Throwback MD: FREE STUFF!

It's been a long and difficult week for we Mighty Distractible gals.

Cassandra has pneumonia and the rest of her family is alternately sick with fever, snotty noses, and puking. And I, of course, managed to catch a devil of a cold - the result of working in a corporate petri dish and having a slightly compromised immune system - which caused me to be foggy-headed and miss work.

So, it's a "Throwback Thursday"... The only way a post was going to make it up this week. But I think it's a good one - especially as we're in the throes of holiday crash-and-burn crafting. 

Send good vibes for speedy recoveries on all fronts and, hopefully, we'll have something new for you next week. 

- Alex  *cough, sneeze, blow*

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ORIGINALLY POSTED: Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Everybody Loves Free Stuff

Ah, the holidays! It's a time of...well...stress, frankly. And the source of that stress? (besides family of course) Gift giving.

What started as a simple gesture of generosity, love, and friendship has turned into a billion dollar industry with layers of guilt and inadequacy piled on top. Just makes you all tingly for the season, doesn't it?

Between having to find the "perfect" gift for every Tom, Dick, and Harry in the phone book and the cost associated with that quest, the holidays are more of a nightmare than a hot chocolate-filled dream.

On top of it all, we crafters get to experience our very own extra-special gift stress. Here's how it works:

1. Crafter says: "I'm going to put 75 hours of my time, plus the cost of materials, into this handmade item. I am going to meticulously choose a pattern and colors that will be perfect for the receiver. I'm going to craft every bit of this with love and care for this special person."
2. Receiver opens gift and says: "Oh, isn't that pretty. Thanks!" and moves on to the next gift.
3. Crafter is crushed.

Ralphie's aunt worked hard on this

Do you see what's happening here? There's a huge disconnect between the crafter's and non-crafter's perceived value of the gift. I have family members that would be appalled if I gave them something handcrafted - regardless of how expensive and lovely the materials and finished product. I mean...only poor people and hippies "do" crafts, right? On top of that, it's hard to convince a non-crafter of an item's value when a machine-made, off-the-rack version is cheaper and looks as good. The industrial revolution really took it's toll on handcrafting, in a lot of ways.

When it's all said and done, if you want to give a handcrafted gift, the key is to keep your costs and efforts down and make the actual value of the present a little closer to the perceived value (and save yourself some soul crushing.) Here are my tips:

Use free patterns.

I can't remember the last time I paid for a pattern because there are tons of resources on the web. Granted, you may only be saving $5-$10 but, if you're making more than a couple of handmade items, this can add up quickly. My favorite resources are:

1. Ravelry - Also known as "Facebook for knitters." There are, literally, thousands of amazing free patterns (as well as patterns for sale) on this site. The very best part is that, for most patterns, you can look at other people's attempts at making the piece. This gives you invaluable insight into the pattern's difficulty level and flaws. I can't recommend this site enough.
2. All Free Sewing - This site is incredibly comprehensive - with patterns for everything from accessories to quilts to holiday projects. The clean and easy interface makes searching for patterns a breeze. The site even has video tutorials. You are going to love this resource.
3. Craft Bits - Most of the free-craft project sites online are aggregators - they gather links to free projects on myriad other sites. Craft Bits, as best I can tell, has all "original" content so you're not popping off the site every time you click a project link. I also really like the site design and I find the projects appealing. One specific tip for this site: scroll down! There's tons of content below the fold on every page. It's easy to miss it if you don't think to scroll.

Keep materials cost in line.

Let's be honest, it's easy to want to buy that gorgeous yarn that's $20 a skein because the scarf is for your mom. But, honestly, she'll probably never be able to tell the difference between that and the $10-a-skein version. The key to this one is: know your audience. If the person you're crafting for has an eye for good materials and you KNOW they'll appreciate the color or hand of the piece at the end, go ahead and look for the material on sale somewhere. Otherwise, buy materials that are "good enough" to make the piece nice but not over-the-top. My favorite resources for reasonably-priced and sale goods are:

1. Knit Picks - Knit Picks is an all-around great site for yarn crafters. They have beautiful tools, like their interchangeable circular needles set (I seriously covet these), but they also have great basic yarns for ridiculously low prices.
2. Fabric.com - This clean and easy-to-navigate site is one of my favorite resources for fabric. Their selection can be light - especially in specialty fabrics, like decorator (upholstery) weights - but most of the time, the styles are really tasteful and the brands are higher-quality. The thing I love most about this site (besides the amazing prices) is that, under each fabric "swatch", they list the number of yards they have in stock. Saves me tons of time if I know how much yardage I need.
3. Joann.com - You may have a Joann Fabrics in your area so this may be redundant but... not for nothin' Joann is a great resource for craft supplies and their online store has damn-near anything you'd need. The quality tends towards the middle and the prices are reasonable (not super-cheap) - but you can be assured that they have what you need and that, if you need to return anything, their customer service will do you right.

The 5-minute Skirt: http://bit.ly/WaK1o

Finally, don't pick difficult projects. This one is easy, people. If it's a gift, make it something you can complete with plenty of time to spare and that it's easy enough that you won't be struggling. That way, you'll spend less total time on the project and your finished piece will be top-quality because its instructions will be well within your comfort zone.

So, there you go. My tips for making the 2010 holiday season a little less stressful. I think what it boils down to is this: if the person you're making a gift for won't appreciate the time, money, and effort that went in to your handmade creation then to heck with 'em. Go buy them something that they've seen on TV and save yourself some heartache. ;)

- Alex (bah-humbug)

Vintage MD: Bonafide

We continue this week with another vintage post. Let your craft flag fly, high and proud!

