In St. Louis, needlepoint has long been part of the cultural fabric, woven into private school traditions, local shops, and generational hobbies passed from grandmothers to grandchildren. For decades, it was something one might associate with a private school student’s belt or a carefully stitched Christmas stocking hung on the chimney once a year. Today, that image is changing—and fast. Local shop owners and designers say needlepoint is experiencing a surge, driven by a younger generation of stitchers discovering the craft as both a creative outlet and a way to unplug from digital life.
“It’s huge. It’s crazy how much the industry has blown up in just the past four months,” says Annie Zigman, a 28-year-old local needlepoint designer and the owner of Ziggy Stitches. “I had one distributor tell me sales are up 305 percent. It’s been absolutely crazy. There’s actually a canvas shortage right now.”
Zigman first learned needlepoint in high school at Marquette. Back then, she says, the hobby was viewed as old-fashioned, and members of her family took to calling her Granny Annie. But after a recent April weekend at a needlepoint retreat in Kansas City with fellow designers and stitchers, she says the community looks very different today. Attendees ranged from their 20s to 80s, with the majority in their 30s…