Pros and Cons of a Stitch Along

Hi friends, just to let you know before we dive into this episode, I'm not entirely sure why but the sound completely changes halfway through this recording. I did change rooms of where I recorded the second half of this compared to the first, but I'm not entirely sure what happens, which one I'll apologise if the sound slightly changes. Around the 15 minute mark you might just want to make sure you've got your phone, however you're listening to this out, because you might want to change the volume. It doesn't go any louder from my knowledge, but I just wanted to apologise if you noticed that you're not going crazy, I just wanted to hop in and apologise before you dive into that episode. Hi everyone, welcome to the Cross Stitch Podcast. My name is Hannah and I just love talking all things cross stitch in hobbies. I believe the old is there to take time every day for ourselves, our hobbies and the things that fill us up. I want to help you wake up, leaping out of bed every morning because you're so excited to start the day, knowing that you get to choose to do something that you love today, even if it's just for 10 minutes. Here you will find inspiration, tutorials, motivation and the odd pep talk to light a fire in you and ignite your creative spark. Add design patterns, produce courses and create stitchalongs to help you along your journey. So grab a cup of tea, get your project out and enjoy! Hi friends, welcome back to the Cross Stitch Podcast. So today we're talking about the pros and cons of joining a stitchalong. Now you might be thinking are there actually any cons to joining a stitchalong, especially coming from someone who runs them, this might seem a little odd. But there are a few that I want to talk through today, but I just want you to know this doesn't mean like I don't, I absolutely love stitchalongs. But I also know they're not for everyone and if you're someone who is maybe yet to try them or you're trying to decide whether to join them or even if you're someone who has joined stitchalongs in the past and not enjoyed them, this episode might help you figure out why and maybe feel like it might help you come back some of the frustrations maybe you feel with stitchalongs. So whether you're yet to join one or you've already joined one or you just want to listen to this episode just because I'm going to help you try and figure out if stitchalongs are for you or not. Just before we start though and before I dive into the pros and cons, just keep in mind that every designer runs their stitchalongs differently. So some of these examples that I give might not apply to all stitchalongs in the whole world, like there are so many of us who run them and we all run them so differently. I'm trying to keep it quite general but if something sounds like particularly really good about a stitchalong what I talk about here, don't assume every stitchalong has that always check first and something on the flip side if something sounds not so great about a stitchalong, don't write all stitchalongs off. Just check before you join and maybe these things are something you can keep in mind of having some kind of checklist in your mind when you're looking through joining a stitchalong, have a look if they have these things like if it's something you'd enjoy or not. I have tried to keep this quite general but of course there are always some differences. So I'm going to start with the cons of joining a stitchalong because I want to kind of end this episode on a happy note. So like I say, as I read these, just know I'm not saying there are reasons you should never join a stitchalong but they're just something to be aware of if you do join them. And I know about these sort of downsides of stitchalongs because I speak to my community about these feelings that come up but it doesn't always stop them joining anyway. Sometimes we know that these things happen but we still like to join a stitchalong even with these sort of downsides to them. So number one of a reason maybe you might not want to or a sort of negative about a stitchalong is that you can feel behind. Stitchalongs have very specific start and end dates of when it will run as well as release states for each part of the pattern. So if you fall behind like on a particular week or a particular month, you can start feeling like you are falling behind and that's not a great feeling because stitching is not a race. We need to try and enjoy the process and if you're constantly feeling like you're playing catch up that isn't like the most relaxing thing. And then coming off the back of that falling behind can make you stop stitching. So this is kind of like when you try a new habit like let's use the example of drinking water every day. If you miss one day you're more likely to stop all together because you feel like you've already failed so you're kind of like well I missed a day so I may as well just miss the next day I missed a day after I missed a day after it doesn't make any difference now I've already ruined my 10 day streak so it doesn't matter. This same can happen in Stitchalongs falling behind which happens 99% of the time in my experience of running them and I've run a lot of Stitchalongs I've lost count I know I'm over 20 probably up to 30 now. It can make you feel like there's no point in continuing with that Stitchalong if you fell behind a little bit you're kind of already off track and won't catch up so you may as well just stitch it at a different time which defeats the whole point of being in a Stitchalong in the first place. Now you can