This Toronto librarian started a rude cross stitching program — and it’s full every time
A rude cross-stitching program for people 18 and older at the Parkdale library branch has become a hot event — even if the messages aren’t always family-friendly.
“Your emails are not finding me well,” one cross stitch reads. “Grow it,” another one says, accompanied by a sketch of a pear. Another is simply an expletive with flowers lovingly placed around it.
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This is rude cross-stitching — a once-a-month, 18-plus program at the Parkdale branch for enthusiasts of crafts that break the mould of “live, laugh, love.”
A rude cross-stitching program at the Parkdale library branch has become a hot event — even if the messages aren’t always family-friendly.
Lauren Carter/TPL
For Lauren Carter, the librarian who started and runs the program, the response has been the opposite of the messages being stitched.
“For a free library program, it’s full every time — which is kind of unprecedented,” Carter says with a laugh. “People just want to craft, but don’t want to in the typical margins of what that means.”
Carter first got into sewing about 10 years ago, then jumped into cross-stitching in the last five years. Originally, she was driven away by the flowery nature of it — “it used to be all just flowers and ‘live, laugh, love,’ ”, she explained — but she’s been drawn in by the subversive ideas popping up online.
The library provides all the materials. Carter helps get the designs started, then attendees can take their projects home and finish them there. Beginners are welcome.
The program runs from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on one Thursday a month, with registration available on Eventbrite. The event on April 4, which has room for 25 people, is sold out.
It’s only for those 18 and older. “Definitely,” Carter says.
Cheerful cross stitches are allowed, too.
“People can do whatever they want,” Carter says. “I just want people to come. And they are.”
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