Reflections, A Few Days Away in Maine + Henry + More

Thanks to everyone for all the comments and thoughts on Monday's post. I am still processing my thoughts on the "world without Classic Elite Yarns." I left there many years ago (2000) but I still had many connections with the new owner Betsy Perry and many of the original staff I worked with many years ago. 

It is very sad to see a long term business disappear - especially when it has been part of the basics and core of the knitting and yarn store community for over 30 years. Perhaps that is why it could not survive - because it was always deemed as steady and would always be there and not the hot young thing. Consumers almost always rush to the newest greatest thing with their dollars - that is just human nature. Yarn companies cannot continue to build new lines and inventory without moving the old inventory out. That is why yarn lines don't hang around for very long - products have to be moved out to make room for the new inventory. If not, more and more space would need to be rented to store it all. As knitters and fiber artists, we all know the problem - use up the old in order to make room for the new. Using up can be donating to a charity, giving it away, having a yard sale, selling it on-line, or just tossing it because the moths have eaten it. 

I know that the folks at Classic Elite Yarns must be happy to be hearing from so many of their long time fans. If you have a moment and you feel like it, post a comment on their blog post "Saying Good-by is Hard."

Last week, Julia and I had a chance to get away from the farm. We drove hours and hours to the coast of Maine and then took a ferry seven miles out into the ocean. We stayed with our good friend Sally and had a wonderful time. I thought I would get tons of work done. I did dig out my gouache and worked on a few paintings. I made more crochet hexies every evening as we sat watching favorite movies. The weather was overcast and cold until the last two days. We did get to the beach for a nice picnic on the rocks. But mostly - this is bizarro I know - I dug through Sally's pile of old issues of The World of Interiors looking at photos and articles that I had forgotten and reading stories about fascinating houses and places I will never go. I very easily could have done this at home with my piles of magazines but I am always distracted with other things to do. 

Look what we came home with..... A new little male island kitten we have named Henry Lee Mackerel Cove. 

I know - why do we need a new kitten you ask? Well we probably don't but we have a few older cats that probably are getting to the end of their days. I have always wanted an island cat and now we have one. He is very sweet and is settling in with the rest of the cats. We have a new litter of kittens and their mama Mittens is letting Henry nurse with her other 3 babes. He is the largest kitten in the photo below. He is having fun playing with the babies even if he is 3 weeks older. They are learning to stick up for themselves and fight him back. I think he is going to be a big guy and I am hoping he will have long hair. Time will tell. 

While I was away, my garden got tilled by 86 years young Doug and his trusty tractor. On Monday, I went to my favorite plant source in the world - Walker Farm in Dummerston, Vermont. I picked up almost enough annuals to fill my half my garden with veggies and cutting flowers. The other half of the garden will have sunflowers in it - seeds are ordered and hope to get them in next week.   

I have found a new podcast that I am enjoying - it is called Hello Atelier. Thanks Abby for including a link in your newsletter. 

I have also just re-discovered a blog that has a good YouTube Channel called Quintessence: Living Well with Style and Substance. You can subscribe to it here. Here is one of their newest videos that I really enjoyed. 

This quote resonated with me: "We are definitely more is more people."

Have a good weekend everyone. 

Sad News - Classic Elite Yarns is Closing

Last week, I got some sad news. Classic Elite Yarns is closing its doors. I do not know all the details - just that they are ceasing doing business. I thought I should take some time on the blog to discuss some of the difficulties that are now inherent in the yarn biz world. 

I worked for Classic Elite Yarns for 16 years - from 1984 until 2000. I was the Vice President and Creative Director. Back then, Classic Elite was known as Elite Specialty Yarns. I was hired to grow the yarn into a player in the handknitting world which in the 80's was experiencing lots of growth. Elite was owned by a husband and wife - Pat and Bill Chew. I worked for Pat mostly. I went into it with eyes wide open - I was 25 and just married. This was my dream job as far as I could tell looking from the outside in. To say I was naive would be an understatement. When I look back on those 16 years, I really can't believe I stuck with it as long as I did. BUT - I loved my job, the creative yarn industry, the people I met at trade shows, the textile mills I got to visit all over the world. I loved the folks I worked with - what a great group of people they were. I am still friends with many of my co-workers and we all count each other as family. 

