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How has the Shutdown Affected the Fiberarts in Metro DC?

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Michael highlighted in his post the other day the effect the government shutdown of various offices has had on the fiberarts industry. Following that, I became interested in how the shutdown has affected various fiberarts businesses and the community at large. With things being so uncertain, I wondered, would people be shopping and knitting less?  The stories I heard from DC area stores were surprising.

Student at Fibre Space

Fibre Space (in Old Town, Alexandria) has (and still is) offering free beginning knitting lessons to any government employee who comes in between the times of 1-5 pm at the store.  Danielle, the owner, told me that there have been between 50 and 75 beginning students coming through the store each day – so much so that they had to recruit more teachers!

Fibre Space isn’t the only store that has been offering support to furloughed government workers. The Yarn Spot in Wheaton, MD, offered afternoon tea on Friday the 4th, and has its doors open to people affected by the shutdown.  Last week, Knit & Stitch =Bliss ran a 20% off for people who are on furlough from the Federal Government; Looped Yarn Works offered 10% off to those with a government ID.

Many other stores are acting as knitting and crochet “sanctuaries” where stitchers can seek refuge from the political stress.  Dianna, from the Knitting Boutique in Glen Burnie, MD, has many federal employees who frequent her store.  She’s been listening carefully to her clientele to figure out what is the best way to help and support them in the shutdown.  “They are happy to have a place and time to knit and crochet,” Dianna accounts, “we’ve been seeing a lot more completed projects.”  This week, based on conversations with her customers, Dianna is running “Free Furlough Fridays,” where customers are invited to come in and enjoy lunch and great company.

More completed projects seem to be the case for many furloughed employees.  While they might not be pleased with the inability to go to work, they are taking advantage of the time to work on their projects.  There’s a thread on the DC/MD/VA Fiber Arts group on Ravelry called Furlough Along.  Various people have been posting their stories and sharing their knitting/crochet progress.  As a government worker related, she isn’t sure if it would be better to be working for no pay or have the time off.  Another explains that she’s back to work without pay, but the anxiety in her workplace is rampant.

This is probably why so much knitting and crochet is getting done, and why Fibre Space’s free knitting lessons are so popular.  Danielle, when asked why she is offering the free lessons said, “[I] wanted to give my craft and main stress reliever back to the community… especially those who need it most – those that are furloughed!”  Victoria, one of the owners of The Yarn Spot, echos this sentiment, “people are just sick of it [the shutdown]; they are coming here [to the store] for therapy.”

Perhaps this attitude – of serving the customers – is why many of the Local Yarn Stores haven’t noticed a downward trend in people shopping.  Perhaps it’s also because the holiday season is upon us.  Either way, I love how the fiberarts community has come together to support those people who have been hurt by the shutdown by looking to see how they can contribute.  It’s one of the things I love about the fiberarts community.

How have you been affected by the shutdown? Have you had a great expeirence at one of your Local Yarn Stores during the shutdown? I’d love to hear; comment, tweet or facebook me!

Intellectual Risk, Davidson College, and Running a Business

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I was going to write a post today on drawing inspiration from nature in design (don’t worry, it’ll show up tomorrow), but I want to talk about something that I’ve been thinking about since last

by The Fayj

night.

Last night Michael and I went to a reception for Davidson College, where we did our undergraduate work.  It was a reception for highschool students who live in the Metro DC area and are contemplating applying to Davidson. As part of the reception, the alumni there (7 of us), spoke a little bit about our experiences at Davidson and how it has helped us since we’ve moved onto the real world.  Now, for both Michael and I, who love Davidson, have an abiding loyalty, and benefited greatly from going there, so it was hard to choose a simple topic to talk about.  But one thing that kept coming up from different alumni was the idea of intellectual risk.

Risk is a hard thing for me to do.  I’m not naturally a person that likes to leave my safe zone.  Or should I say, I don’t like to take risks without an appropriate level of preparation.  I’m not the type that likes to look before I leap – at least when it comes to important decisions in my life.  But I love to pit myself against a challenge, and I love to dive into something without knowing what the results will be.  Franklin Habit captured it beautifully yesterday when he was talking about his yarn and his hat – I, like him, don’t mind “setting sail without a destination.”

by  avyfain

Which is, I suppose, a sort of intellectual risk.  Believing that you, yourself, have the skills to navigate whatever comes of of the risk – be it success, mistakes or abject failure, is hard.

