This is especially true when you consider the yarn manufacturers who also make needlepoint yarns (these are growing — more tomorrow on this) and other companies selling into both markets who were on the knitting side of the show.

Looking at knitting vs. needlepoint I saw some interesting contrasts that are good for us as stitchers. Needlepoint shops came to buy as well as to look. Although there is always lots of interest in the newest canvases and threads, often you’d see shopowners going through a both and ordering many canvases from the existing line. For us, this means that we aren’t constantly looking for what’s new, but for what’s right. That continues to support our designers to try new things and to keep designing. If anything older than a year is “vintage” and therefore not wanted, there is just too much pressure on the designers and some will stop designing because their stuff is too “old-fashioned.”

When you bring out a new product there is always a risk: Will people like it? Both the designer and the shopowner take this risk because as stitchers we might not like it and won’t buy it. But if both these people have reliable designs people like and continue to buy, the shopowners buy them and the designers have sales without risk and can continue to work.

This is a sign of a healthy industry.

In terms of the designs I saw there are three trends that you’ll see in your shops. All are great because they show that the market for needlepoint is widening. We’ll all get to the point where we can’t have any more pillows (or ornaments or stockings or whatever), but by innovating the use and subject matter for needlepoint, designers increase the things we’ll buy and try.

Professional and collegiate sports was the big new trend. There were belts, key fobs, ornaments, mini socks, brick covers and lots more in a bewildering array of designs from actual logos to clever pieces featuring folks playing the game. Not every team for every sport is there, but you can probably find something for just about any sports fan. This signals a nice change in the market towards pieces that have more masculine appeal.

While Halloween and Christmas remain huge for needlepoint, I saw lots more Thanksgiving and harvest-themed designs. Melissa Shirley has led the way on this. These designs are fun because with them less holiday-specific, they can be used throughout the fall.

The needlepoint handbag trend continues to be huge and at the show I saw, along with lots of extensions to purse lines that have been around for awhile, new shapes and new combinations of leather or straw purses with needlepoint.

Tomorrow I’ll look at new threads (there’s plenty), Friday and Saturday at new canvases and kits, and Sunday at changes in distributors. On Monday I’ll talk about knitting items for needlepoint as well as tools, finishing, and books.

No related posts.

When I moved to California in 1980, I was sort of lost for needlepoint.

Yes, there were some stores in San Francisco, but I didn’t have time on my lunch hour to get to them. There was a knitting and needlepoint store on my way home from work, but it was not too exciting.

But all that changed when I moved to Rockridge, a neighborhood in North Oakland.

On the main street and just at the bottom of my street was a wonderful needlepoint store, The Crewel World. Owned by a lovely lady named Diane, this place was needlepoint heaven. There was lots of thread, more than the Persian Wool and floss combo of most places, canvas, books, charts, painted canvas, classes.

What joy!

In those days Jane Zimmerman, who lived nearby, also taught there, and Diane and the other employees who worked there were unfailing in their support. They were such thread addicts they would buy odd threads and sell them to people like me. I bought all sorts of things from them, DMC matte cotton, Empress Silk, and some mystery threads.

After awhile Diane sold the store and the new owner, Linda, kept the same friendly atmosphere. By that time I had kids and they never minded me with two kids in the stroller coming in (a sign of a great store to my mind). Linda had a second shop in Walnut Creek, which became my LNS when I got a job out there.

Good shops, like good friends, aren’t just stitchy enablers, they become your friends, a haven, a place for creativity. Where would we be without them?

Related posts:

1. Medici Hanks for Sale
2. Texas Needlepointer Profiled
3. Stitch your Stash around the World – Almost Done!
4. Stitch your Stash around the World – Blocks 1-3
5. Stitch your Stash Around the World Update

One of the happiest things I know about traveling is visiting needlepoint stores. Today I want to salute a few stores that I visited for the wonderful things I found there.

– In Ann Arbor, on a business trip, I saw Watercolours for the first time. Amazingly enough I only bought one skein, got the free pattern and some canvas and stitched it on the way home.

– On another trip, I was wokring on a Jane Greenoff Sampler and was running out of silk. On a whim I went into Rose Cottage in El Segundo, CA (now whole sale only, in Ohio, and called Potpourri, Etc.) and found the thread (which they gave me), more Jane Greenoff charts, and great friends. Whenever I went to LA, I made time to visit them.

– In 2001, we were in New Hampshire on Sept 11, and were renting a truck to drive back to California. The folks at BF Goodstitch in Salem (a wonderful shop) fixed me up with canvas, thread, and comfort, to make a lovely pillow, Stars of Sorrow, which still sits on my day bed.