Looking from the outside in, Elite looked to be a hugely successful company. They advertised on the back cover of Yarn Market News with a full color ad. That was impressive to me. But once I got in there, I realized it was a different story. The offices were in a rundown mill building with moss green dirty carpeting and 4 desks that faced each other. I had my own "office" just off everyone else's shared space. It had no windows and was piled with junk. In the middle of it, I had a gray steel desk under some awful fluorescent lighting where I was supposed to be creative. There were big bank loans, husband and wife owners who fought all the time, machinery breakdowns constantly, and creditors always calling. It was nothing like I thought it would be. It was much more raw and tough and totally not like the image that was portrayed by the glossy ads. 

Pat and Bill (Pat called Bill The Tycoon) eventually divorced. Elite went through a foreclosure, an auction where Pat bought the business from the bank, a divorce, a massive fire when we lost most of our inventory, and on and on. I learned so much from those years at CEY - about business, about people, about yarn and color, about marketing, about graphic design and advertising.  Eventually I convinced Pat to purchase an Apple computer and I taught myself desktop publishing, Adobe Illustrator, Pagemaker, QuarkXpress, and then Indesign (with the help of David, Elaine, and Alexis Xenakis at XRX). I learned about photo shoots, trade shows, and somehow, Classic Elite Yarns grew to be a larger business. Pat was a brilliant if ruthless businesswoman. She and I travelled all over the world together. It was quite a ride. There are so many unbelievable stories I could tell -- but I won't. 

After Julia was born in 1998, I realized that I just couldn't do my job anymore. I wasn't as interested as I had been. I had done so many Spring/Summer/Fall/Winter yarn and handknitting lines. I was pretty exhausted and tired of being creative for someone else. I worked for a couple years making enough money to do over our kitchen, then gave my notice. I then started my freelance career writing books and doing whatever else it has been that I have been doing since 2000. But what I learned from that job has steered me all along the way. I took all the things I learned - about business, people, marketing, debt, yarn, color, fibers, fashion and more - and have continued to learn myself along the way. I am not sad I quit but I do miss the money but that is okay. It was a great experience - if not always good - and I am thankful Pat and Bill took the chance on me.

Pat continued running CEY after I left, hiring different Creative Directors over the years. She passed away in 2008 leaving the company to her daughter Tamara. Betsy Perry who was the Sales Manager of the company purchased the company from Tamara. Betsy has been running it until now. 

Last week, when I heard CEY was closing, I wasn't surprised. I know what goes into running a yarn company - all things I learned over the 16 years I worked for the yarn company. Payroll, rent and leases, bank loans, printing costs, inventory purchasing and control, computer purchases, sales reps, yarn store customers, collecting money from those yarn stores, inventory liquidation (hello Webs), dealing with overseas mills as there really are no textile mills remaining in the US that can supply the handknitting yarn business at prices that can then be marked up, sold through the rep system, then sold at yarn stores to the end user. 

Last night I read through a post on Facebook about the closing of CEY. Knitters were spreading blame all over the place - but the truth is, the reason CEY went out of business is many fold. There is no one reason and it is the result of a changing marketplace. It has always been difficult to be a "yarn company" but now it is tougher than ever. I do not know the reason Betsy chose to close CEY and I will never know. I do know that she took great care of her employees and that they loved their work. It is sad for all of them to have to find new jobs and move on. It is sad for the knitters who won't be able to purchase the quality yarns in beautiful colors that CEY was known for. It is sad that the designers who worked with the yarn to design sweaters will no longer have CEY to sell their work too. It is just sad all around.