One of the students at the reception asked if we could elaborate a little on intellectual risk, and how Davidson fosters this quality.  I told him about my 300-level class my senior year, Professor Campbell‘s Memoir class.  Every three weeks or so we were working on a piece of short nonfiction in a different area of memoir.  Towards the end of the second essay, I started to notice a pattern emerging in the stories I was choosing to tell, and I wanted to investigate the theme.

So I went to Dr. Campbell and explained my problem to her: I wanted to write these stories, but I wasn’t sure they would meet the future requirements of the other assignments.  I told her I could use the assignments as inspiration, but I wasn’t sure that by the end of them the piece I had written would match the project requirements.  I asked her if that was okay, because I didn’t want my grade to suffer. (I was not one to let my grade suffer for my art, thankyouverymuch.)

We agreed that my stories would be evaluated based on their own merit as a collection, and not necessarily on the project requirements.  This was terrifying for me.  I no longer would have concrete goals I had to meet.  Instead, these stories had to stand up based on their own artistic merit.  That, to me, was a much harder goal to meet.

Intellectual risk.  Putting your ideas and your self out there for the sake of meeting some higher goal.  At another school the professors might not have been so flexible, might have preferred grading according to the rubric that had been set.  Certainly it created more work from Dr. Campbell.

In the real world – the world outside of the college bubble – risk of certain sorts is inevitable.  Certainly every time I develop a new class, or send out a design proposal or publish a pattern I’m taking a risk – that my time, my money, my thoughts might be wasted or rejected.  And that rejection?  Happens a lot.

But it’s the only way to succeed.

Do you take intellectual risk?  When have you put yourself out there and succeeded… or failed?  I’d like to know. Leave a comment, reply via twitter or facebook.

Government Shutdown and the Fiber Arts Industry

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As you  might have heard, my husband, Michael, is joining the Tinking Turtle team!  For a couple of months now, he’s been behind the scenes, helping the business run smoothly, and enabling me to concentrate on the things only I can do: knitting, crochet, finishing, designing and teaching.  Michael was scheduled to start contributing to the blog later this month, but was inspired by recent political events to begin writing early.  I hope you will welcome him now and in the future as he bring a unique perspective to the Fiberarts.

Shutdown.

For the past week, Washington, DC, and the nation in general, has dealt with the uncertainty in the government. Various news outlets have highlighted different sectors that have been affected, and I began wondering, what has been the affect on the Fiberarts Industry.  Below follows a list of government departments whose services have been impacted by the shutdown, and how they may have an affect on small Fiberarts businesses.

You’ll find a landing page like this at a lot of government websites.

Being just outside of Washington DC, Tinking Turtle has the unique perspective of a front-row seat, and in a roundup wanted to share our observations as to how these events directly impact those involved in the Fiberarts industry.  This is by no means a comprehensive list, and for more information CNN interactive has a great overview by department, agency, or program that is kept up to date for future reference.

The most noticeable impact to designers and publishers is the closure of the US Copyright Office.  While the physical Copyright Office remains closed, and any pending copyright applications are frozen in their current state, new applications can, as of the time of writing, be filed via the Electronic Copyright Office to start the copyright process and establish an initial date of registration should that be necessary.  In the same vein, while it is currently open, the US Patent and Trademark Office is planning on staggered reduction of services as the shutdown situation continues without a resolution.  In discussion with a friend who is a Patent Examiner with the Patent and Trademark Office, the Office has funds to sustain itself for another business week before an orderly draw-down of staffing and services would occur over the next several weeks.

For new publishers, business owners, or yarn store owners, the Small Business Administration is closed for all serves except providing for disaster loans, so any applications for financial assistance will not be processed until funding is restored.  Additionally, for any organization or entity which is required to file quarterly taxation statements with the IRS, while the physical filings can be submitted, the IRS is not available via telephone or in-person appointments for consultations, advice, or assistance.

There are a couple of pieces of good news for retailers, publishers, and other vendors: because the United States Postal Service is not subject to congressional appropriation, it does remain open for business, and mail is continuing to be delivered.

Locally in the DC area, many of the LYSs are taking advantage of having a cadre of furloughed government employees finding themselves with more time on their hands. For example, Fibre Space, in Old Town Alexandria, VA is offering free beginning knitting lessons for any government employee. You can reference Jennifer’s post to find out about more businesses who are running specials or offering deals in light of the shutdown.