come back this if this is something you experience in a Stitchalong or you're kind of worried about this before you join them just know I fall behind on my own Stitchalongs or the time but here's how I come back it. Your new part comes out I just stitched this part even if I didn't finish the one before. So this is something you can try too so let's say it's a weekly Stitchalong and week two you had a really busy week maybe your kids were off school sick or you were travelling or something happened and you didn't really get to stitch much of week two then week three comes out and you're like how many finish week two yet I need to finish week two before I can start week three but no you don't however sometimes you might have to if week three is like you have to stitch week two but most of the time in my experience you don't always have to stitch it in order so when week three comes out instead of thinking I need to finish week two don't just start week three wherever week three starts ignore week two for now and just join where you're at so that's something you can try too as well if that is something you struggle with and just keep in mind everyone stitches at different speeds and they have a different amounts of time for stitching in their day we're all so different so you might stitch a little slower you might stitch a little faster and we'll talk about that in a minute and just know everyone's different and when I like I'm I run stitchalongs and when I'm breaking up the pattern to really sit in parts I'm always trying to figure out the right amount to release at one time but I can never figure it out because there's no right amount people some people will always be on track but most people will always be a little bit behind and that's okay you know like I said I've ran probably up to 30 stitch longs I think I started my first stitch along in 2017 so almost 10 years of running stitch longs and I still haven't figured this out I feel like I've got better you know I do tend to lean one out towards fortnightly stitch longs but I do also have while we're starting a daily one soon it's active or a stitch call so you know I still try different speeds different amounts of parts being released just to like switch it up a little bit see what works best but you can never figure it out so just know that going in the designer will never release the perfect amount of part or perfect amount of stitches for you to stitch during that sort of window of time you have and that's okay like everyone stitches differently but just do what I do and just if you are falling behind a little bit just start each week or each month or however it's being released and then catch up at the end because that way you'll feel like you're on track and you'll feel like you're keeping up even though technically you're not and you then can also enjoy the stitch along along with everybody else and you'll know where everyone's up to and you'll know what they're talking about okay so again now coming off the back of that you might stitch too fast for the stitch along you know I've just spoken a lot about falling behind but you might be someone who has a lot of time for stitching or you just end up being on track for the whole thing and you might stitch so fast that you get a little bit bored waiting for the next part to come out now the silver lining of this is that that means you'll have time for other projects so if you're someone who stitches multiple projects at a time this can be actually like a con I mean a pro not a con but if you only stitch one project at a time or you're someone who maybe gets a little impatient because you kind of you're in the groove of that pattern and you want to carry on this might be a little bit of an issue because you have no choice like let's say for example I give that choose that weekly example week one or week two comes out and you stitch it the day it comes out and you're really in the mode like in the mood for that pattern you're really enjoying it but then you come to the end of that week and or that part that's been released and you have no choice but to stop you can't carry on even if you want to and that can be a little frustrating if you are someone who has a lot of time for stitching and stitches a little quickly so again bear that in mind now another way to kind of come back these two issues is to try and see like figure out and we'll talk about this later. little bit is once you are a bit more like in your stitching groove and you know yourself and you know how much time you get for stitching it can be a little easier to decide which ones to join and which ones not to join because you'll have an idea of like will I be able to keep up with this will I get bored with this so as you continue your cross stitch journey you'll be able to kind of decipher more easily which ones to join and which ones to skip so just know if you're right at the start of your journey this might be a little bit more of a you have to figure this out and you might just have to join a few stitch longs and just see what kind of ones you like different designers will release them at different times of the year some only do monthly some only do weekly some are like me and just kind of mix it up depending so that will be something you'll figure out as well going forward but you can never completely predict it no one can which is one of the cons now another one is you might not like the pattern and this is a big one especially if you're joining a stitch along by a designer who you've never stitched before or never joined one of their stitch longs before