Business has gotten tougher and tougher over the last few years. The business model is changing and it is not going to stop changing. Retailing is never going to go back to what it once was. I often wonder how the mainline retailers are hanging on. I look at stores like Saks and Macy's and The Gap and think about how they are going to survive. More and more and more, business is being done on the internet. I do not think that will go away and I only see it growing larger and larger as time goes by. Sure there are those consumers who say they won't purchase anything on-line but I would guess that that number will be fewer and fewer. As the younger generation has more money to spend they will most likely look more and more to the internet instead of direct purchases at a retail location. 

I think the following factors all contributed to the closing of CEY in no particular order: (I am not calling anyone out here - just saying what I think).
• Loss of yarn stores (CEY's customers) to sell to

• Growth of the independent dyeing trend. (The funny thing is that if CEY ever sold a splotchy yarn back when I was there, we would get returns of it up the ying yang. Now it is okay if a yarn is streaky, splotchy, speckled and the like. Go figure. Trends change.) 

• Failure of the consumer to realize that most yarn companies are really only small companies that look big. I have heard knitters say - "Oh I won't buy from any big company - I only buy independent." Little do those knitters realize that most of the "big yarn companies" really aren't big at all but Mom and Pop businesses who have bank loans and employ folks in their local towns to help them spread the yarn love through the world. 

• The rise of Ravelry. With all the opportunity it has given small independent designers, it has also led to a micro-trend of knitters not wanting to support "big yarn companies." 

• The rise of the internet and buying yarn on-line

• The rise of the farm-raised wool trend. I wonder how many of them are employing lots of people in their towns and churning hundreds of thousands of dollars and thousands of pounds of raw fiber in their businesses? 

• People always looking to get stuff cheaper via any way possible 

• People not wanting to pay for yarns that cost a lot to produce and that are sold through the retail yarn shop model (Knitpicks, JoAnn's, Michaels wins there.)

I'm sure that many of you will not agree with what I have written but I do know that Classic Elite had a good run for many, many years. The business supported many families over the years and kept many a spinning mill and dyehouse spinning and dyeing, printing companies printing, freight companies delivering - thus giving all their employees work. Many of the CEY employees have gone on to work for other businesses and brought the knowledge they learned with them to help those businesses grow. 

So it is sad -- so sad -- but life goes on. Business changes and it is fascinating to follow the changes and see how small business copes with the changes or not. Best of luck to Betsy, Jim, Pattie, Andi, Susan, Kim, Tracey and all the other folks I don't know who are going to be looking for work. XO Kristin

First Snow, Some Thoughts on Local + Good Links

Yesterday my family and I were housebound due to the first big storm of the winter. The Amherst Winter Farmers Market that I sell our farm-raised lamb at every Saturday had been cancelled because of the impending bad weather. I was glad they cancelled it because it is a 40 minute ride for me. Although I had orders for legs of lambs (which I will not be able to get to their owners because I don't have their telephone #s - yuck), I really wasn't looking forward to driving through a snowstorm. We stayed inside until it was over - which was midway through the afternoon. No market next week so there goes those sales. 

As I was sitting here with Julia knitting and making pom poms, I thought about all the local retailers who were counting on the dollars coming in this weekend to stay alive and viable for another year. It is so difficult to be an independent retailer these days with the internet and all the big box competition. I'm sure the internet sales were racking up huge yesterday because no one living on much of the east coast could go anywhere to do holiday shopping. 

I constantly live in limbo with my thoughts on buying things. We aren't huge consumers - in fact we are really quite frugal - Mark and I are still wearing clothes we purchased before Julia was born. Granted our wardrobe doesn't have to be much considering where we live and what we do. Julia's wardrobe consists of lots of hand me downs from her cousins and gifts from family. For the little bit of Christmas shopping I do, I try to buy local from the local retailers that are still hanging in there. It's not much and they certainly aren't going to survive on what I spend. And we run a local sheep farm - selling local lamb. 

On the other hand, I sell my handmade pottery ON-LINE in my Etsy Shop and my Embroidery Supplies, books and patterns on my own website here. I count on those sales to help us get through the winter months. To get sales, I have to constantly promote my on-line business. For me, it gets so repetitious and monotonous and I feel like I am such a constant nudge. Hypocritical for sure - buy local but by on-line from me. I suppose the community I have built - that would be you who are reading - is a local community of its own kind. It's not physically local but we are all of a general common mindset - the love of craft and creativity and color, sharing, and kindness. 

