of Mosey and Me.

All these reminiscences of Frank because he's popped up on you.tube.





Shops are giving away a free pattern, piece of fabric, floss, needle, and lesson. To help promote the dying art of cross-stitch?

I think they did this in one take, which is a bit unfortunate. And Frank doesn't do "in your face" that well. Still, I hope it goes viral.

How to Make Cross Stitch Cool?

Here's a question from one of the coolest cross stitchers around (not me): how to make cross stitch cool? How do we get new blood circulating? How do we get big like knitting? How do we help the industry support all the designers we love so well?

The dude thinks we shouldn't go cool. He thinks the best things are the dorky things, but that's because he plays chess in one of the most anti-intellectual countries around (that's us, the U.S.). Other countries celebrate their chess players, other countries show chess on t.v. But here, we can't even set up a chessboard properly. (Well, why, when it's just for show?)

I've been mulling over the question but I have no answers. I just do my part stitching in public and giving all the public service I can--this morning on the El a woman asked me if I didn't need a hoop to do cross stitch. I told her you could work in hand. Her sister is a stitcher. She wanted to make sure I didn't think she was the big dork...or something. Anyway, I thought since I was heading out to stitch publicly--at the baseball tonight--that I should make sure to be a cross-stitcher. I had thought about bringing a knitting project. But it's easy to be a knitter--knitting's cool. So I will stand with the dude in dorkiness and cross stitch tonight. And if I can get this project done in four days, I'll enter it in the stitch n' pitch contest. If you see me tonight, be sure to say hello. I'll be the big dork with the cross-stitch project.

You Say You Want a Revolution: Hip Upgrade

In her comments on yesterday's entry, Michele called for the revolution, the cross-stitch revolution.

It's beginning in Japan, maybe. Embroidery Gets a Hip Upgrade. Okay, I've been sitting on that story for a while. I think I neglected it because I get really pissed when young people think they've invented the wheel. And can someone please tell the journalists that stitchers are not all really, really old? Someday I might collect all the references to the aged stitcher. They're everywhere, even in articles that have nothing to do with needlework.

Here's the revolution part, in case you're not inclined to navigate away:

Embroidery has become so popular that stores are stocking up on needlecraft-related goods. Mano Creare's Kohoku Tokyu store, a handicraft shop in Yokohama, has increased its stock of embroidery products by 50 percent. The store now offers a variety of kits containing designs, implements and materials needed for cross-stitch and other forms of needlecraft.

It sounds like things are going well in Japan. Of course 50% of nothing is still nothing.

And then you read this: "Designs include a simple straight line stitched along an apron string." Where do I begin? I've already had a little rant about aprons. But really, you have to design that? Sheesh, here I was picturing the craftista revolution.

This April, Nippon Vogue started publishing Stitch Idees, a magazine dedicated to stitching. The first edition, for spring and summer, was a huge hit, selling 80,000 copies. The fall and winter edition, released in October, is also selling well.

The interesting point about the magazine is that instead of focusing on how to stitch, it proposes a whole lifestyle. Rather than showing elaborate creations by stitching experts, it introduces works by illustrators and children's book writers.

A whole stitching lifestyle. Now, what would that look like? And why can't I get this magazine here?

Cross-stitch: Here or Gone?

"I believe that scrapbooking is not going to die out like, let's say, cross-stitch, because everybody continues to take photos," she said. "The industry's going to change and evolve along with technology. Scrapbooking will always be around."

Because Scrapbooking Never Fell out of Favor
Don’t you just love when the ill-informed get a forum? Scrapbooking was hugely popular in the Victorian period, but then all but died out between, oh, 1910 and 1990. Sure, some girls glued a few scraps in books when they were teens. They didn’t go overboard, like so many contemporary scrappers do. But history teaches those of us who bothered to learn any that all things cycle in and out of favor. Those scrapping retreat people are getting a little big for their britches.

You keep putting too much shit on your scrap pages and you’re going the way of Silk Ribbon Embroidery, baby.

What is with the reports of the demise of cross-stitch? The editorial in the recent Piecework got all worked up about teaching younger generations:

Regardless of its rich past, it's clear that needlework will have no future if younger generations aren't or don't become interested in learning the techniques. You may have learned your own needlework skills from your mother or a grandmother or aunt, but this practice of passing on skills to the next generation has become less and less common in recent years. Of course, many of you are tirelessly teaching others what you know, as well as stitching, knitting, quilting, and crocheting for your children and your grandchildren.

Knit? How did that get included? Are they not aware that this is a Stitch n' Bitch Nation? There are more SnBs in Los Angeles than a girl can get to in a week, and the inhabitants can't even wear knitted things. Knitting stores are popping up all over the place. And the magazines! Okay, most of the magazines are crap, but there are lots of them.

Why do we think learning from your grandmother/mother is the only option? Granny Stitchbitch can mix a martini but she can't cook, sew, knit, quilt, crochet, bake, or any of those other things you are "supposed" to learn from a grandmother. I think the Editors are looking in the usual places and not finding signs of life in the craft industry. But if you look at places like craftster and get crafty loads of young people are into making things with their hands. They're just not beholden to industry experts and industry generated patterns. They're do it yourself-ers. After all, it's not brain surgery; most of these things, you can teach yourself.

I think the Editors can untwist their panties. Craftiness is here to stay, boozy grandmas notwithstanding.