now most of the time designers do not show you the pattern you are stitching it's a surprise that's one of their like good things about a stitch along is that you're having a surprise each week or each month but that does come with some risk no one wants to feel like they've wasted time or money stitching something they don't like and I'm actually gonna say the time is the big one here you might start the stitch along and enjoy the first few parts and then really start to dislike it for whatever reason maybe you don't like the colors maybe you don't like the design maybe you are thinking I have nowhere to put this it doesn't match wherever you want to put it in your home if you would that's what you're planning on doing with it like there are lots of different reasons so that is a bit of a risk now if you're someone who absolutely loves surprises and actually you just like stitching you don't really care what the designs like you're not gonna put it up anyway you just put all your designs in a box which probably most of us this isn't really an issue but if you are someone who needs to know what you're stitching before not every stitch along is going to be for you because like I said a lot of designers do not show you the pattern before you join now I am someone who does let you see before you join so keep that in mind you might be able to look before you join so just have a look on the page where you're signing up they might have a way where you can see the pattern now of course this ruins the surprise but it depends on why you're joining a stitch along some people are joining for the surprise element they like to be surprised every week they like the not knowing some people are joining because they like the way it's broken down it keeps you on track it gives you something to stitch you might like the pattern like there's so many different reasons to join a stitch along so this kind of depends on your reasons but once you're kind of used to a designer or like you've stitched a lot of their patterns before you kind of have an idea of what you can expect so after like if you've joined someone's stitch along for a while you might be like I don't even need to look anymore I like their stitch along I like their design so I don't even need to look now I will say if you're joining mine I am I used to have quite a distinct style I would say however now that's gone out the window I do have a lot of different styles and designs that I release now especially if you're in the cross stitch club we experiment a lot in there so I would say if you're joining one of mine I would always maybe have a little peak I always give you like a little bit of part one anyway to see so just bear that in mind some designers like me are completely different like what's coming to mind right now is Sat Summa Street um Jody at Sat Summa Street her designs are so distinctive you know what you're getting now to be fair I haven't actually looked at her ones recently but from past memory you know what you're getting when you join one of her stitch alongs that is a design who's very distinctive you know what you're getting then there are other designers like me where sometimes you're getting a really large pattern sometimes you're getting a small one sometimes you're getting full coverage sometimes you're not so just yet maybe it depends on the designer too on what their styles like okay final con is that they are usually a bit more expensive than just buying a pattern outright and this is because there are a lot more work now I know maybe from the if you're someone who joined stitch alongs you might kind of think it's just a pattern broken up but that pattern being broken up means you're releasing like up to ten patterns really you also have to pay for some sort of hosting to gather everyone's emails together to send the pattern out and then I actually release videos with mine as well so I need extra hosting to host a video so if you are someone who works on a lot of projects over a year the cost can start to add up especially if you are joining new stitch alongs all the time it is one of the reasons why I started the cross stitch club because you just get access to every single stitch along I run so as long as you're in there so that's kind of how I try to combat that for you but just know they are usually a little more expensive and for good reason you know I'm coming from this from a designer perspective and I know what the cost is behind the scenes to host all this where I was like just to give you like the contrast if you're releasing a pattern let's say on Etsy you upload it to Etsy it costs 20 cents which is I don't know like 20p something like that and you don't pay anything then until a pattern that has been purchased and then it's just a percentage so I think it's like 2% of the sale then goes to Etsy so it is a lot easier cheaper and you can kind of just put it on Etsy and forget about it and you don't need that's it it's done you don't need any more time the extra cost with a stitch along is not the cost of designing the pattern it's the cost of running the stitch along the time that goes into it and the hosting like I said so that they are just a bit more expensive than just buying the pattern now if you're someone who can't afford to join stitch alongs all the time a lot of designers then release it as a pattern after I do tend to do this but I do make it almost the same prices a stitch along just so that anyone who's joined the stitch along doesn't feel like oh I could have just waited until this came out and saved like £10 or whatever so just bear