(Last day for ordering before Christmas is tomorrow December 19th. I won't be shipping until after the New Year.)

It's interesting to think about. What is local these days? 

I listened to a good podcast the other day on Vickie Howell's newish series called Craft-ish where she interviewed Amy Singer of Knitty Magazine. It's a good interview. Amy shares how her on-line magazine business has changed so much because of the loss of advertising dollars that used to support her business. She has begun a Patreon business model and it is helping her to continue to publish her magazine. 

While we were waiting for the snow to end, we indulged in some favorite Christmas movies. Julia and I recommend the following -
The Bishop's Wife - with Cary Grant and David Niven from 1947. Watched it for the first time - lovely.
Mixed Nuts - by Nora and Delia Ephron with Steve Martin and Rita Wilson. A bit kooky but fun.
White Christmas - the classic with Bing and Danny Kaye and Rosemary Clooney
Elf - Will Ferrell and Bob Newhart. A must for this time of year. 

Photo from Andrew Baseman's blog

I love this box seen on Andrew Basemen's blog. It is hard to imagine that people used to sew together boxes to keep using them - considering what we throw away today. Food for thought. Read the article here. 

David Hockney is making beautiful art on his iPad. Read about it here. What do you think - is art drawn on an ipad ART?

Susan B. Anderson - that Susan B. Anderson of cute knitted things fame and one of the nicest people in the world - has started a yarn company with her son. It is called Barrett Wool Company and you can learn about it here. Go Susan and Evan.

Good luck everyone with the pre-Christmas run-up. Stay safe and sane. 

Why I'm not Designing Knitwear Right Now by Kristin Nicholas

If you are a knitter and follow my blog because you knit, you have probably noticed that I'm not publishing new knit projects right now. I've had people say things to me like - "You could be making a fortune designing knitting patterns now." and "Knitting is so hot now! There are so many possibilities for you now." 

So what is up with Kristin? I began working in the needlework/knitwear field in the 1980's. I have been a Creative Director, written a few knitting books, designed hundreds of sweaters, mittens, hats, scarves etc., travelled to many great knitting fairs and conventions, and knit and sold some very good yarns. I have even been a Knitting Expert on PBS TV for several seasons. I've had my own signature yarn - 5 times. But frankly, I am not very interested in designing handknits right now. It's not that I am done with it forever. I guess I am taking a break. I was passionate about knitting for a very long time. And it was my job. Right now I'm not feeling the passion. I am still being creative - just not with sticks and string. 

A couple months ago, a google doc began floating around the internet about pattern sales via Ravelry in the month of August. You can look at it here. Things have changed so much in the world of hand-knitwear design. The internet happened and knitters were one of the first groups to latch onto its power. Then came Ravelry. And it changed more.

I came up through the ranks of working for a yarn company. I started working at Classic Elite Yarns as the Creative Director in 1984. I loved my job and had passion for the knitting industry, for my co-workers, for my colleagues, for the yarns and the colors, for the challenges that it all offered.  For years, I swatched new yarns at night in my off hours - like my co-workers Cathy, Linda, Lori, Pauline, and Susan (sorry if I missed someone). We would write the patterns, find knitters to make them and then have a photo shoot for the knitting patterns. This is how it worked in those days. Designing was just a small part of each of our jobs. We wore many hats. I loved it. I had many great opportunities. I saw the world. I learned Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Indesign. I learned about business and life. I learned about marketing as I went. Sometimes I miss my old life - the structure and the camaraderie. 