– Vicki, the wonderful owner of Needle Nook of La Jolla, came through with thread, when I got short shipped material for a class.

But there are so many more, so many wonderful shops. Explore yours!

Related posts:

1. Crewel World – Past LNS
2. Use your Stash & Shop at your LNS
3. Needlepoint & Tours
4. Twelve Step Program for Stitchers
5. Thread Stash Credits — A Great Idea

Head on over to The Scarlet Thread and take a look t the almost 140 items they have in their inventory reduction sale.

There is a ton of charted needlepoint including lots of ornaments as well as bigger pieces. And you’ll find lots of projects from your favorite designers including DebBee’s Designs, Laura Perin, and Needle Delights.

And if charted needlepoint isn’t your preference, there are scissors, lights, and other tools as well.

And, being on-line, you can shop in your PJ’s.

Check it out

Related posts:

1. Big Melissa Shirley Sale at The Needlepointer
2. Back to School Book Sale
3. New Needlepoint Products — Charted Needlepoint & Whole-Stitch Cross Stitch
4. Designer Interviews & New Products
5. Medici Hanks for Sale

2010 needlepoint hearts from Rainbow Gallery

They have over 60 models on display and close to 100 patterns to purchase. Looking at the pictures I got from a friend I saw tons of things I’d love to stitch.

The show starts today. And if you go by this Sunday, May 23, you can see their take on Rainbow Gallery’s 2010 hearts collection. The first four are pictured above.

Related posts:

1. Easy Custom Tabletop Tree to Show off your Ornaments
2. New Charted Needlepoint from Needle Delights
3. Virtual Show – Woodlawn in Pictures
4. Last Day for Needlework Show!
5. Colorful Charted Needlepoint

If you want to use a crewel weight wool and have not started the project, there are many lovely wool from which to choose. Bella Lusso from Fleur de Paris is my favorite of these, but many companies make wool in this size from old established names such as Appleton, to companies now making hand-dyed crewel wool such as The Gentle Art or Weeks Dye Works.

But what do you do if you really need Medici? Threadneedle Street, a needlepoint shop in Issaquah, WA, has a substitute for Medici they say is like old Medici.

To see if it really works, I asked then to send me samples of colors where I had some DMC Medici to compare the two. The results are pictured here. DMC Medici is on the left, Threadneedle Street’s is on the right.

First I tested the feel, I closed my eyes and could not tell the difference in the two threads. It has the same smoothness and thickness.

Then I stitched with them. I had two colors to test and I stitched a block with both old and new Medici. They both had the same coverage.

Now we come to the real question for many of you: Are they the same color? Remember that dye lots change and so skeins from different dye lots of the exact same thread may not match. You can see that with the lavender the colors are close, but with the violet, they are further apart, but apart in a way that is consistent with different dyelots.

So yes Threadneedle’s Medici is about as close to Medici as you can get and works well as a substitute. However if you are adding this to a project in process, blend in the new thread to get seamless transitions.

Related posts:

1. Medici Hanks for Sale
2. A Difficult Needlepoint Problem
3. My Basketweave Problem
4. The Dyelot Problem
5. Planet Earth Wool – Thread Review

The Needlepointer, up near Seattle and on the web, has over 90 Melissa Shirley Designs’ canvases on sale, at amazing prices. You’ll find all sorts of designs here, with something to suit just about every taste.Click on the link to see them all.

And the prices are amazing, around 50% off retail. The sale is limited to stock on hand and everything will be delivered around August 20.

Not everything is pictured on the site (the remaining pictures are coming soon). It also helps to know that the navigation seems to indicate that there are only 5 pages of canvases when there are really 10. When you get to page 5, just click on next and you’ll be able to navigate to the other pages.

Happy shopping!

Related posts:

1. New Canvases from Melissa Shirley & Jelly Bean Stock
2. New Canvases from Kathy Schenkel and Melissa Shirley
3. Sneak Peek — Home Sweet Home from Melissa Shirley
4. Melissa Shirley Birds
5. Sneak Peek — Melissa Shirley Designs for Summer

Needlecrafter’s Travel Companion, Chalet Publishing, Colorado Springs, CO, 2010, ISBN 978-0-9708118-6-9. $11.95

Some people buy postcards or snowglobes as souvenirs of their travels, not the stitchers and knitters I know — they buy canvases, yarn, thread, and projects. I’m so bad I will buy travel pieces YEARS after I’ve been someplace, just so I have a needlepoint ornament.

The first step in doing this is finding a local shop. Not only are you more likely to find something local there, you also have the fun of seeing a new shop.

Always a problem has been finding the shops. The Yellow Pages used to be my main resource but I never felt as if I found what I needed.

