The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Computers and Needlecraft Bernadette Houghton bernieh@iaccess.com.au

Well, I've never been one to resist a challenge, so how could I blithely ignore the gauntlet thrown down by our esteemed Editor. If you've been reading her Editorials as religiously as you ought, you'll remember that last month she asked PC Update readers (that means you, too, dear reader) to write about how we use our computer for our hobbies.

My particular fetish happens to be needlecraft, cross stitch in particular. I've been stitching for many years, as the walls of my family's homes can testify. But it wasn't until I became aware of all the wonderful cross stitch resources on the Internet that I crossed the line from being a moderately interested hobbyist to a total and utterly hopeless addict. And it's such fun! Let me tell you about it...

Firstly, there are the Internet newsgroups and mailing lists. The best newsgroup is rec.crafts.textiles.needlework (RCTN), and there are a couple of mailing lists devoted exclusively to cross stitch. Here, devoted needle-workers hang out to swap tips and patterns, seek help, locate fabrics and other resources, and generally gossip about this and that. It's not only hobbyists who participate; many popular designers contribute too, as do shop owners, fabric conservationists and publishers. If you've got a question about a project you're working on, you may be lucky enough to have it answered directly by the designer.

Looking for a hard-to-find pattern? Ask about it on RCTN, and you'll be swamped with helpful answers within a couple of hours. If you're like me, talk about a new design will send you beetling off to the World Wide Web or your local needlecraft shop to see it for yourself.

As for the Web, there is an almost infinite variety of needlecraft-related resources. Most of the major suppliers - of fabric, floss, charts, magazines, accessories and embellishments - have Web sites, so you can check out their products. There are tons of free charts, many of them fairly simple designs (hey, you only get what you pay for, right?), but a few real gems. There are online shops galore, collections of tips, tricks and pattern corrections, lists of needlecraft shops by location and much, much more.

If you're looking for more interaction with other needleworkers, consider participating in:

• Round Robins, where everyone does a bit of everyone else's project
• Birthday Floss Clubs, where everyone receives a birthday gift of a skein of floss from the other members
• Needle Pals, where you're matched up with someone from another part of the world so that you can purchase needlecraft supplies for each other
• Secret Pals, where you give needle-craft-related gifts anonymously and receive them yourself
• Internet chat sessions, where you talk to other needlecraft aficionados in "real-time"
• Bulletin boards, where you post messages on a communal board and wait for someone to reply.

If you're working on a particularly complex project, you may be lucky enough to find an e-mail support group. I've joined one for Liz Turner Diehl's English Family Garden. At the moment, there are 15 of us, and each month we work on a particular section, grouse about the instructions, offer tips for the tricky bits and gossip a fair bit too. It's great fun!

My computer has helped me get lots of great S.E.X. No, no, not that kind of sex! Stash Enhancement eXperience, in case you didn't know. Oh yes, the anticipation of visiting a much-touted needle-craft Web site, the ecstasy of finally locating a long-sought pattern, the sensual pleasure of fingering my newly acquired treasures, the agony of discovering that Teresa Wentzler's The Carousel is now out of print. My local needlecraft shop owner has benefited too, although she is often bemused when I ask for threads with wonderfully exotic names or patterns that she has never heard of before.

The Internet is truly a magical place for needlecraft lovers. It's certainly been a major corrupting influence on me - I used to be a one-at-a-timer, completing one project before starting another. Now, I'm working on 12 projects using a rotation system. Even so, I'm nowhere near to matching a certain RCTNer who claims to have 100 projects in her rotation! Of course, there are frustrations as well - discovering that needle-craft supplies in Australia cost astronomically more than they do in America, finding that some international suppliers refuse to fill overseas orders, the long, long wait before patterns or magazines released in America finally reach Australia. And of course, it takes time each day to read RCTN and my needlecraft mail, meaning I have less time for stitching!

Now, you may be wondering (especially if you don't have access to all those wonderful Internet resources), if the Internet is the only way I use my computer for my stitching. Not at all. I've accumulated a sizeable collection of patterns (though I don't have anywhere near the 3000 claimed by another RCTNer!) and have catalogued them using a simple Microsoft Access database. I use my word processor to list my works-in-progress; this I pin up in my kitchen in plain sight to help along the guilt I feel if I leave a project unworked on for too long! My Windows calculator is handy for working out how much all that S.E.X. costs, and if my Quicken category Other Expenses (notice my cunning - Other Expenses, not Hobbies or Cross Stitch!) is looking a little inflated lately, what my other half doesn't know won't hurt him.

As for the future ... the next step is to get a pattern-maker software program so I can create charts from scanned pictures. (Hmmm, just had a thought! If I can stitch the Australian Test Team, maybe I won't get quite so many beady looks from my beloved when I go off and have a little S.E.X.!)

The screen prints here offer a small sampling of the wonderful resources the Internet has for needlecraft lovers. Visit the Web pages I've snapped, try out the links and you'll find pretty well everything - and more, besides - that I've talked about here. Have fun!

Reprinted from the March 1998 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia

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