Why cross stitch, you may be asking? Of all the exciting and interesting hobbies in the world, what’s so great about this one?
You know what everyone thinks, right? “That looks boring. It’s all just little X’s, right? And maybe some outline stitches? What a yawner. Can’t you do that by machine now? How do you stay awake? I don’t have enough patience for that.” (<— Actually said to me once when I stitched for a demo booth during our county fair.)
Ahem. Aside from the inherent and ridiculous contradiction between the ideas in those last two sentences — loves, no one has to fight to stay awake when their patience is being tasked — there is a lot more to this form of stitching than can be seen from the outside. While this is true for most hand embroidery, it is exponentially more true for the rows of X’s that make up a cross stitch project. Some designs might include other embroidery like back stitches, French knots, Algerian eyelets, lazy daisies, long crosses &c, but they’re included for texturing, or as accents. In a cross stitch chart, the focus is always on the X’s. And that’s actually just perfect.
A bit of background
Before I explain that statement, let me give you some context. I’ve been stitching those X’s for almost 40 years as of this writing. During my first pregnancy, and knowing ZERO about hand work of any kind, I naively asked Janice, my then-mother-in-law, if she’d consider stitching a birth announcement for the baby. The clever, canny woman said, “No. But you could.”
Her bluntness set me back a half-step, but I’ve never been one to turn down a challenge. Besides, it was just X’s, right? How hard could it be? (stop laughing!) She started me off with a kit containing four holiday ornaments on 18 count* fabric, and sat with me through the first few agonizing hours.
Fam, if you do or have done cross stitch, you remember exactly what those “first few hours” were like. Awkward! I either had too many fingers or not enough of them, and they were always clenched around that tiny, tiny needle as if I were punching it through concrete, not fabric. Or they were getting stabbed because they were in the wrong place. I spent more time unsnarling knots in the floss than stitching. Though I thought I could at least count to ten reliably, it turns out that when they’re tiny little x-stitches, that was no longer a given. And how the f*ck does the needle find the hole from the backside of the cloth?
The awkwardness of those “first few hours” stretched into days, but I kept at it. I was fascinated in spite of myself at the fractal-like process happening under my needle. They were just tiny little X’s. Ordinary. Boring, even. But in their hundreds and thousands, they became magic. Form and function intermarried. Stillness and motion became one with needle and breath. At some point in the process — after I’d begun stitching that birth announcement sampler — I realized that I wasn’t struggling nearly as hard anymore. What’s more, literal hours passed by unnoticed and unmarked, save for the fresh blooms of color I’d left on the fabric as I stitched.
The only other things in my life that have come close to that kind of bliss were reading, singing and playing music, and even writing, once upon a time ago. Though I’ve picked up and put down other arts and crafts over years, as we do, none of them have stuck with me like counted cross stitch has.
So Why Cross Stitch? What’s in it For You?
I’m so glad you asked. Allow me to list just five of them.
- “Active leisure” is better for you that doing your usual couch potato impression. It teaches you what “flow” is, and what it’s like when you’re in it. If you’ve never experienced this state, I mentioned it when I talked about “literal hours” disappearing as I stitched. When flow happens to me, I’m wide awake but relaxed, mentally alert but not hyper or fussing, and I feel serene in a way that doesn’t happen to me outside of meditation.
- Cross stitching and other fiber arts are sensuous, tactile arts, imparting the sheer pleasure of handling long-strand cottons, silks, and soft hand-spun wools as they caress your hands and slide through your fingers.
- Hobbies help you structure your time. I’m not kidding. It’s Parkinson’s Law. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s simple. “Work always expands to fill the time available for it.” Right? Every freakin’ time. So if you have a sweet cross stitch project in the hoop going, you’re going to ensure you step right through your work tasks without delays because you want to set aside time for the thing you love: your stitching!
- Hobbies keep you from being boring. Yes, even counted cross stitch. It gives you something else to talk about rather than politics (dicey, these days), the weather (yawn), other people (gossip isn’t good for you), or what happened at your last dental appointment (you party animal, you).
- And of course, hobbies have been shown to relieve stress. You can sink a lot of frustration and rage into a piece of fabric when you are stabbing a needle into it 10,000 times. And I do mean, a lot.
As a Hobby, Cross Stitch Brings the Extra
However, there’s one other, very awesome thing about cross stitching that few know. It has a secret superpower. Namely, when you stitch, your needle and floss have the power to reach back across time.
And I don’t mean hours, or even days. I mean “deep time.” You are connecting in a very subtle, yet visceral way to those through history who’ve sat with needle and hoop in hand, much like you do. The movement of your hand and arm that pushes the needle through the fabric is the same muscle memory that stitchers had in your grandmother’s time, and your great-great-great-grandmothers.
When you stitch, ancestors you’ll never know live on through your hands. Through the centuries, they’ve untangled the knots, cursed over their mistakes, picked out the mislaid stitches, left tear marks in the fabric as they grieved, and placed miles and miles of embroidery flosses in fabrics — miles you add to, which each and every pass of your needle.
The sheer legacy of the art/craft is staggering, and exquisite. I think that makes cross-stitch hella cool.
That’s my take on why cross stitch should be on your short list of hobbies to try, but maybe YOU have something I missed? What is cross stitch like for you? Why do you think it qualifies as “cool”? Leave it all the comments, grimalkitties. This is the place to share.
*If you didn’t know, “18 count fabric” = 18 fabric threads across one inch in a row. I am much more merciful than my former mother-in-law. I start folks with 14 count aida, which is MUCH easier on the eyes and clumsy beginner fingers!
Link to Vickery Collections’ Celtic Christmas on 123Stitch.com. (not a commission, I link to them because they’re awesome)
But if you’d like to begin with something simpler, I cordially invite you to pick up “Creation Begins With a Breath” right now! It features easy counts, simple stitches, and when you’re done it’s a beautiful, meaningful finish to display in your home or office. 💖
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