Viral Stitching

The other day @knittydotcom tweeted a link to this blog entry: Viral Knits from Bellsknits.  In it Bells writes about all the knitting patterns that everyone seems to be making: Monkey, Clapotis, Fetchings, etc.  (Funny how so many of the them are Knitty patterns.)  Bells wonders what it is about these patterns that makes them viral.  And while I haven’t knit any of them (yet), I see their appeal too.  (And, uh, most of them are in my queue or on my imaginary To DO list.)

So, this got me wondering about a couple of things.  First, why do they appeal to so many people?  Is it because they are simple yet also challenging?  Is it because the patterns generally allow for a great freedom in choosing yarn?  Is it because a lot of them are free?  Is it because they all seem to have a timeless style?  I wish I knew, because if I did I would try to design the next big viral knit.

Now, as we all know, cross stitch is my first love.  So my next thought was about viral cross stitching.  Is there anything out there like Monkey or Clapotis?  You know, something that everyone is stitching.  The Mary Wigham SAL came to mind, but I’m not sure that will have the legs of something like Clapotis.  Lizzy*Kate’s Boo Club seems to be making the rounds, along with Long Dog’s Paradigm Lost.  There also seems to be a lot of people out there working on Castles in the Air by Papilion Creations (me included).  And I think SALexander was popular there for a while. (That’s on my To Do list.  And that reminds me, I should be on the look out for just the right silk to stitch it with…)

Can you think of a viral cross stitch design? Something that the whole stitching world seems to be working on?  Is there such a thing?

And for you knitters out there, the rumour is that the Fall Knitty will launch today.  I wonder if it will have something that will turn into the next viral knit.