Cross stitching is often thought of as being a solitary pastime, perhaps sitting alone while everyone else is out having a great time. But this is not so! This delightful craft can be the ticket to make many new cross stitch friends and have lots of fun -- and yes, complete those cross stitch projects too.

To start searching for fellow cross stitchers, try looking locally first. Perhaps there's a club near you that you can join. A great place to ask about local clubs is at your craft store. They may know of clubs, and even better, they may have a club that meets at the store. If no club exists, you can always form one yourself.

This will require more thought and planning than you may at first realize, but will reward you many times over. Do not cut any corners here. You'll have to decide where you will meet (think: good lighting, comfortable chairs, refreshment facilities, car parking, and so on) and whether you wish to focus on cross stitch or whether you should include other embroidery or craftwork too. Finding a meeting time that suits most people is one of the biggest decisions.

As your plan starts to take shape, you'll have to decide if there'll be a membership fee, what the goals of the club are, and if you want to have rules. Sometimes it's easier to wait until you have a couple of members to decide on these issues. Then you can make decisions as a group about the direction in which you want the club to go. The main thing to keep in mind as you form your club is that it should be fun. You should enjoy stitching while you chat with the other members.

After thinking through what's involved, you may feel like the process of starting a club is a bit more than you're willing to handle. In that case, you can try something a little more low-key. Simply ask a few of the people you know who like to cross stitch to come to your house for a fun stitching-party. If you have friends who don't know how to cross stitch, you can teach them. You may find that your informal gathering soon turns into a regular club meeting.

So much for the locals... Let's move on to making new cross stitch friends elsewhere.

An easy way to find future cross stitch friends is by looking for like-minded penpals, i.e, fellow stitchers. These days, finding a penpal is fairly easy. Many cross stitch websites allow you to contact other stitchers who are interested in becoming penpals. What's exciting about penpals is they can be from many different countries. You can chat about your current projects, swap tips and hints, and give each other encouragement when a particular pattern proves daunting.

In addition to cross stitch sites, you can find penpal sites on the internet as well. When you visit these sites, do a little research to make certain they are legitimate. As always, guard your personal information when you're online. Don't give out your address or your phone number. The penpals, and the penpal site, don't need this information. Supplying your email address is more than enough to start a penpal email conversation.

In addition to providing a way to locate penpals, computers make it possible to be e-pals. You can chat through email and instant messages. Many people don't enjoy writing letters these days, and email can make your conversations happen much more quickly. If, however, you and your penpal like to write letters, then you'll be able to look forward to letters in the mail. Moreover, you may want to exchange packages and gifts every once in a while.

There are a number of e-groups on the internet that combine email and snail mail to promote friendship and cross stitch worldwide. One such group is run by Yahoo, called XStitchpals. Members exchange cross stitched cards every month, with a different theme for each month. They also chat on a forum, support each other with stitching and non-stitching issues and may email each other individually if they wish. The friendships developed are very real, despite the fact that the members live so far from each other. This may well be the way forward for stitching friendship.

So what are you waiting for? There are lots of new cross stitch friends out there if you spend a little time looking for them... and hey! Why not look a little closer to where you are right HERE, right NOW -- go join the forums at Patterns Patch private cross stitch club.

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Patterns Patch cross stitch club has more than 150 cross stitch charts available for John Wigham's club subscribers and cross stitch friends. Click here to get your own unique version of this article.