Tag: term of the week

We choose another very popular acronym out of our stitchy bag for this week’s Term of the Week! This acronym is much more well-known and popular than SINS.

Unlike SINS, SABLE is not a real word (okay I take that back, it’s some kind of animal) but to stitchers it is an acronym that has a pretty big meaning. SABLE stands for Stash Acquired Beyond Life Expectancy.

The big thing about cross-stitch and stash is that stitching takes time, and any chart you buy may never be stitched. Even an extremely fast stitcher can take several months to get through large projects. And there are so many beautiful and adorable things in this craft beyond the stitching itself. From hand-dyed fabric to embroidery scissors to needle minders to scissor fobs to thread to lights to stands, a stash cupboard (or bins under the bed, as the case may be) can and will fill up quickly.

Between the charts for the stitching, the stitching itself, and all the lovely accessories to go with the stitching, the ability to stitch and use everything literally extends beyond the average person’s life expectancy. Hence, the word SABLE.

When is this most often used? In the phrase, “I just sorted through my stash! This is definitely SABLE,” usually accompanied by picture of the bed/floor/room being covered in fabric, thread, charts, and kits.

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“Term of the Week” is a weekly blog post highlighting a new word or phrase commonly used among cross-stitchers but not found in an ordinary dictionary. These posts are to help explain the words’ meanings in context and provide a resource for anyone wondering what a term like “frogging” means. Check back every Thursday!

Today’s Term of the Week is one used by all stitchers! It’s a lot like the term Kit by the fact that it is used as both a noun and a verb. It’s actually a very basic term used in hundreds of other applications in the English language, but I thought I should go over it regardless. 🙂

Noun:

A Finish is a term used to described a completed cross-stitch project. It can be used interchangeably as a noun and an adjective, like “my newest finish” or “my finished Love Bug piece.” Whenever someone talks about their finish or their finishes, they mean they have a project that’s been completed! I use it most frequently as “my finished piece”, because I refer to my cross-stitch projects as cross-stitch “pieces” a majority of the time.

Verb:

To Finish is exactly what it sounds like, and is the exact same usage as it would be for anything else. For example, “I finished my latest project last night!” It also usually encompasses a sense of pride because you managed to finish the project in question and create a keepsake that will last for generations to come!

Term of the Week is back, with some brand new terms that every stitcher, beginner to advanced, should know!

The first term we’re going over this week is a term you will run across constantly in cross-stitch. The term has evolved to mean several things, and is also used as a noun and a verb!

Noun:

A Kit is a prepackaged cross-stitch supply. A kit comes with a charted design, aida fabric, needle, all the colors of thread you need, and instructions telling you how to get started, how to stitch, and how to finish the project. Depending on the size of the project, sometimes kits even come with sticky backing and a frame to finish the project yourself. Generally those who get started into cross-stitch start with kits, because all the supplies are already there.

Some kits are different than others. You can find kits for cookie jars, pot holders, picture frames, bookmarks, iPhone cases, hanging frames, and many other actual items. Other kits come with the charts and instructions like a kit, but gives you the option to choose fabric and colors.

Verb:

To Kit is a verb used to describe when someone has collected all the materials they need to start a project, such as “I kitted up my HAED last night.” Generally, people pick out the fabric they want to use, such as a hand-dyed aida fabric, pick out their colors, wrap them up in bobbins and organize them, pick out their needles, get their hoops or scroll frames or Q-Snaps ready, and get it all put together so they can begin working on the project. It’s the same principle as buying an actual kit, which is why they call it “kitting.”

The cross-stitch community is evenly divided on their feelings for kits. Some, like me, love kits because you don’t have to worry about buying any supplies, and they’re perfect for small projects. Others hate kits and will only ever buy charts and leaflets, because there is never enough thread to finish the kit and they don’t like having to buy everything, they’d rather pick out fabric and colors themselves.

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“Term of the Week” is a weekly blog post highlighting a new word or phrase commonly used among cross-stitchers but not found in an ordinary dictionary. These posts are to help explain the words’ meanings in context and provide a resource for anyone wondering what a term like “frogging” means. Check back every Thursday!

Okay, for real this time, our Term of the Week finally moves away from acronyms into more stitching techniques.

Pinking is actually a technique used throughout a lot of crafts, sewing, embroidery, anything that involves fabric that might easily fray, really.

When someone sits down to begin a project, one of the first steps to prepping for stitching is preventing the edges of the fabric from fraying. That way while they stitch the fabric’s not peeling apart or catching on their thread. There are several ways to do this, some popular ones being taping the edges or sewing around the edges. The other popular technique is pinking.

So how exactly are you meant to ‘pink’ the edges of your fabric? Basically all that’s required is a pair of pinking shears. Pinking shears are scissors with jagged, shaped edges used in crafting for putting edging designs on paper, and for fray check on fabric! They can be found in almost every store that sells scissors since they can be used for so many different things.

