Did you know, that every year I review which patterns are performing and which aren't, and this triggers a retirement? Sadly, this also often means that people may not see the folders or the social media announcements that retirements are occuring and then they miss out on their wishlist items that have sat a while. 

It's true, we browse the store, fall in love with designs, and then we decide to come back later for it or tell ourselves we will finish the current project before adding to our pattern collection. But then the worst happens, and the pattern vanishes. Sometimes, there isn't even much of a notice window. 

Retirements happen for a lot of reasons, from low sales which mean they need to make way for new products, to changes in artists. It's easy to see a digital product as being forever, a permanent fixture, but the reality is, designs vanish more often than people realise. In fact, when businesses stop being businesses, a vast collection of designs vanish from the face of the internet. The only copies remaining are with customers that bought, and even then there is risk of those patterns being lost. Of course, with the digital nature of those patterns, people can't onsell them like you can a paper pattern. So there is no second hand market. Once they are gone, they are gone forever. 

As I draw nearer and nearer to 'that time' to reflect and see what will be slated for retirement, it did have me thinking about it. I do occasionally get emails about patterns long gone that I cannot supply anymore. The dissapointment for the stitcher who had it in their wishlist, and now it's not there. Or that they missed the notices that it was happening. It's easy to do with social media, the algorithim is forever changing and cruel. So if for no other reason, maybe now is a good time to visit that wishlist and ask if now is a good time to expand your pattern collection? 

The cross-stitch pattern industry is a very hard one to exist in when you make large scale designs. The tiny ones you can finish in a day to a week sell frequently because you need a new project each week or few days. But in the large scale design world, you need only one pattern every few months to a year. So your reach must be large. I've noticed that large-scale stitchers are more into pattern collecting than small scale stitchers. I myself had some very old charts that I bought in my teen years, that aren't in production anymore. For all I know, I may well have the only copy left in the world and sadly I don't have them anymore since the fire. I think the art of collecting patterns is underrated, and I mean that as an avid collector of things myself. The enjoyment I get of looking at my collection, admiring particular pieces, gives me great enjoyment. 

Preservation is being talked about a lot in the gaming world at the moment. In a digital age, once games are retired, they vanish from existence. You can't play them anymore, you can't find them anymore, you can't even gain copies anymore because of how digital products work. So what we are seeing, is the potential for a significant portion of our gaming history being impossible to preserve. I worry about this with cross-stitch too, with the digital age. I'd actually encourage folks to make a printed copy for their collections. For preservation purposes, but also having something tangible makes the enjoyment of collection that bit extra special. 

I hope this post has given you something to contemplate when you pick up needle and thread tonight, and until next time, HAPPY STITCHING! :D