Once I went freelance in 2001, I began designing for myself for the books I was contracted to do. I had always dreamed of being an author and I was thrilled to be able to pursue that dream and actually get someone to print my words and ideas. The publisher would give me a small advance I would swatch, write the patterns, find someone to knit the designs I didn't have time to do myself, help with the photography, do illustrations and then the book would be in the hands of the publisher. Once it was ready to go out in the world, I would promote the book. Those books are still in print and I cannot do anything with the patterns that are in them. All those designs - and there are a lot of them - are basically stuck in books and I have no right to them until they go out of print. Twice a year, I get a teeny royalty check or a notice that I still owe the publisher my advance. Knitters aren't buying knitting books anymore if you haven't noticed. Most publishers are only printing books that are technique based, not pattern based. Or they are doing books with yarn companies that act as part promotional and they do not have to give advances for or pay design fees for (as far as I understand that arrangement). 

When I wrote my last knitting book - Color By Kristin: How to Design Your Own Beautiful Knits (published by Soho/Sixth and Spring), I pretty much said all I wanted to say in the world of knitwear design. I wrote a book that gave 26 different classic and timeless projects along with scads of color work knitting charts and edgings. I gave the instructions for knitters to personalize these designs to become their own. I also instructed knitters on how to design their own color work charts. I consider that book Color By Kristin my magnum opus. Color by Kristin is still in print. Knitters have to buy the book to get the patterns. And that is too bad because knitters now want to only buy one pattern - not a book. My designs are stuck in that book and I do not have the rights to publish the patterns myself. And so - like many of my good designs that are in books or lost in the pages of knitting magazines that were recycled many years ago, my best work has become obsolete. 

I have continued piddling along putting out a pattern here and there for my website and Ravelry. When I released my latest pattern I sold a total of 36 copies of the PDF via both my website and Ravelry. That is $216. And for that $216 I knit 2 sweaters, photographed the pattern after begging my friends Will and Shalee to use their children Emme and Marlee as models (I gave them the sweaters), wrote and sized the pattern, desk top published the pattern using Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Indesign, and Acrobat. And I paid Paypal and Ravelry commission.

Available for $6.00 on my website or Ravelry

(Easy Aran Pattern - Available on my website here or Ravelry here)

Now maybe it wasn't the greatest sweater. It was a classic design and maybe too similar to others out there. But I'm not going to second guess that. I presumed that because it was very knittable and the type of design people love to make, I would make some decent money from on-line PDF pattern sales. I didn't have a sweater like it available on-line. The many classic designs that I did design are owned by the yarn company I used to work for and they get the pattern sales revenue. (Some magazines do pay the designer a small percentage of the sales of the on-line pattern sales. Yarn companies do not pay designers past the initial sale of the design). 

So I was wrong with that last PDF Kid's Easy Aran Design. Really wrong. It wasn't worth the time I put into it to do all that work. The lack of sales of that pattern made me re-think if I did want to keep writing patterns and putting them for sale on-line. Was that the way I wanted to spend my time? Was it worth it? 

The yarn biz has changed so much. I'm older and definitely not the hot young thing anymore. (That is an understatement.) I don't even know who the new designer of the moment is and I really don't care. I don't like to knit lace nor do I understand why so many people are interested in knitting lace shawls. Seriously, how many can you have? And socks? I just don't get it. I'm not interested in joining groups on Ravelry and interacting with people I don't meet in person. Boy, do I sound like a grump which I really am not. I do not think I have ever once looked at the Hot Right Now Pattern Section on Ravelry until today when I was working on this blog post. Did you know that there are now 274,008 handknitting patterns now available on Ravelry? How does anyone actually decide what to knit, or discover anyone new? I knit what I want to - not what others are knitting. I don't have the energy to become some kind of internet knitting star. I'm not interested in twittering my every stitch. I get tired of the self-promotion that is necessary to sell the knitting patterns. I find it too difficult to travel to far-off places to teach knitting because of my family and farm responsibilities. 

As I have gotten older - I have also realized that my time is getting shorter with each year. I need and want to do the things that make me happy and fulfilled as a creative person. If you are still here - I know this has been long - then you know I am still interested in designing all kinds of colorful and beautiful things, just not knitting right now. 