that in mind okay pros of stitch alongs let's get into the pros now I have a lot more to say here although I actually said a lot more than I thought I would about the cons to the first pro is that they keep you motivated joining a stitch along can keep you motivated because usually you are seeing other people's progress online in some way you might be in Facebook groups you might be on Instagram and even if you're not online you can usually see the progress of the person running the stitch along unless you remind them usually a little bit behind but not always and if you do join my stitch alongs you know you get you get access to them if you're in the cross stitch club and so we regularly share inside the cross stitch club our progress and all our different projects that we're stitching but they can also motivate you because they can give you a clear way to stay on track with your stitching which I think is really important you know each week or each month how much you need to stitch to get something finished it just gives you this like clear map of what you need to stitch each week especially as you kind of get into a stitch along you have more of an idea on how much time it will take you to stay on track and it just maps it out so nicely for you I I mentioned I think it was the last episode just about routines and how much I'm enjoying them right now and I think stitch alongs fit into that very nicely because you can really plan out what you'll be stitching each week or each month as well which I think is so helpful another part is that they have a specific end date this kind of comes back off the first one having an end date means that you're more likely to stitch because if you pull out a project that you are like it doesn't really matter when it gets finished and I have infinite time to finish this you are likely to take an infinite time to stitch it not always but I would say most of the time if there is no end date in time we just think we have forever I know personally that I'm much more likely to take the time to stitch a project that needs finishing on a specific date than I am to sort of stitch something that can be finished whenever an example to kind of help you think about this is to think about whether you've ever stitched something as a gift for someone and being shocked you've managed to finish it because you struggle to finish things for yourself I betting most of you have had that feeling or maybe the specific end date was Christmas or Halloween you have they sort of timer in the back of your mind that just makes you more likely to stitch that project and not just that project but actually take the time to stitch in general because you know this sort of in sort of not it's not a made-up deadline you know but at the same time nothing terrible is going to happen if you don't make it but there's something about deadlines that means you will find the time to make it happen so having that sort of map each week as well as a specific end date just helps you take time for stitching which is what we all want at the end of the day that's what we're all here for is to just find more time for stitching I know some of you are here for other things as well but I know I have seen hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of comments and questions about finding time to cross stitch it is the thing we all want more of the thing is we're never gonna have the amount of time we want to have but I'm always trying to find ways to help you find a little bit more time each you know as I continue stitching and finding different times in different days I do think this is a big one and you know you can kind of put a deadline on yourself if you want to you know even if you're not in a stitch along you can kind of make your own deadlines I do think though, sometimes our brain knows we've pretended that it's not a real deadline, so what you can try it, I do think it's so helpful. So the next pro is that they remind you to stitch or kind of give you accountability and that sounds silly right, remind you to stitch like you'd forget, but I know you know what I'm talking about. So most of the time with a stitch along, you will be getting updates on the pattern in some sort of way and usually that's via email. So having that email with your new parts of the stitch along, hit your inbox, let's say each week or each fortnight or however it's coming out, it reminds you to make time for stitching and then you kind of feel a pull of accountability even though no one's making you stitch. It's just like something your brain is like, oh right, I'm in this stitch along, I should probably take time for stitching. I took part in a course many years ago. I think it was in 2021, that was live. It was like a live program and you paid more for the live program and I joined it and I have never in all my life completed a program so methodically and so on track than I did joining something live. Because every single week the new part got released however you couldn't move on to the next part. Now this is something slightly different from a stitch along but you couldn't move on to the next part until you finished the part before and sometimes I do think about this about like should I do this in a stitch along, I think I'm going to try it one day. Now the thing is I know okay so what you had to do is you had to submit your homework so you had like a few questions to answer each week or what you just learned, learned about and then you just uploaded that image to the software that we were using for the course and it unlocked week two or week three