Every year we give our estimates on the next year in cross stitch, and whilst our 2020 and 2021 guesses were right no the money (baring a virus keeping us at home), we’re really starting to see the impact of people sat at home under various lockdowns and next year looks to be a very exciting one for the world of cross stitch.
 

More Books

Something that totally happened in the background without much fan fair was the vast volume of new cross stitch books that came out in 2021. In fact, according to Amazon, there has been a 73% increase in cross stitch books in the last year.
We had actually seen something happen in the background of 2021, and we mentioned in last year’s guess that we thought more books would happen, and I’m glad to say we were right. But the books themselves are interesting. More and more books are being published by smaller publishers, with more and more niche themes.
 
But that doesn’t mean those are the only books coming out. In fact, following my official Disney Cross Stitch book back in 2014, Disney has steadily been pushing out official cross stitch patterns, pattern books, and patterns in magazines. This is a very strong move considering any Disney pattern prior to 2014 was always seen as breaking copyright. It’s clear that those big franchises and companies are also making cross stitch books.
 

Cheaper Patterns

One of the impacts of more books and patterns out in the wild is a higher likelihood of price drops. To make this more likely still, we’ve seen a glut of new stores opening on places like Etsy.
These both mean that competition is higher than ever for patterns, and prices should get more competitive.
 
The upshot of this however is that with players like Disney getting into the market, copyright will be taken seriously with infringement notices more and more likely to be sent out, and stores that sell bad cross stitch patterns are hopefully likely to shut down!
 

Cheaper Tools

And with cheaper patterns, come cheaper tools.
This one is a very interesting possibility, as DMC threads are priced differently across the globe, but they remain very high in most places. But with CXC threads becoming more and more readily available, and slowly increasing their place within the best cross stitch threads out there we’re seeing some strong competition in threads. Anchor has also been on its tails lately with its divisive decision to sell embroidery threads on spools to save money.
DMC has seen this coming too, as in 2016 they released a cheaper brand under their umbrella called Prism threads, so there is definitely history here.
 

Anchor Thread Spools

On the note of Anchor, their embroidery spool decision is likely to see some type of response. That could be DMC fighting back, DMC embarrassing this new idea, Anchor fixing some of the biggest issues (like recyclable plastic) or Anchor doing a 180 and removing them from sale, but we’re likely to see something happen here.

A New DMC Thread Range?

Starting to move into territory without proof, we start with DMC again (they’re going to have a big year by the sounds of it). The company push out new threads regularly, normally every 2 years. For example, we’ve had:
 
Diamant Threads – 2013
Coloris Threads – 2016
“New” 35 Threads – 2017
Etiole threads – 2018
New Thread Assortment – 2020
 
It’s about time we saw a new launch. I have no idea what it will be, but the timing looks good at least… Keep your eye out between April and July which is their launch window.
 

Easier Pattern Makers

Pattern makers and software have had an interesting time lately. From many of the favorite cross stitch pattern programs going bust, to others hiking in prices, to many other online-only pattern makers making waves in the scene.
But there is one thing we’re already starting to see; easier pattern makers.
 
Online tools like Thread-Bare have easy to use online generators that offer world-class creation thanks to great things like perfect dithering, and big players in the scene like Ursa Software (of WinStitch and MacStitch fame) have released a new MiniStitch program aimed at ease of use. I can only imagine that this is where the pattern generation market is going, especially with players like PCstitch not having a meaningful since 2016.
 

New Tools

Finally, I think we’ll see more tools. And by that I mostly mean apps. 2021 has been a big year for new cross stitch apps with markup apps like Markup R-XP and PatternKeeper being so well received that designers are specifically selling patterns with statements like “works with PatternKeeper”.
Sure, there are a lot of bad apps this year, and we’re likely to see a lot of those sadly, but some have been amazing. With apps being easier and easier to create as time goes on, this is a big boom area.
 
Combine this with the above, simplified pattern makers, and we’re likely to see some great app-based cross stitch generators out there.
 
Do you have any thoughts about the next year in stitching, or got a scoop of what you think we might see? Drop us a message below!
 
Happy stitching!
Lord Libidan