I am loving hand-printing fabric. I am loving painting pictures. I am loving embroidering fabrics. I am loving gardening. I am loving making pottery and painting it. I am loving cooking and enjoying my home and family. I am loving my family and our life here in western Massachusetts with all our animals. I don't really know what the next creative phase of my life will be once I finish the current book I am working on -- Crafting a Patterned Home -- but I can't wait to see what is next for me. I hope you all will keep reading even though I am not knitting much right now. 

I hope this post will open up some conversation within the knitting and creative world. I was spurred to write it after listening to this Crafty Planner podcast with Diane Gillead of the Craftypod blog and podcast. Listen to it if you get a chance. You can still buy my books via my website here. And my knitting patterns here or on Ravelry here. I will be grateful.

I would love to hear your thoughts. Where do you buy your knitting patterns now? Do you ever buy knitting pattern books? Do you only knit from free patterns? Do you follow the "hot knitters"? Do you follow knitters on Twitter? On Facebook? Or do you just like to knit to knit and could care less about what everyone else is doing? Are you a knitwear designer? What are you thinking about it all?

Added 12/6/16 - Let me make this clear - I do not hate Ravelry. I do not hate sock knitters or lace knitters - I'm just not interested in that kind of knitting nor do I understand the fascination it has for others. I am not sad or unhappy. The world changes and life goes on. I am moving on too and super excited about what the future will bring - different opportunities and lots of learning for me. I wrote this post for my many friends and followers who knit to explain why I am not designing knitwear anymore. Never did I think I would have hit such a nerve nor so many would have read this post. It is good that people are talking and I am happy I helped with the conversation. 

Here are some of the patterns I have designed in the past that are available from me as PDF Downloads. I will receive the money for the pattern because I published them. I appreciate every sale. I've included links to where you can buy them on my website and on Ravelry. It really doesn't matter where you buy them from - Ravelry graciously doesn't charge much of a commission so if you like keeping your patterns there - purchase through them and add them to your library. 

Description is below each photo.

Kristin's Colorful Christmas Stockings - 5 designs - one color/row - available on my website here or Ravelry here. $12.

Kristin's Creative Christmas Stockings - 6 designs, multiple variations - Available on my website here or Ravelry here.  $12.

A Dog in Sheep's Clothing - A Pattern in 8 sizes for dogs or lambs - available on my website here or Ravelry here. $6

Farmgirl's Stocking Cap - sized for kids and adults. Available on my website here and Ravelry here. $6

Quarters Cap - Sized for babies to adults. Available on my website here or Ravelry here. $5

Olympia's Felted Flowers - available on my website here or Ravelry here. $6

Heart to Heart Mittens - 2 designs, several sizes - Available on my website here or Ravelry here. $6

Fall Color + Things I Am Thinking About

This post is a little long so you may want to come back to it at another time. I have added some recent photos of nature at the end of the post that were taken in our pastures a few weeks ago when there were still bits of color. 

My days, these last couple of weeks, are filled with lots of making and painting of pottery and ceramics. While I am painting/decorating the pottery with underglaze, I need to have some white noise to fill the space so my brain doesn't overthink what I am doing. I have been watching different YouTube videos on art history to keep me company. (Like these fantastic BBC shows hosted by Art Historian Alastair Sooke about the artists Picasso, Matisse, Warhol, and Dali. Click on each name to watch the video on YouTube. Super interesting - each show talks about how each artist changed the look of our modern world.) Although I am totally engrossed in the surface design of each object I am creating and painting on the ceramic piece, I listen to what the presenter is talking about and think about actually watching the video later so that I can actually see the art. 

I also listen to different podcasts that interview artists and designers who do similar work to me. Monica and Abby are my favorites. I must say that I find the podcasts that are hosted by women are my favorites. It is kind of like having a girlfriend sitting there with me while I work. 

My friends Alicia and Deborah and I had a planning meeting for our Open House/Open Farm Days on December 5/6. We aren't sure what to expect this first year and if it goes well, we may do it again next year depending on what we all have going on. Alicia is an amazing fine artist and Deborah is a ethnographic textile collector and jewelry designer (and artist). All three of us have art that doesn't compete with each other and actually - it is going to be a really nice mix. I'll be posting an interview with them both within the next couple days. 

