March 31st, 2010

This Sunday, April 4th come into the store for a special easter egg hunt. Hidden throughout the store will be a gaggle of golden eggs filled with coupons, candy and even vouchers for free fabric! The hunt lasts all day, so stop by any time during our normal business hours (10am-6pm) to join in the fun. (Limit one coupon per customer.)

March 23rd, 2010

Come join us for the March Knit & A Movie Night this Saturday, March 27th from 7-9. Enjoy the latest Star Trek movie (starring Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto) while you sit and knit or crochet. Our neighbor Peet’s Coffee has been generous enough to donate tea for everyone to enjoy while they watch. You can also bring your own food and drinks (beer/wine ok!) if you’d like. Just $6 at the door, no RSVP required. Hope to see you there!

March 17th, 2010

March 15th, 2010

I’ve been knitting off and on for years, but I’d never done lace before since it always looked too intimidating. I’m also not the most patient crafter, and to quote Angharad, “You have to have the patience of a Jedi to knit lace.” But then I found a lace pattern for worsted weight yarn, and I thought “Why not? At least it will knit up fast.” The pattern is called Springtime Bandit from the Kelbourne Woolens web site.

This was also my first experience with different dye lots – I’ve always been cautioned about how important it is to check the dye lot of your yarn for color consistency, but I’ve never actually had a problem before now. Luckily I changed yarn around the edges of the shawl, so it looks completely deliberate, but I guess this is the problem with all of the gorgeous hand dyed yarns that I love so much.

March 14th, 2010

Christine Haynes taught another sold-out Intro to Sewing class yesterday – our last session before we say goodbye to winter and hello to springtime prints! The next Intro to Sewing class will be Friday March 26th from 3-6pm. Give us a call or drop by to sign up!

March 13th, 2010

Yesterday at the UCC we gave our ironing boards a little makeover with some of our new Alexander Henry fabric. It turned out to be a super easy and fun project and a great way to make a kinda boring object a little more interesting. All you need to do is take the existing ironing board cover and pin it to your fabric, then cut around it with 1.5″ clearance. Then you fold over the edge twice about 1/2″ and iron, then sew right along the folded over edge to make a casing. The final step is to thread a cotton string through the casing and, voila! A brand new ironing board. A full size ironing board took 1 3/4″ of fabric and made 2 covers. We just got a ton of new fabric in, so come and check it out!

March 11th, 2010

Last night’s Club Etsy was another great opportunity to meet other crafters and talk about the different goals everyone has for their Etsy shops. This week we discussed the ins and outs of setting up, maintaining an account and experimented with product photography. I set up the studio photo box and flood lights (available for you to use with studio time!) and a couple of attendees brought in products to photograph using our digital camera.

One thing I’ve learned about having an Etsy store is that quality photos of your products are just as important as the quality of what you sell. While it might be tempting to throw a towel on a bed and take a quick picture to get the process over with, you’ll be much happier and have better customer response if you take a little time to learn how to take a crisp, clear product photo.

Fortunately, Etsy offers a variety of valuable resources and tutorials for every aspect of your Etsy store. You can find articles, forums, videos and more by visiting The Storque, in the blog section of their website.

Here are a couple of photos taken at our club night yesterday. Don’t they look great?!

(above: http://www.etsy.com/shop/eroweboat)

If you didn’t make it out last night, you can still join our online Club Etsy group HERE. Add photos of your products, ask questions in our discussion forum and find out what special topic will be offered in next month’s meeting. We hope to see you at our next Club Etsy, Wednesday April 14th from 6-8pm!

March 10th, 2010

Teacher Nicole Stevenson taught everyone the easy and inexpensive art form of handmade paper making. The process is so fun & easy, she has even taught this class to kids. We used two sources for paper pulp: shreds of paper from the UCC office paper shredder + and soy milk cartons (after tearing off the thin layer of plastic that lines inside and out) The class got to throw in random threads, glitter, paper punch outs such as tiny hearts etc. and construction paper which made the pulp turn different colors. No glue needed, making it an earth friendly, recycling precious art form. I plan on sending my grandma a letter (written on my handmade paper of course) in the mail. It seems like not that many letters go in the mail these days since we have speedy email!