and so forth and I know it was an automatic thing. No one at the other end of that program was reading the homework and unlocking the course. It was automatic as soon as you uploaded the file it wouldn't lock so I could have uploaded anything. It wouldn't have mattered if it was actually the homework however and I still did it. It wasn't like I just upload anything to get the next part. I stayed on track, I did the homework, I completed that whole course and I completed it on the day it finished. There was just something about having that weekly reminder and it being live that made me finish it. I also did have a sort of partner that I was working with at the same time, not like romantic partner. I mean I partnered up with somebody in the course and we kept each other accountable and we both finished and I do think that helped I think I found really it just worked out well. I do think that helped a little bit as well but I also know that it was mainly the I was waiting. I was waiting on the Saturday came up on a Saturday, still remember and I would put my headphones in, clean the house while I was listening to whatever I was listening to that week and I completed it. This same will happen with a stitch along for many of you. Again all of our brains are wired a little bit differently but let me tell you, this is what I'm going to say sorry the point of this story is you had forever access to this course which is one of the main reasons I found to join live and then I've gone it forever. If I don't keep up with the live it's fine because I can just keep going back to it. The same happens with my stitch alongs if you join live you still get access to it. I'm not going to say forever but I've been I've been around for a while now. I'm not really going anywhere but I really truly thought I would go through this course again. It's not it is something where you could learn it the first time around but it was more like a you had to really really like integrate what the course was about and I honestly thought like I'm going to go through this every year. That was my plan. I was I think it started in the March and it was a 16 week course it's actually gone to 20 weeks now and I was like I'm just going to do it kind of every spring and summer. I have never gone back through that course because it isn't live. I have started it a few times again I've done the first couple of weeks about four times and I have never completed it again. The only thing I can think of is the fact that the live element has gone. No one is keeping me accountable anymore. No one was really keeping me accountable when it was live. The accountability came from that email every week saying you can unlock this week by submitting your homework and I really truly want to try it with a stitch along one day. I do think it will be with a stitch along inside the cross stitch club rather than when I run publicly but there's something about it that having that email hit your inbox every week or however often the stitch along is released that really does help you stay on track get get you some accountability and just take the time to do it. When I run my stitch alongs I also usually do a quick video with each release. In part it's to help you with the pattern but it's also so you can take time. So while you're watching the video you can kind of sit and make a little bit of progress on that part that's being released and so yeah I just like I like when I do the video and you watch it each week it kind of I'm hoping anyway it kind of gives you a bit of extra accountability like here I am I'm showing up for you again and now it's on to you to show up and do some stitching. It's like a back and forth and I just really believe that doing stitch alongs can just help you stitch more which is what we all want as I've already said. Okay the next pro as I'm going through these I've realized that almost all of these pros are about the fact that stitch alongs can help you find more time for stitching because this next one is also about this as well but the next pro is that they cost more and I know I've already spoken about this because it's also a con but I'm going to also make it a pro due to something called the sunk cost fallacy. So as study was done on people I haven't I can try and find a link to the study but I actually heard this on a podcast a while ago so if you want to go find a study feel free to search sunk cost fallacy you will find it but the basics are that a study was done on people who had baseball tickets I think and some got free tickets some paid for standard tickets some paid for like the box tickets the more expensive ones and it proved that the more money you spend on something the more likely you are to attend that something and I know we can all think of examples of this I'm going to use the example of going to a show so if you get a free ticket to a show that you weren't that interested in but it was for you so you took the ticket it's much easier to either just forget that you want it or got the ticket or just not go like maybe it comes to the day and you're like you know I'm really tired and I just can't really bothered you're not really excited for it because it's just something you got given to you so you just might you're just more likely to not turn up to that show on the other hand if you saved for months and months for a show you really wanted to see and you actually bought the full price ticket or maybe you got a little discount but if you bought the full price ticket you will try much harder to ensure nothing gets in the way of you watching that show