I am producing as much as I can physically to sell at the Open House. Whatever doesn't sell I will put up for sale on my Etsy shop for all of you who live far away. My ceramics are very time consuming because of all the painted motifs and details on each piece. Each piece has to be made out of clay, then dried, painted with underglazed, fired in my kiln, then painted with gloss glaze and fired agin. I am trying to figure out the pricing - to make them fairly priced but also compensate me for the time, the two firings, the clay and the blank dinnerware plates and bowls that I purchase for dinnerware. 

The other night, on the way to the grocery store, I was listening to NPR's Marketplace. The host Kai was speaking with some experts on the economy like he always does. The general gist of the conversation was that Macy's corporate profits were not up to where they should be and that no one really knows where the economy is headed. Well, seriously - do we ever really know? Are consumers going to come out and buy like they used to? Will the big corporations have lots of gains and make lots of money this holiday season? Add to that all the recent uncertainty in the world and consumers don't know where to turn.  

Has the world of commerce and business changed? Has the way you and I buy things changed so that we don't want as much stuff that the big stores are trying to sell to us? Has the economy really gotten better? Do the big chains think that we are back in the go-go 90's and early 00's before the tech bust? Are people going to consume like they did back then? I really don't think so. 

All that talk about big retail businesses making money made me think about the economy that I am participating in and part of. I am trying to make my living by selling virtual knitting and stitching patterns, authoring and selling my books, pottery, notecards and whatever else I dream up to people like you who are reading my blog and following along with me. Besides that, I help out with our small sheep farm which is another story altogether. There are thousands of people like me - potters, seamstresses, woodworkers, bakers, farmers, authors, quilters, Christmas wreath makers selling their wares on the side of the road or in virtual on-line shops -- people living in their own little worlds and homes and studios making and growing things with their hands and their bodies and their brains. 

On Marketplace the other night, they said that the recession has been over for six years. I was quite astounded by that. Doing the math - that would put the end of the recession as 2009. Gee - I thought this one began in 2007 with the financial meltdown. Did it really end in 2009? Not here at this house. I think that giant meltdown began the tides of the change of how consumers spend money. I think people are more careful - as they should be - about plunking down their hard earned money for stuff they don't need. 

I also wonder how much the "handmade" economy is cutting into the standard corporate economies. I'm probably way off the mark here but I think that consumers are realizing that buying handmade things - or products made by small companies that have a story - may be changing how $ is going around in the economy. I am no economist for sure - let's say that was the only class in college that I almost didn't pass! But I wonder - are consumers changing the way they spend their money? Are on-line sites where you can find everything like Etsy and Ebay taking money away from the big department stores and the "normal" way things are marketed and sold in the US? I would say yes - to some degree. 

I wonder how long the big old chain stores will survive - much less prosper again. I know I live in a pocket of New England where things don't work the way they do other places. Here we have very few chain stores and I have to drive 40 minutes to get to a place like Target or Walmart or Old Navy. I'm probably not seeing things the same way you all out there are seeing things. 

This summer when I was hosting my workshops with the fabulous students that drove and flew in from all over the place, I couldn't help but think about how these women and you all out there who read this blog, buy my stuff, and support me emotionally with your comments are helping my family and I keep it all going around here. Between our customers at the Farmers Markets who purchase our lamb, to everyone of you who orders a pattern or maybe a piece of my pottery - or buys a book directly from me ---- all of you are keeping us going, supporting our farm and our family. 

I can't think of a time in my life when I have been supported this much financially by individuals. I told my students this summer that they were my patrons - in the old-fashioned sense of an artist having a patron. That by purchasing from me or taking a class from me, each one of you contributes so much to our family being able to survive and keep our farm and business going. For this - I thank you all so much. 