All that’s needed to prevent fraying on aida, linen, and other fabric types is to cut an inch into all four sides of the piece. The jagged design around the edge prevents the fabric from fraying and it will be cut away when the project is being framed, so there won’t be any tape to pull off or stitches to remove once the project is finished, with no leftover tape residue if it gets put in storage.

Pinking your fabric does mean that you have to add extra fabric allowance around the edges, however. If you normally give three extra inches for framing purposes, you’re going to want to give a couple more to make sure you can remove the jagged edges made by the pinking shears before you frame. Otherwise, it’ s a very popular method for preventing aida and other fabrics from fraying!

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“Term of the Week” is a weekly blog post highlighting a new word or phrase commonly used among cross-stitchers but not found in an ordinary dictionary. These posts are to help explain the words’ meanings in context and provide a resource for anyone wondering what a term like “frogging” means. Check back every Thursday!

For this term of the Week we finally jump away from acronyms – sort of. I’ve used the actual phrase here instead of the acronym, but Round Robbin is commonly referred to by its acronym RR as well!

Anyway, to the definition: what does Round Robbin mean exactly? No, it’s not referring to a fat bird. Round Robin is an event similar to a SAL, but the rules are a little bit different.

So here’s how a basic Round Robin is supposed to work: A group of stitchers get together and decide to stitch a project. The person chosen as a starter in the group gathers the supplies (chart, thread, fabric, etc.) and then mails it to the first person. That first person stitches the project, replaces any supplies they’ve used up, and sends it along to the next person. This continues until everyone now has a finish and the project makes it back to the RR starter. By the end, the goal is for everyone to have a finished piece with only one set of supplies.

There are many different types of Round Robins, however. One variation that’s the most popular is that there is only one main project and everyone in the RR stitches a small section rather than the whole piece, and at the end everyone has contributed to the RR starter’s main project. The stitchers in the RR don’t have finished pieces of their own but the RR starter now has a very treasured finish with a little piece of every stitcher. This type is most popular for charities and stitching a project for someone who can’t finish it themselves.

Round Robbins are not as popular as SALs and the reason why is the RR being mailed around. Every once in a while you’ll hear stories of the next person on the RR list receiving the project and then never sending it on again. The biggest deterrent for the popular ‘one project’ variation is if the piece is damaged by one stitcher – gets something spilled on it, makes a huge mistake, etc. – and the piece is ruined, all of the stitchers are out of the project and everyone has to start over.

SALs are more popular and preferred because your project is your own project and you don’t have to worry about it getting lost in the mail or another stitcher’s dog tearing it to pieces. However, Round Robbin is still the second-most popular group stitching event where everyone stitches the same project.

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“Term of the Week” is a weekly blog post highlighting a new word or phrase commonly used among cross-stitchers but not found in an ordinary dictionary. These posts are to help explain the words’ meanings in context and provide a resource for anyone wondering what a term like “frogging” means. Check back every Thursday!

Our Term of the Week this week once again dives into our stitchy acronyms and pulls out a popular term!

RAK stands for Random Act of Kindness, and it’s become a popular term to use in the stitching world to refer to charity items and gifts.

A lot of stitchers do work for charities, and others simply don’t have the funds to support the stash a lot of us have access to. That’s where RAK comes in. Stitchers will pull together and collect thread, fabric, charts, all manners of things and pass them along to someone less fortunate than them. Sometimes a stitcher will send a ‘care package’ without prompting, surprising the fellow stitcher with stash supplies.

A RAK is something meant to be passed along. It’s a random good deed from one stitcher to another that benefits everyone in the end. 🙂

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“Term of the Week” is a weekly blog post highlighting a new word or phrase commonly used among cross-stitchers but not found in an ordinary dictionary. These posts are to help explain the words’ meanings in context and provide a resource for anyone wondering what a term like “frogging” means. Check back every Thursday!

For some reason I thought I had done this Term of the Week already… it’s such a common one to see! When I realized I hadn’t I immediately put it in the queue as the next article!

To put it quickly and simply, LNS stands for Local Needlework Shop. In general, the term is used for the small business, ‘mom and pop’ stores that offer almost exclusive cross-stitch or needlework supplies. But over the years, especially with a lot of local shops closing in the US, the term has evolved to mean any sort of shop or store nearby that carries cross-stitch supplies.

Sometimes there aren’t even any big retail chains (Michael’s, Joann’s, Hobby Lobby) anywhere near stitchers, and the big superstore chains (Wal-Mart, Meijers) don’t offer needlework supplies at all. At this point, stitchers have turned to the Internet and online stores, and now even those are being referred to as LNS. The term is evolving to mean cross-stitch shops in general, rather than just local needlework shops.