and the reason I'm using this example is because this happened to me so not so much the free version but the more expensive version I bought well not I me and my sisters bought my bought tickets to go and watch wicked in London for my mom for her I think it was Christmas it doesn't matter when it might have been a best day they're very close together so I get confused and the three of us were going with my mom and you know buying four tickets to a West End London show is not very cheap plus we had to stay in London so we had to book a hotel and book train tickets so we were we couldn't book the train tickets when we bought the show tickets because it was too far in advance to book the train yet I think you can only book the train here like three months in advance or something when it's just like a little local train like that so we waited and then we went to book the train tickets and my train was fine I lived in a different area to my mom and sisters however their train tickets they they couldn't get the train there was a coach replacement and none of them wanted to do a coach replacement in the end one of my sisters actually didn't end up coming and she is actually the one who didn't put as much money into the tickets as other people going to the tickets and so she just didn't come she wasn't too bothered she hadn't paid for the train ticket yet the hotel room I can't even remember how we ended up figuring it out but we figured it out and so she just didn't come however we still wanted to go and we were trying to make it work so my mom and sister drove for like two hours to a different train station to get on a different train line to get to go come into a different station in London slunders has a few train stations it was just one train station that wasn't operating and so they could still make the show and at this point we hadn't like I said we hadn't booked the train tickets we'd only done the hotel and the show so we hadn't even spent all the money on it yet we probably could have changed the day of the show probably would have cost a bit of money but in our heads we were like we cannot waste this money we've already spent we have to make this work and they did they made it work they drove they left the house very early drove a few hours to a different train station got on the same train line as me. I'm a man. we met in this train station, so like where they come in to London is from the west and where I come in to London's from the north and so it's different train stations and it actually turned out better because on the way home we ended up being on the exact same train. It was great. So all that to say, when you spend money on something you're so much more likely to make it happen and the same is true for cross stitch patterns. How many patterns have you bought on let's say Etsy for example, that would just like a few pounds because you can get really cheap patterns on Etsy. I'm not saying they're no good, I'm just saying they are quite inexpensive on Etsy and how many of you bought that are still sitting in your Etsy account, not even downloaded yet. They're just sat there in your purchases. Now compare this to any stitch alongs you've joined. How many have you at least started, let's say you might not have finished them, but how many stitch alongs have you joined and not started? I bet there's not many. And even if it's not a stitch along, let's just talk about expensive patterns. How many more expensive patterns have you bought and not started? I'm in a guest again, not many because when we spend more money on something we don't want to feel like we've wasted our money and so we're more likely to at least start the pattern. I'm not saying we're going to finish it, but we at least start it. You know our brain hates to waste things and I'm going to, I don't know if it's true, but I feel like wasting money seems to be like one of the highest priorities for many humans. We really don't like wasting money. Wasting time might be second. So I truly believe that the more money you spend on a cross stitch pattern, the more likely you are to start that pattern makes a time to stitch that pattern and just get more out of it than when you spend little money on a pattern. It's why, you know, some of my patterns on Etsy are still very, very cheap, but most of them aren't anymore. I don't want people just downloading a pattern and then just keeping it in their sort of downloads folder. I want people to actually stitch it. So I know that more expensive ones might not sell as many, but at least people will actually finish them or at least start them. So yeah, I try to think about that. I try to think about when you spend money on something and how much you've spent on it and does it, does it affect you? I'm not going to say it affects everybody, but I guess it will, I'm guessing it'll affect most of us. Or like you can, you can literally apply this to anything. Maybe it's like you bent loads of money on a piece of art for your home. You're so much more likely to find a place, hang it up, display it properly. Whereas you might buy like a cheap print from a supermarket, which I've done, and they're still on the packet because you're just not as invested in it, like financially, which somehow leads on to emotionally. And again, I think the one thing here where the caveat I suppose is hat, like I just kind of said, how invested you are emotionally, how much do you want the thing, how much did you like the thing, you know, the example I used at the show, one of the factors is how much did I want to go to the show? You know, it