Enough rambling - I have things to do. Pottery to make, newsletters to write, interviews to do, and a house that needs to be cleaned for Thanksgiving and the Open House. I hope you all have a great day! Enjoy these photos from the pastures below our farmhouse when there was a bit more color out there than now. 

Pottery Identity

Things are busy here. Summer always is. I'm not complaining - I love to be busy. Sometimes the to do list just doesn't seem to get anything checked off it though. That can be frustrating, can't it? 

Kristin Nicholas Pottery - Photo Rikki Snyder

A couple weeks ago, I announced the new Pottery Shop I set up over on Etsy here on the blog. I assume I will do most of my business on-line. It's all set up now and running and I thank everyone for the orders. You all are fantastic! What support I have. Really - I am so thankful.

Kristin Nicholas Pottery - Photo Rikki Snyder

Even if one thinks setting up an on-line Etsy business is cheap and the way to go, it isn't free. You still need business cards, cards for "identity" and promotion, and thank you cards. And you need the time to set it all up and learn the Etsy program, take the photos for selling, list the items, set up the business cards, etc. It is a big time suck for sure. Nothing is free - you all know that. 

Kristin Nicholas Pottery - Photo Rikki Snyder

I got lucky with my business and identity cards. When Rikki Snyder was here a few weeks ago, we did an impromptu photo shoot so that I could have some images for biz cards, etc. Rikki is such a great stylist and photographer. I cannot believe how beautiful the images came out. I'm including them sprinkled throughout this post. 

(Sorry about the moire wackiness on the linen fabrics - something happens when I reduce the size of the image - I'm not sure why? Does anyone know how to stop this from happening?)

Kristin Nicholas Pottery - Photo Rikki Snyder

As for the business cards, etc. I use an on-line company called Overnight Prints. They do beautiful work, have good customer service, and if they screw up, they re-print once you send them photos of their ooooopsy. I highly recommend them. I use Photoshop for my layouts but you can drop your own photos into their pre-designed templates really easily. 

If you do decide to do your own design, I suggest downloading one of their templates. That way you will have the settings all ready for their press and won't have any mistakes (like not having the photo in CMYK and in RGB instead!).

Their minimum orders are incredibly easy to achieve - I usually go for the 250 to 500 piece per design range but you can order as few as 25 cards. Boy, gone are the bad old days of ordering 1000's of a piece of print to have sitting around for years and years before hitting the recycling bin. 

Here's what I set up and ordered from Overnight Prints. It is so nice to have a colorful piece to pack inside the orders. If you were one of the very first orders, I wasn't quite ready with these swanky cards. Next time! 

You can check out my Pottery Shop here over on Etsy. 

You may notice that I just added Google AdSense to my blog. I'm giving it a try to see if it helps me earn any extra money. If it is not much, I will delete it. So far the ads I have seen haven't been too ugly or bad. Time will tell. Hope you all understand that this is a farm and a business and we have to earn money in a mess of different ways. 

Abby G of While She Naps and Moving Sheep (Again)

Do you know Abby Glassenberg? She is a softie designer and pattern maker, author, and podcaster. Abby is also the mom of 3 girls. I don't know how she does it all. Last week I participated in While She Naps - Abby's awesome podcast. The other guest is photographer Gale Zucker. Gale also writes the blog She Shoots Sheep Shots and is an author. It went live today. What an honor to be included in her great show.

I listen to a lot of podcasts while I am working. They make a nice break from the radio and I always learn something. I stumbled on Abby's podcast just this year. The format is great - two interesting guests and Abby all having a conversation. She asks each guest about their work and current projects. The second part of the show is like a Show and Tell on favorite products, websites, and things that the guests and Abby find helpful and interesting. This is my favorite part of the podcast because I always learn something new. 

If you are an independent designer or just interested in the business, I highly recommend Abby's While She Naps podcast. Check it out here. 

At this time of year, the sheep are on the move. Sometimes it is an organized move and sometimes they just bust out and move themselves. Here's some photos of the other day's organized move to new grazing. Kate and I were waiting for them, making sure they made the proper turn.

 

 

Have a great week everyone.