2019 Recap:

What’s a Steotch?

Steotch Fine Needleart has been designing and selling cross stitch patterns online since 2010, as one of the internet’s original ironic craftster blogs. Steotch was regularly featured as a favorite Etsy seller on (now defunct) Regretsy, as well as winning favorable reviews across much of the meme-industrial complex, including links from Mashable, WIRED, the Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, and others. This, younglings, was before the Rise of the Million Etsy Cross Stitch shops. The original Etsy storefront is still going strong, with new patterns appearing from time to time.

What’s a Steotchalong?

In 2013, Steotch announced the internet’s first cross-stitch-along. While there had been many stitchalongs for the lesser fiber arts (crochet, knitting) which depend on following numeric patterns – this was the first time (although we have no evidence for this claim) that it was attempted with cross stitch. The pattern would be released in small segments, week by week, until the actual subject of the pieces only became clear over time. In the final week, a number of different options for finishing were provided – and of course several participants went off script and designed their own.

And then it was on.

As the years have gone on, the community of stitchers participating in the Steotchalong has grown considerably. Now each year, thousands of participants chime in across the globe, sharing their progress on social media. The Steotchalong now centers on live video feeds of the Sunday-night pattern-drops as the community swarms together to download the clues and guess what’s coming next.

In 2018, the Steotchalong became a team competition. In order to manage the sheer number of participants, and to accentuate the purpose of building community through cross stitch, the Steotchalongers were invited to organize themselves into teams. Each week, new challenges were announced for the teams to compete for made-up points, and race each other up a leaderboard in hopes of winning the final prize – the title of Cross Stitch World Champions.

What makes Steotchalong different from other stitch-alongs?

The community: the size of the Steotchalong often makes it possible to find other participants in your area, so you can meet up, share drinks, and cross stitch together. The teams: Some Steotchalong teams are geographically based, but others are virtual teams that have people from all over, organized around common interests. There are even teams for introverts and people who don’t like teams. The rich heritage: there’s only one Steotchalong, but each year new members can rely on advice and support from other stitchers who have been going at it for years. Each year there are more in-jokes and memes that make more sense the longer you’ve been involved. The mystery: trying to puzzle together the patterns – and then once the subject makes itself clear, to figure out how Steotch will play with it – makes the experience engaging and fun. The humor: Every week’s patterns, clues and blog posts are crammed full of jokes and memes that bring out other funny people. It’s a good, inebriated time. You’ll laugh. The price: Since day one, Steotchalong has been strictly a pay-what-you-want event. Steotch posts links for different price options each week, and you are free to pay as often or as much as feels appropriate to you. Some folks can’t pay, some can contribute a little more, and it seems to work out okay.

What if I don’t like the final pattern?

Yeaaaah, you will. It’ll be fine.

Are there refunds if I’m unhappy with the final pattern?

This pricing and payment model precludes us from being able to administer refunds. In addition to the patterns, your contribution helps support an event that builds up the entire online cross stitch community.

Do I have to be on a team?

No, you don’t have to do anything. You don’t have to finish the project, you don’t even have to pay anything. You can just download the patterns and chuckle along. But – the more you engage, the more people you meet, the more you flex your creativity, the more fun you will have.

Is this an appropriate activity for my kids to share in?

Depends on you and your kids. The content of the forums, and perhaps the patterns themselves, would likely win an R rating – but probably not NC-17. Although one year we did throw in Dick Butt. So there’s always a chance of genitalia or genitalia-adjacent subject matter.

How do I sign up?

You don’t. You just swing by here for links to the patterns/payment options. Use the hashtag #steotchalong to find fellow stitchers on social media. If you want to get plugged into the whole community, join the watch parties, learn about meetups and so forth, then you need to join the closed Facebook Group. (The next group opens on July 27, 2019.)

Can I buy patterns from previous years?

No. Steotchalong patterns are only available during the event. We have occasionally offered “Amnesty” days where the patterns have been made available again for brief periods. Please follow us on Facebook, etc. to find out when and if future amnesties will be offered.

WHAT TO EXPECT? PREVIOUS YEARS:

(2017 and 2018 video embeds Facebook video which may not appear if using some types of Adblock/Facebook blocking browser extensions.)