Sophomore Takes Up Cross-Stitching

An impatient murmur escapes under her breath, but sophomore Grace Menninger’s eyes maintain their focus. When she finally manages to properly fit the needle through the cloth, she breaks her concentration to glance up.

“It’s most frustrating when you undo a stitch,” Menninger said. “And sometimes it’s getting the needle through, finding the hole. It’s really annoying when the edges of the cloth start to fray.”

In spite of the more tedious aspects of her hobby, Menninger prefers it over any other art form that she has attempted so far.

“I tried classic drawing, and I was awful at it,” Menninger said. “Then I tried to do digital art, but I sold my tablet. Embroidery wasn’t really my thing either. I tried pixel art, which is actually kind of similar— it’s just like digitized cross stitching— but I haven’t done that in a long time. I don’t do [cross-stitching] seriously, but I did stick with it.”

Still, Menninger is well aware that cross-stitching is not your typical high schooler’s pastime, especially on those days when she runs out of supplies like thread and terry cloth and has to venture into the sewing department of Hobby Lobby.

“There’s just all these old people,” Menninger said. “Cross-stitching itself seems like this super domestic thing that old ladies or housewives like to do, and I’m obviously neither of those.”

Though none of her family members or her friends share this hobby, they don’t find it strange, and Menninger likes to give away some of her work as gifts.

They are usually sweet and simple, with weird sayings and straightforward graphics: a tree, a pizza, a flower, emblazoned on a small scrap of cloth. Menninger designs them herself, occasionally with inspiration taken from the Internet. She tries to stick to more line-based and limited color designs that don’t become so time-consuming. If she’s focused, she can usually finish off one of these in under an hour, filling in a meticulously penciled-out grid with rows and rows of colorful stitches and knots.

As unique as her art form is, Menninger’s outlook is just as unusual. There’s none of the satisfaction that one would expect after spending hours on pieces.

“Honestly, when I finish [a design], I just want to do more with it, but there’s not much more you can do,” said Menninger. “There are those people who spend their time filling up the rest of the cloth with white thread, but I’m still a busy high school student, even if I cross-stitch in my free time.”