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“Term of the Week” is a weekly blog post highlighting a new word or phrase commonly used among cross-stitchers but not found in an ordinary dictionary. These posts are to help explain the words’ meanings in context and provide a resource for anyone wondering what a term like “frogging” means. Check back every Thursday!

So, for this Term of the Week we’re pulling a little-used acronym out of our stitchy bag. (At least, I haven’t seen it very often.)

SINS – other than being an actual word, what does it mean? Well, to stitchers, it means Stuff I‘ll Never Stitch. Looking at it, it’s got two connotations: a negative one, literally something you would not stitch, but in most cases it uses the positive connotation.

Stuff I’ll Never Stitch, when used in a positive connotation, is just lamenting the size of your stash – you’ve bought it because you love it, but with the amount of charts, kits, and patterns you have, you’ll never get around to stitching it. Or, from a different perspective, you want to buy it – your mouse is hovering over ‘Add to Cart’ – but you know that it’ll end up as “stuff you’ll never stitch”. Or, another example, you bought a chart because you loved it, but your tastes changed and now it’s become a SINS.

Basically SINS is referring to an overwhelming amount of stash. It’s mostly used as an excuse to sell some staff: “All of this fabric and these Christmas charts are SINS now and I need to clear up space in my stash area”, that sort of thing. I haven’t really seen it used that often… probably because no one wants to give up their stash!

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“Term of the Week” is a weekly blog post highlighting a new word or phrase commonly used among cross-stitchers but not found in an ordinary dictionary. These posts are to help explain the words’ meanings in context and provide a resource for anyone wondering what a term like “frogging” means. Check back every Thursday!

I figured, since we’re on an acronym trend why break it now? So we’ve got another popular acronym for this week’s Term of the Week!

SAL is a well-known, popular term among stitchers. It’s an acronym that means Stitch-A–Long.

A Stitch-A-Long is an event similar to UFO Wednesdays. It’s usually structured like this: a group of stitchers choose a pattern, and week by week they stitch the design. A finish date is set, and everyone is encouraged to share their progress each week and finish the design by the set date. Once the SAL is done, a group of people have now all stitched the same design.

It started out in groups of stitchers meeting in person each week to stitch the design, but with the rise of technology and the Internet, stitchers from all over the world can participate in a SAL without ever actually meeting each other.

Designers and cross-stitch companies have picked up on this SAL trend, and nowadays several designers will sometimes do what is called Mystery SALs. It follows the same rules as a SAL, but the entire chart is a mystery; each week, the designer releases a new part of the chart for the stitchers, and the design is revealed over time. There are some downsides to this: some stitchers don’t like the mystery behind the design, because once finished, they may not like the design, and they wouldn’t have stitched it had they known what it was.

Other designers do Private SALs. They design a chart for the stitchers on their fan page or in their Facebook group, give it to them to do as a SAL, but only the stitchers who were in the group or signed up for the SAL get the design. The chart may or may not be released later for the general public.

I’ve never participated in a SAL myself, but I know a lot of people who have, and they enjoy them! Have you participated in a SAL before?

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“Term of the Week” is a weekly blog post highlighting a new word or phrase commonly used among cross-stitchers but not found in an ordinary dictionary. These posts are to help explain the words’ meanings in context and provide a resource for anyone wondering what a term like “frogging” means. Check back every Thursday!

For this week’s Term of the Week we’re diving into our stitchy acronyms and pulling out another well-known word!

So, OOP – what does it mean? This is mostly used to refer to charts and booklets that are very old or just a bit outdated. Maybe you’ve seen it on websites when you’ve tried to purchase a chart or a kit and they were out of stock?

OOP basically just means Out Of Print. Usually these are for old kits and charts that are several years old, the publishing company no longer publishes the chart, or (in some cases) the publishing company went out of business. It can be very difficult to obtain a chart because of it, unless the company still exists and they’re willing to send you a replacement copy. (Dimensions is known for doing this; if someone is stitching an OOP chart and something happens to it, Dimensions have been known to go into their records and send that person a copy to replace the one they lost, provided they still have it on record.)

There’s a well-known “Why I Cross-Stitch” chart (I think that’s what it’s called) that’s very popular among stitchers. But, it was a limited distribution and the company quickly went out of business for some unknown reason. Due to this, the chart is out of print, or OOP, and it’s now extremely rare and hard to find. I remember a conversation where someone said it was going for almost $100 at an auction. People want the chart and they kept bidding it up until it was well over how much the original cost!

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“Term of the Week” is a weekly blog post highlighting a new word or phrase commonly used among cross-stitchers but not found in an ordinary dictionary. These posts are to help explain the words’ meanings in context and provide a resource for anyone wondering what a term like “frogging” means. Check back every Thursday!

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