We can all hope for a swift resolution to this unfortunate situation.  However, no matter what side of the political spectrum you are on, I’d encourage you to think about or find ways to help people who are affected by the shutdown.

4 Warning Signs Your Handmade Afghan is Falling Apart

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My business has many arms – my teaching, pattern writing, and more recently, finishing.  Normally finishing involves piecing together sweaters or blocking shawls, but sometimes I get another type of request.  Sometimes I get requests to do repairs on well loved a
fghans and blankets that are lovingly knitted or crochet.  Many times I’m able to fix things before they get too bad, but sometimes I have to be the person saying, “I’m sorry, but there is no way to fix your family heirloom.”  This is a terrible thing to say, and so I have a list of things to look for to know when your afghan is in need of repair, before it gets irreparable.

  • At the First Sign of Trouble, seek help.  There’s an old adage that says, “A stitch in time saves 9.”  And it is so true – making repairs before they happen is the best way to prevent tears, rips and holes.  Look for weak spots in your knitting or crochet – where the thread is getting thin or wispy.  These are places where holes will form.  Find someone to help you retrace the stitches and reinforce the work.
  • Pulls or loose threads.  Sometimes yarn that has been carefully woven in works its way loose, or gets caught and creates a pull or snag.  Don’t panic! If the thread is not broken, just stretched and out of the weave of the fabric, carefully pull it in different directions, and see if you can ease it back into place.  If not, see if you can find someone (like a finisher or a more experienced knitter or crocheter, that can help you work the yarn back into the stitch.

  • Seams coming undone. So many crochet (and even knit) afghans have their seams come undone.  One of my very first repairs to a blanket was my father’s well-loved afghan, made in long strips of knitting and seamed together.  If a seam comes undone, don’t panic.  Take a bit of matching yarn or thread, and carefully seam the edges back together, using a ladder stitch or running stitch.
  • The center of motifs are a common place I see in need of repair.  Either because the original creator didn’t secure the ends enough, or just because of stress, this can be a common cause for problems.  If you can, try to pick up as many of the loose loops and put them on a stitch older or locking stitch marker, to prevent further unraveling. This is one repair I’d say, if you can, to get a professional to do, as it takes a deft touch and a good understanding of how stitches work to get it back to matching the others.
The key to all of these problems is if they are caught early, they can be fairly painless repairs.  If you let the problem go, the worse things get, and the more likely that the afghan will need to be reconstructed or have more extensive repairs.Have you ever had to repair a project?  Tell me about it on twitter or facebook.  Looking to have your own repaired?  Get in touch with me through my finishing form!

I had some Stitch Markers Come in the Mail

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I go through stitch markers like other’s go through toilet paper.  In addition to simply loosing stitch markers or having the cats stealing them, I forever am finding that I give them away – to students, friends or others who might need one.

About a week and a half ago I passed by an opportunity I couldn’t miss – about 500 locking stitch markers, in rainbow colors.

Right up my alley.

They were in my mailbox when I went to pick up my mail late last evening.

Naturally, my first impulse was to sort them by color.

Aren’t they all so pretty?  I can’t wait to start using them.

Are You Missing out on Important Information?

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If you aren’t collecting customer feedback from your customers, you’re probably missing out on important information.  “But my customers are happy! I don’t get any complains,” says you.  Let me tell you something.

I have folders of class evals.

A lack of complaining doesn’t mean that your customers are happy, it just means that they aren’t dissatisfied.  That, is a problem.  You don’t want customers that are content with your service.  You want fans. You want raving fans.

When I was in the YMCA they were using a system of rating customer satisfaction. Customers would rate their experiences on a scale of 1-10.  Any customer that rated their satisfaction a 9 or a 10 was put on the positive side.  Any customer that rated their experiences from a 1 to a 4 were put on the negative side. And the customers that were 5-8? Were discarded. Not because their experiences weren’t valuable, but a 5-8 doesn’t talk about their experiences. 9 &10’s will talk positively about their time with the YMCA. 1-4’s will talk negatively. And for a person that was considering coming to the YMCA? For every negative 1-4 they heard, they needed seven people raving about their time at the YMCA to just give it a try. That’s what they needed to decide that the one negative person was an anomaly.  It’s because people in the 5-8 range don’t talk – negatively or positively, so deciding people don’t hear about it.

