The Death of the Cross Stitch Gatekeepers

Recently, a lot of my posts have been focused on the changing nature of cross stitch and how AI, in particular, has created some odd situations like Reddit groups adding in anti-AI rules, and AI stealing free patterns for profit.
But there are good things to come out of the changing history of cross stitch. And one of those things is firmly the death of cross stitch gatekeepers.

Before I even start, I should probably say that throughout cross stitch’s history, I don’t think there was ever a meaningful effort to gatekeep the hobby. Sure, there must have been some people who did (or still do), but the wider cross stitch world doesn’t.
But that doesn’t mean that there wasn’t gatekeeping. In fact, due to how the hobby permeated through the decades, gatekeepers were there, even if they were also the people spreading the hobby (confusing, right?).

We’ll skip most of the history of cross stitch and jump right into the 70s. This was a really important time for cross stitch in general, but was also a major democratisation of the hobby. 
One of the most well-known stories of this time is of Rosey Grier; an American football player at the height of his career, launching a needlework book ‘for men’. This is a fascinating story, so we suggest you read that blog post, but the biggest thing to take from it is that embroidery was allowed to be a man’s hobby again (historically, it’s been a male hobby about the same time it’s been a female hobby).
This turning point started breaking down the gatekeeping around which hobbies were for men or women, and allowed everyone to just do what they wanted.

But with it also came the exact opposite.

 
You see, it was great that anyone could stitch now, but the very product that allowed this also gatekept it: publications.

This could take the form of a book like Rosey Grier’s, or even cross stitch magazines.
These were there, but they will be filled with a special subset of professional designers, using professional software WAY out of the price point of home stitchers, pushing their styles, their techniques, and their ideals.

Many of the cross stitch myths we still discuss come from this period.

• Does the back of your cross stitch matter?
• You Can’t Mix Thread Brands Or Types
• Cross Stitch is Only for Traditional Designs
• And a whole post of others.

These designers, not maliciously, were gatekeeping the hobby with their own styles.

But times have changed. A lot.
I think that online cross stitch communities have changed cross stitch more than any other platform, but we also need to think about social media’s impact on the hobby.

 
Now, with low-cost (or even free) cross stitch programs, anyone can become a designer, selling cross stitch patterns on platforms like Etsy or TikTok.

That is a huge power shift.

And not to sugarcoat it, I was also a gatekeeper.
As one of the biggest cross stitch blogs, and as a publisher of many cross stitch books, my ideas, my styles, my thoughts are seen as important.
But now that doesn’t have to be the case.

Now you can ask AI how to tie a French knot, or publish your own books through things like Amazon’s KDP. I even published my recent cross stitch alphabet book through the same system.

So go out there, publish your own patterns, create your own cross stitch tools, start a Flosstube channel, and smash those cross stitch gatekeepers apart.

Happy stitching,
Lord Libidan