Needlecrafter’s Travel Companion is the book I’ve needed all along. Covering the US and Canada this book lists shops for knitting, cross stitch and needlepoint. It also covers spinning and weaving. Added to the mix are listings for local fiber festivals.

For each state or provence there is a map showing the location of the featured shops. This way you have an idea of places close to you. Then there are ads for each of the featured shops. These are numbered and keyed to the map. The ads have contact info, small local maps, and info about the shop. After that is a directory listing of all the shops in the state, listed alphabetically by city. The featured shops are in bold. These listings are quite comprehensive. If there are shows, festivals, or retreats in the state, they are next, listed by date with another map.

I love it since it is packed with information and easy to use. If you travel, you should make the small investment in this book.

Now I just need to get my family to give me time to visit those shops.

Related posts:

1. The Left-Hander’s Embroiderer’s Companion – book review
2. Great New Book on Blackwork in Needlepoint – Book Review
3. Needlepoint 101 – book review
4. Celebrating my Journey in Needlepoint — Book Review
5. Shapes of Needlepoint Series II – Book Review

I got back from vacation this week and I’m not a happy camper.

Why?

Because I visited a needlepoint shop and there are so may small things shopowners can do (and which this shop didn’t) to make things great for the people who come in, especially if they are visitors to the area.

And, let’s face it, people will be coming to your shop this summer from other areas, even if you don’t live in a tourist “trap.”

The fact that this shop was the only one within 25 miles and was in a tourist town, and it was one of the town’s biggest weeks of the year, only makes the whole thing worse.

Directions Do you have a sheet of paper with clear, understandable directions, laminated and near the phone? Many people (including the folks at this shop), give poor directions, get them, write them down. Even if you use Google maps for them. And ask everyone at the shop to use them.

I’m glad I sort of knew the town and wrote slowly, so I could find my way. And even when I got to the shopping center where the shop was located, the directions were bad. It sounded as if the name of the shopping center was prominent — it wasn’t. It sounded as if there was a two story building in front of it — there wasn’t.

Dining This may sound dumb, but do you have a list of area restaurants at the cash register. No matter where you are, people may want to eat after visiting your shop. Can everyone in your shop tell them where to go?

Canvases Like most stitchers I know I like to get small canvases to remind me of the place I visit. I like them to have a theme which will remind me of the place. Most places have something like this, some more than others. Do you have some, are they always in stock.

I went into this shop looking for this kind of canvas. I can think of at least five canvases with this theme off the top of my head, and I know there are more than this. The shop had none of them and seemed surprised by the request.

I went in planning to buy and I wanted to buy it all so I could work on it on the plane. I finally found something which kind of works, but even then the owner and the employee were of no help. I could easily have walked out and a sale would have been lost.

Yes, this casual customer isn’t the heart of your business, but it’s an easy sale to make. I won’t be going back there again, even though I will be in that town again. I also will not recommend it to others.

Threads Your stock of threads may be large of small, but you and all your employees should know the basics. This employee didn’t know where to find black Anchor floss and there was not color card. She looked through all the drawers. I can do that myself. I ask for help because I want someone who knows more than me.

The only one of these items which ties up any inventory dollars is the canvases. Every other item is one which uses items and knowledge the shopowner has or can get easily. But had they been present an unpleasant experience would have been good and I would go back they next time I was in town.

I realize in many ways I’m spoiled. My LNS, Needle in a Haystack, is outstanding in every, and does all of these things. They even go so far as to warn you, well in advance, when parking will be bad.

BUT this isn’t rocket science, this is good basic customer service.

Wouldn’t we buy more and wouldn’t we be happier if shops paid attention to these things?

Related posts:

1. Just a Few More New Things
2. Making your Things Work for You
3. Bringing Things to a Head – Stitching Foam
4. New Needlepoinr Products – Threads, Tools, & Things
5. Needlecrafter’s Travel Companion — Book Review

This week’s question is “Have you ever wanted to own a needlepoint store?” And, if you own a store, why did you open/buy it?

Here’s my story:
When I was a teenager and first learning needlepoint, I always went to the only needlepoint shop I knew. It wasn’t too big and it had been the Post Office.

A very modest bulding, the bext thing about it was the way they used a free-standing hunk of old brass Post Office boxes to store the Persian wool — I loved it.

So wanting to own a store goes way back with me. I think at least part of wanting a shop is having the “Evangelization Virus,” a desire to share needlepoint with others.

Related posts:

1. Etsy Store for A Dragon’s Tale Now Open
2. Great Crafty Site – Dollar Store Crafts
3. eBay – Your Local Needlepoint Store?
4. Have a Needlepoint Question? Ask Janet
5. Needlepoint Finishing from the Dollar Store