If you aren’t actively working to make sure every person that buys or pattern or takes your class is a raving fan, then you are missing out on an opportunity.  When I collect feedback from my customers, I look at the 1-8’s and see why they aren’t a raving fan.  Do I need to engage people more? Do I need to take breaks or change the pacing of my class?  Do I need more step by step instructions for my patterns? This information ensures that the next time I engage with a customer, I’m making their experience the best it can be, and turning them into a raving fan.

So how do you get customer feedback?

The Captive Audience Survey – If you have a captive audience like a class, you had better be handing out an evaluation form at the end of each of your classes.  You have a captive audience! Normally, I have a little pitch that goes something like this,

“Your feedback is very important to me. It’s how I improve my instruction.  Right now you should be receiving a class eval form, and I’d appreciate if you would take a moment to fill it out and pass it back to me. If you think there’s something I should improve, please let me know.  If there’s something you think I did well, I’d be happy to hear about that too! Also note, there’s a place for you to provide your email, and there’s a little box next to it.  If you don’t check the box, I won’t ever email you. Only if you check the box will I sign you up for my newsletter about future classes.” 

If someone rates you a negative review, follow up with them. See if there is anything you can do to change their experience – be it a discount on another pattern, extra instruction, or other perk.  At the very least, let them know that their feedback is being heard and acted upon – this often makes people think better of the business.

My class evaluation looks like this – feel free to take ideas! And no, this one isn’t one I filled out.

 The Email – if you aren’t fortunate enough to have your customers as a captive audience, and email survey is a good way to get feedback.  The problem is going to be how to get them to fill out the feedback form.  Offering an incentive – like a free pattern or entry into a drawing – is a good way to lure people into giving you the engagement you need.  Keep in mind though:

  • keep the survey short – try to keep things under seven questions. Ten questions is too many.
  • don’t make it like work – use a lot of white space
  • give a sliding scale or number system – keep it quantifiable
  • leave room for comments at the end.
The Interview – most often informal, the interview is a good way of getting intimidate feedback, and you probably will have more engagement than an email.  Normally interviews are conducted either in person or over the phone – for instance, you had a problem with a customer and you call to check and make sure the issue is resolved to their satisfaction. Or perhaps you are in conversation with a student after class and you ask them what could have been done better. Most people won’t turn down a request for feedback, but there are disadvantages. The drawbacks include the data being skewed by people not wanting to give the feedback directly to you.  Sometimes people are not comfortable stating their complaints out loud.

What do you do after you’ve collected your data?

Perhaps the most important thing for you to do after you’ve collected feedback from your customers is to act on it.  Wait a day or two after the event to read the evaluation – when you have some distance from the emotions.  Keep records of how your students are rating your classes/product, and track change over time.

My records of previous class evals.

I keep my class evaluations for another reason.  When I go to an interview or a pitch session, I bring a few of the good class evals to show to the people I’m talking to.  Nothing is more powerful than positive testimonials.

Do you collect customer feedback?  I’d like to know.  Drop me a line on twitter or facebook.

Have you seen the New Yarn Spot?

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Yesterday I had a couple of errands to run that were taking me up the Wheaton way, and as I hadn’t been over to the new Yarn Spot lately, I decided to take a look.

It’s located around the corner from the old location, in the former Brazilian Market.  For now, they have a sign in the window.  I’m sure the Yarn Spot sign will be over the awning soon.
It’s a larger space than the previous storefront, with a desk located in the center and yarns to either side.
To the right, pictured above, are books, some hand-dyed, and what I believe were the bulky yarns, but don’t quote me on that. 
Directly to the side of that is a sitting area, where people can congregate, socialize, knit or crochet.
To the left is the bulk of the yarn, hand-dyed yarns hanging up, and lots and lots of shelves full of yarn.  What strikes me about the new space is the sense of room – and the realization that The Yarn Spot had been very cleverly managing to cram more yarn into a smaller space without shoppers being aware.  Here, the yarn seems to have more room to breathe, and with things placed a bit more apart, mobility challenged people will have an easier time moving around.
Instead of having needles behind the counter, needles are now kept next to the counter.  This means it’s easier to look through the needles.  With well-labeled boxes, I think it was easier to look through and find the needle I wanted.  Still, they had the needles separated out into different brands. Perhaps it’s just my approach to organization, but I probably would have organized completely by size, and allowed brands to intermingle.  But with many people being loyal to a particular brand of needle, it probably makes sense to have them separated out.
One of the things that really struck me was the wealth of natural light that is in the new store. It’s a hard thing to manage for yarn stores – on one hand, natural light conveys a welcoming space, and lets colors shine. However, sunlight can be very harmful to certain acid dyes, and cause noticeable fading. I don’t envy the store trying to balance the two elements, but it made the space particularly welcoming, especially at the table area for classes.
Another great element to the new store is a help desk, right next to the register.  Isn’t it lovely?
Perhaps my favorite feature of the store is these shelves against the windows.  I think, if you added pillows or cushions, these would make the most perfect window seats.  This is perhaps influenced by my burning desire all my life to have a room with a window seat.

