Stitch Maynia, why the stress?

What is Stitch Maynia:

Originally started in May 2015 as a stitch along for fifteen new starts the first fifteen days of May, Stitch Maynia (get it, May? Maynia?) has grown into an open, welcoming, fun cross-stitch community!

Yes, Stitch Maynia is a thing that happens in May each year, and I sit back and watch as people decided that they are going to be working on in May. Here are some of the ideas I have seen this year:

• Going to start one project each day in May (yes, that is 31 new projects started)
• Going to start one project a week (this is only five new projects)
• Going to only work on one project for the entire month.
• Going to work on each one of my projects for a day this month (yes, they have more than 31 projects on the go)
• Going to finish a project and then start working on another one of the projects that I have on the go.
• I am going to stitch 31 stitches a day on a project during the month.
• Stitch Maynia? It doesn’t matter to me.

In a lot of cases, I have seen people kit up 31 projects so that they can start all of them during the month. Sure, that means that they will have a lot of projects to work on during the rest of the year, but why can’t they start each project at any time during the year. I have been following this idea for a couple of years now, and what makes me laugh is when you hear people at the beginning of Maynia say that they have only finished 2 of the projects that they started last year. They haven’t made a lot of progress, and that means that they may end up with 60 projects on the go with only a day of work done on them.

For me, Stitch Maynia is watching everyone else stress about trying to make progress on things or make new starts. I continue to start projects when I want to start them, and if I happen to start a couple of projects in May (like I did this year) that is fine, but I am not going to stress about what I did or didn’t get done.

If you are going to stress about making new starts or how much stitching, you can achieve each day, or during a specific month, I feel it isn’t worth it. Sure, it is fun being part of a community and sharing what you have accomplished, but there are several other Facebook groups and communities. Other groups, you can be part of, and you can share your new starts and your progress and finishes, and there isn’t the stress of how many starts did you achieve in a month.

Stitching is a hobby, and if it starts to cause you a lot of stress, then it has turned from enjoyment to something else. A hobby is a way to help you relax and find enjoyment so that is what it should be and if you enjoy what you are doing and can do the starts that is great but not everyone is the same, and for me, Stitch Maynia is doing what I enjoy and how I enjoy it.