wasn't just that I wanted to go watch wicked. I wanted to spend the weekend with my mum and sisters. That was like one of the things and the reasons it was not long after Covid. It was just going to be a nice time to spend the weekend together in London. And so that was a factor. The same can be said for cross-stitch patterns, you know, how much do you love the pattern can come into this as well. And so the money and how much you like it is two things, but if we're just talking about the cost, I will say that I do believe the more money you spend on something, the more likely you are to stitch it. Okay, two more left. So the next one is that you get finishing ideas. I think one of the hardest things about cross-stitch is deciding what to do with it once it's finished. Stitchalums can help with it because you're able to see what people are doing with the exact same project you have just finished. So it's not like, oh, you can make a pencil case and they've used a very specific pattern. Well, you might want to make a pencil case, but it doesn't work with the size of the pattern you've just finished. However, when you have, you know, I usually have at least a hundred people inside a stitch along, sometimes more, not really less. When you have a hundred people stitching the same pattern, and then seeing all those different ways they're finishing it can help so much because you'll get so many different ideas on how to finish your specific thing that you've just stitched. And then personally, I also do try and put some kind of finishing tutorial inside most of my stitchalungs. Not all of them, but I would say like 90% will have an idea on what you can do, and then like 89% have a tutorial on how to do it as well. It's just something I like to add in there because obviously we've all got a box of projects that we haven't done anything with. I've got a whole heap of them. But I do want people to try and display their work once they finished it in some way or just do something with it so it's not just sat there. I think with stitchalungs as well we spend a long time on them. You know, because you can't finish it quickly as I've stated in the cons, you have to work on it for however long the stitchalungs running for. And so I think if you're spending a long time on something, I do want to try and help you actually display that. So I do try where I can to include a tutorial. Then the final proud is that they're fun. This is the most important reason and the main one for joining a stitchalong because they're fun. I talk about this all the time. You should only do things that are sort of hobby based if they're fun if you're going to enjoy them. I absolutely love running stitchalungs as many of you know, but I also love joining them as well. I don't join tons of other people's stitchalungs but what I do is when I'm running my own, I stitch it as if I am taking parts, but I just use them a little bit ahead on the releases. I might be like a week or two ahead. Like that's the only difference. Like I like to stitch it as if I'm joining the stitchalong. I like the breakdown. I like having the end date. I just think I know that doesn't sound fun, but to me it is so fun and it's you know, if you don't look at the pattern, it can be a surprise as well. And you just I feel like with a stitchalong because you get the well let's just using man as an example. You get a video and in that video I'll give you like loads of different ideas usually of like you could do it this colour or you can do it this way. You can include this. You can leave this off. And I like to think for some of you anyway, I kind of help you get a bit creative and a bit more daring to change the pattern, which I think is fun. I think adding your own little flare and your own twist to a cross stitch pattern is fun. Now I know some of you just follow it exactly and you just don't want to even try and do that and that's fine. That might be the fun part for you, but I know for others you know, I think it's much kind of easier I guess to try things out on a stitchalong. Especially if you're doing one of mine because usually most many of you are in the cross stitch club as well and so I can kind of help you, you can we can bounce ideas off each other. So I do think there's just yeah there's that extra element of fun in a stitchalong. I just can't say enough wonderful things about them, but I do hope that this episode has helped you decide whether to join one or not in the future. Like I said, I don't think they're for everybody, but if you liked some of the ideas I've shared today, I really do just hope I help you decide because the last thing I want is for you to join a stitchalong and absolutely hate it. So again, our brain hates waste so I don't want you to waste your money or waste your time joining one if you're not going to enjoy it. So I hope this gives you like more of an idea on what you may expect from a stitchalong and yeah just whether they are for you or not. And I will see you in the next episode. Bye! Thanks so much for listening to another episode of The Cross-Stage Podcast. If you liked what you heard could I ask a huge favor? Would you please leave a review on iTunes. Reviews help get this show into the ears of all the stitches and it helps grow this amazing community. If you've already left a review and thank you so much, if you wanted to carry on supporting this show you can share on Instagram what you were doing when you listened to this episode and be sure to tag me @HannahHanMakes because I love seeing you're behind the scenes. Keep stitching and I'll see you soon.