Do you know why October is my very favorite Month?

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I’ve always been a fall girl, a northern girl, a Yankee.  My favorite fruit is the apple, my favorite tree the sugar maple, and I live for fall foliage.  I like when the weather turns, the nights turn cool, and you put the extra blankets on your bed.  I love when school starts: new backpacks and notepaper and new pens.

October is when Halloween happens: perhaps the best holiday in the US calendar, where you can anything you want to be and you aren’t teased for it.  I love crunching on roasted pumpkin seeds and eating all the types of gourds that come into season now: spaghetti squash, butternut, pumpkin, yum!

Fall is when I pull out my hand knit or crochet socks, sweaters and blankets, and get to cuddle into them.

I start thinking about October sometime at the end of August, and spend most of September trying to persuade people it’s almost October.

This last weekend we went apple picking – already the second venture out of the season.  The first week we spent most of the time making apple sauce, this week we are making apple butter.

an apple, shiny on the tree
This is the fifth fall that we’ve been processing apples (I’ve been doing it many years before then, with my family), and we’ve got it down to a science.  Apples are merely quartered and put into the pot whole, and boiled.  When we run the soft apples through the food mill, the stems, woody bits, and seeds are worked out.

For the apples we dry in the dehydrator we have this nifty machine, pictured above.  Sometimes I’ll just do an extra few apples because it’s so much fun to crank it. 

When we are really going at the applesauce making, we have all four burners going, and nearly every big stockpot in the house.  Pictured above, we have the three burners boiling the apples and the one burner boiling the already canned applesauce.  It’s a good thing the weather is turning cool, because the kitchen gets quite hot!
For me, the smell of apples cooking, and the smell of allspice, cloves and cinnamon altogether embodies fall.
Do you love Fall? Do you have some favorite fall traditions?  I’d love to hear about it on twitter or facebook.

Inspirations and Influences: Isis Wings

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Isis Wings, published by Three Irish Girls, is now out.  Boy, this pattern has been a long time in coming!

Isis Wings was created four years ago, and was one of the very first patterns I designed.  It was created before I had even considered the idea that I could have a business based off of selling my knitting and crochet designs.  Isis Wings was conceived on the porch of the house my now-husband, Michael, I and two other friends rented.  The three of them were in their last year of undergraduate studies; I was working for the college Theatre Department at Davidson College.  During those hot summer days as I began my first full time job, I discovered that I suddenly had a profusion of free time: I was suddenly released from most of my extracurricular activities as well as my academic studies.

I had actual time to knit and crochet.  I no longer had to snatch precious moments from my studies and socializing time to work on my hobby.  I had whole evenings where I could have a hobby.  And I also, for the first time, had more pocket money than I really knew what to do with.

So I bought yarn.

I commenced knitting.  I think I finished them in just over a week – which was pretty impressive
for me.  I know the first one was finished in a weekend. You’ll note below that the original pair was worked entirely in twisted stitches – I’d just switched to continental knitting, and didn’t realize that I was twisting all of my stitches.  That realization would come two projects later.

Twisted Stitch Detail Shot

And then I let them sit.  You see, at the time I didn’t know how to write a pattern.  But I wore those socks a whole bunch.  I got a lot of compliments on them, and it’s about that time that I began to just think that I might be able to make some pocket money off of this hobby.

Later, I would answer Three Irish Girl’s design call, and my new roommate in Washington, DC, would help me name them Isis Wings.  I’d work to reconstruct what I did the first time – and only realize a year and a half later as I’m studying them, that I did an extra repeat on one of them (so they are not the same height).

See? Different Heights.

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