"Previously knitting has been at the heart of my craft work - but I have often flirted with the idea of cross stitch".

Site: http://www.crossstitchforum.com/
Joined: 7th April 2009
Members: 1453 (including newest 'Marmalord')
Total threads: 5158
Total Posts: 129,898
Av. responses per post: 24.2!!!!
Most user online ever: 68

Keen to kick things off by joining a forum a day for the first week, cross stitching seemed like a good choice when I looked for my second world to step into.

Clearly this forum is niche, but it also appears to be a world where you get response.

My first move - the basic intro:
New thread 8.09pm:

Hello I am Marmalord, (The Ruler of Marmaland).
I am delighted to have stumbled across this on line dwelling place for fellow ‘stitchers’.

6 minutes later, and two minutes ago......
Serinde (joined forum Jan 31 2006) made (i assume, her) 5360th posts to date...........

"Oh, hey! I think we have a right one here! Welcome from the West of Scotland, M'lord... Make yourself at home!"

Serinde has made an average of 7.8 posts each and every day for over two years.

It would seem that http://www.crossstitchforum.com/ is far from 'dead'. The equally prolific poster - Mags is the next to welcome me, she asks...."Hello and welcome Where is this Marmaland ?"

I tell Mags that it is a little known borough of London, and then I post the following:

New thread: 8.31pm: Advice needed:
Having looked at the friendly tone of the residents posts I feel confident that here I will find the advice that I need..

In the past my hobby has been one of my guilty secrets, but if I am honest I have always had a deep (if sometimes hidden) love of needlecraft.

It would be fair to say that like most young heterosexual men, my ‘football friends’ ‘motor-racing mates’ and ‘public house pals’ have all struggled to display any genuine interest in my crafty endeavours.

Previously knitting has been at the heart of my craft work - but I have often flirted with the idea of cross stitch.

Finally I laid the ‘big needles’ down, and took the plunge. It is two weeks now since I was seduced by a L. S. Lowry template and starter set and I really need some help.

Unlike knitting, that I always found to be really therapeutic - this whole cross stitching business seems to make me deeply angry.

It really nags away at me like the radio that is not quite tuned in properly, or the buzz of an invisible fly. It would seem that put simply - cross stitching actually makes me ‘cross’.

Has anyone else encountered this?
Could it be part of the learning process?
Or do you think that cross stitch and I are just not happy bedfellows?
Thanks
Marmalord

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10.39pm, and I had 8 welcomes and 3 posts with advice - a few days later and there were 20 welcomes and 16 posts with advice.

Response highlights:
"I'm from the US so all that you all just said went right over my head"

"Welcome my lord (*Tugs forelock)"

"I would hazard a guess that you are an accomplished knitter, and that cross stitch is totally new?"

"Most of us have bitten off more than we can chew at some point -- usually at the beginning! I wouldn't think that would really account for your crossness".

"Perhaps, as a needle art, cross stitch isn't your thing (paint by numbers with thread, as someone once said). But don't despair! It forms a component of other disciplines: hardanger, drawn thread, assisi work... (Perhaps you ought to be a weaver??)"

"We do have other male members, who will probably understand your plight regarding your friends. In particular, our very own Mr X Stitch is now becoming famous in his own right".
"I don't remember my husband getting angry at stitching, but he struggled quite a bit with his first project and never finished it".

"You're not the only guy who does needlework. We have several on here. Both my father and father-in-law crocheted at one point in time. It doesn't matter what the other boys think".
"There's nothing wrong with a man cross stitching, my boyfriend does".

"Where is Mr X Stitch?"

"Yes Marmalord it can make you very cross sometimes I think the other ladies have forgotten about that nasty little frog that sits on hoops waiting for a mistake to appear that makes us all very cross"!!!!