I’ve taken the plunge and Cunning Cross Stitch is now a business! Well… technically I’m a Sole Trader, but it boils down to the same thing.

For a long time I have rejected any and all suggestions that I turn this hobby into a business. I kept telling myself; “I don’t want to put pressure on it”, “it’s just for fun”, “I don’t want the admin”, “I wouldn’t know the first thing about running a business”…

All of which are valid reasons, and all still scarily true.

And yet, I kept mulling it all over, and honestly it’ll hopefully open up some opportunities for me to explore.

So now that it’s a business, what does the future of Cunning Cross Stitch look like?

Please rest assured that not much from your point of view is going to change. Everything that is currently free on the website will remain on the website for free. Everything that I design in the future that is directly fandom based will be free. This makes up the vast bulk of my design list, and I think ALL of my currently planned SALs and SYOAs.

It’ll just mean that when I do come up with something that isn’t directly fandom related, instead of the post having a download button, it’ll be a link to a listing in my ko-fi shop which will ask for a couple of quid for that pattern. This will mainly help cover the costs of keeping all this going: website and server costs, software, sketchbooks and art supplies, etc.

Some of the advantages that I hope this will bring to yourselves could include (if I manage to work out the logistics and international shipping laws) being able to offer physical items to sell, like official needleminders for the larger projects. And I would love it if I was able to team up with a store or magazine to offer some patterns or even kits via them!

I’m not intending for this to be a full time career for me, and honestly the shift to making this a business still scares me. There isn’t going to be a big shift to everything being a paid for pattern. I’m not going to start trying to wrangle every penny out of you, or treat you any differently from before. I very much want to continue doing what I am doing; make patterns for the lovely community that’s gathered round to enjoy, at a pace that is still enjoyable to me.

Hopefully you’ll all be looking forward to what I have been cooking up. Plans are coming together slowly for the next Stitch Your Own Adventure, and I have some fun standalones in the pipeworks for you all. Until then, stay safe and keep stitching