FEATURED STITCHALONG: CATERPILLAR CROSS STITCH

photo courtesy of Dana L. Costa (fabric: 16 ct white Aida; floss: DMC; needleminder: Caterpillar Cross Stitch

Featured Stitchalong

Caterpillar Cross Stitch Hello Deer!

FREQUENCY: BI-WEEKLY START DATE: SEPTEMBER 28, 2020 COST: GBP$15.50 (PATTERN ONLY)

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How Stitchers Get their Groove Back

Let’s face it, we all get to a point where we lose interest in our stitching. Maybe it’s a project that you are just not enjoying, or life is getting in the way. Maybe you are even paralyzed by the number of WIPs or wanna-be WIPs in the picture.

I spent some time talking to other stitchers about whether they have faced this problem—and why—to get other perspectives. Whatever the reason for not wanting to pick up that needle, here are some tips for trying to get your groove back.

Switch Projects

If it’s just that you hate the project you’re working on—or you’ve been working on the same pattern for ever—pick up another project. I like to do a quickie small as a palette cleanser—it’s like a stitching sorbet.

Recently, I was working on a large test stitch project that I was just over. I didn’t want to be an asshole and skip out on my promise to finish the test pattern, but I needed a break.

So, I picked up another test stitch—this one a Prudence Kitsch, Persistent Bitch pattern. If you are familiar with Pru, you know that first they are hilarious, but they are also fun—and fast—to stitch. It was just the cleanse I needed to power through the other project. Groove restored.

How Stitchers Get their Groove Back

Find a Buddy

Maybe the reason you’ve lost your mojo is that you are lonely. Ok that sounds counterintuitive because lots of us like the sit-in-acomfy-chair-with-tea-and-my-stitching vibeand it’s time to recharge from a hectic day.

But maybe you just need a little time with a fellow stitcher—someone who speaks your stitching love language. In this time of Covid-19 (aka The Great Unpleasantness), these buddies don’t have to be (nor should they be) sitting next to you at a coffee shop or in your living room. For example, StitchLife started a daily video session that quickly transformed into an interactive video chat for 15-20 minutes each morning.

Most of the folks who join in work from home, so we don’t have office/workplace interactions let alone access to other local stitchers. I can’t speak for the regulars on that Zoom session, but it is a great boost for me each day. And usually we all have a good laugh or an inappropriate conversation that personally gives me the human interaction to get through the solitude of isolation.

Give Yourself a Break

One of the people I spoke with about how to get she gets groove back said plainly, “I walk away!” by Dana L Costa

Hells yeah, stitchahs!

Give yourself a break and do something else completely.

Maybe it’s a sport or other physical activity. At the start of the pandemic, I picked up tennis to get myself out of the house but still remain socially distant.

Maybe it’s another craft—crochet, painting, whatever. Maybe it’s reading.

The point is to give yourself permission to lose your groove and not beat yourself up about it. Sometimes it happens.

For example, when I was a kid my mother said that I went through a phase when all I would eat was grape jelly on white bread. Not toast. Bread. Not strawberry jam. Grape jelly. I’m sure I was a massive pain in the ass. As quickly as I found it, I lost my grape jelly mojo. I had too much of it and needed new flavors in my life. I eventually came back to grape jelly but, at the time, embraced being over it with no apologies.

Maybe stitching is your grape jelly and you need to add some flavors to your life for a time. That’s cool. Don’t lose any sleep over it.

When you are ready, you will come back.