...is the subject of today's Stitcher's Question of the Week. Oh boy... playing with links!

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What are your favourite cross stitching websites and why?

I guess this is an appropriate question since it's the vast array of such sites on the web that helped further my interest in the hobby.

Let's start off with the one that started it all - Teresa Wentzler's site and the BB that's attached to it. TW's site is as beautifully put together and as aesthetically pleasing as many of her great body of works are. And then there's the BB...

I learned on that BB there about dragons, people, opposing viewpoints, and other areas of lives, lifestyles, and stitching than anyplace else on the web. It will be hard to replace - save the stitching forums... I think I'll continue to lurk those.

Mirabilia and Dracolair Creations also provide good eye candy for me to drool, although I do have just about all of the latter's patterns. I just keep my eyes peeled for new stuff.

Most of the rest of the sites that interest me are shopping - PawPrints Cross Stitch, ABC Stitch Therapy, Stitching Bits and Bobs, Silver Lining - the list goes on and on. But they're just enabling sites, so unless you want to smoke your credit card, I suggest not clicking those hot links there.

And then there's the educational sites... The ones with stitch diagrams or good articles. Victoria Sampler has some animated stitch diagrams on her site, but needs to add more. ANG (American Needlepoint Guild) keeps a page on their site that's features the stitch of the month. They're always well diagrammed and detailed, but they're usually canvas (needlepoint) stitches. Some of them, however, would translate very nicely (and have) over to cross stitch.

Another great diagram site out there is Johanna's Needlework Stitches' where tongs of stitch diagrams are featured - and sorted by type of stitch. There's also the one page, where only one stitch is featured: the pinhead stitch. That's proven to be a very valuable page to me.

I think that's about all the favorite stitching websites that I have. There's no place that I really love, but a lot of places that I just like an awful lot.

So, have fun cruising the web with the links that I've provided....

....because I know you can't resist clicking a link.