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Monday, September 20, 2010

Bonafide

“Craft is the word of the decade,” says Murray Moss, founder of the design gallery Moss in New York. “It went from having the most pejorative meaning to being embraced.”

photo courtesy of Die Hipster Die!

Crafting has been enjoying a resurgence in recent years. Some view it as a desire to connect with our past, or a movement to a 'softer' aesthetic, or, simply, an extension of the hipster milieu - like ironic facial hair on men. There are, as with all things that reach a tipping point, myriad theories for "why."

Perhaps it's our attempt to hold on to something "real" as our society moves farther and farther into the world of information and technology. Crafting recalls our history. Crafting results in a single, finished, imperfect product and adds a bit of beauty to the world. Crafting creates something that can't be digitized or duplicated.


Our great-grandmothers did these activities out of necessity. Frugality was the primary reason to learn to cook, bake, sew, knit, etc. But there was also a cultural need. Cooking and baking were part of the woman's "job" and women used crafting as a way to stay busy and to socialize. Sewing, knitting, or quilting in a group was a great way to spend an afternoon gossiping with the girls.

Today, frugality doesn't even come into the equation. It's rarely, if ever, cheaper to make something by hand - including a meal. Cheap knit goods from China, fast food restaurants on every corner, and mass production, means that crafting today is exclusively about aesthetics and the pleasure of creating. Interestingly, this dynamic has also created a  big gap in the perceived value of  hand-created items. A "non-crafter" has no real sense of the time, effort, and cost associated with that gift they just got or that cool piece they just saw at the shop. For the crafter, that misunderstanding of the "value" of the finished item can represent a huge blow to the ego. When you spend three months knitting a baby blanket for someone ("every stitch is knit with love!") it's tough to see it given the same reaction as the one purchased from a big-box store.

I'd like to think that, as crafting becomes more widespread and legitimized, more people will recognize the beauty and value in hand-crafted items. I got my first taste of legitimacy when I saw the movie Handmade Nation at our local film festival. But, it was an indie film with a narrow release so it really wasn't changing too many perceptions. Today, however, the Wall Street Journal Magazine helped us take a great leap forward. In the story titled "A Gripping Yarn," the WSJ editors explore the phenomenon of neo-crafting in regard to home furnishing and interior decoration. It's an intriguing article in both the subject matter (knitted chairs??) and the validity it gives to the crafting movement.

For me, personally, this article represents the moment that my hobby became bonafide - legitimate and beyond scorn from those who give me "the look" when I knit in public. Now, if the NY Times will just do an in-depth article on the cost and effort to create something from scratch, maybe my sister will stop looking at my "homemade" gifts as though they're dead rats.

– Alex

Hillcrest Handmade Bazaar

This weekend Mighty Distractible participated in the Hillcrest Handmade Bazaar, hosted by our amazing friends Gael and Ginny. They have a perfect house for this type of sale - lovely, open, and beautifully furnished. And, because they are both wonderfully creative people, they have a large group of wonderfully creative friends who could contribute. It was an honor to be in the company of such talented people.

Having only participated in a few of these kinds of events in the past, I was amazed by the turnout for this one and with how many sales we generated. Granted, some people sold significantly more than others (one woman is walking away with about $700!) but everyone sold something and we had a steady stream of people through the house all day Saturday. Sunday was a little lighter but we did have a couple of good rushes of folks and, actually, generated more credit card sales than on Saturday. It's also important to note that this was the first year that Gael and Ginny did this sale so it's not like there were people waiting for it to happen.

I thought I'd share some of the tactics we used so, if you participate in a similar kind of sale, you can try them and see if you can replicate our turnout. Obviously, we would need to do this a few more times to prove that these tactics are what contributed to our sucess (and not just that the weather was nice that day) but, logically, I think that this particular combo of things certainly helped a lot.

• Facebook Event - Gael created an event and each of us were tasked with inviting people from our Facebook friends list to the event. Cassandra created a flyer which we used as the avatar for the event and we could each copy that flyer and post it occassionally into our Facebook stream to remind people of the event.
• Pinterest Page - Ginny created a Pinterest page with photos of the items that were for sale. We posted a link to the Pinterest page on the Facebook Event and we were all tasked with "pushing" the Pinterest link out to our friends/followers on social media.
• Craig's List - Ginny posted the event on Craig's List
• Flyers/Postcards - Cassandra created a PDF of an 8.5x11 flyer that could be emailed to friends/family or printed and posted at our offices. She also made a 1/4 page "postcard" sized version that could be printed, cut out, and put on the counters of local shops. We each got electronic copies of these and were tasked with doing what we could with them.
• Yard Sign - Cassandra created a version of flyer for the a yard sign and Gael had it printed at Kinkos.
• Credit Cards - By using Square (you can get a credit card reader from PayPal too) we were able to take all credit cards - and all it cost us was 2.75% per transaction (no additional fees and the reader was free). When it was all said and done, 39% of our total sales went on cards. Plus, people are inclined to spend more if they can use a card.

Somewhere along the line, someone from Gael and Ginny's neighborhood learned about the sale and posted it on their neighborhood list-serve (email group). A number of neighbors walked over having seen it there.

I need to add that I believe that the mix and quality of available items really contributed to the success as well. The people who had greeting cards, jewelry, accessories, and ornaments did best with sales. I think this is obvious because these items are the most "gift-y".

As often happens with these kinds of events, I find a lot of inspiration and a lot of things to buy for myself. I'm a little embarrased to admit that I only purchased one gift for someone else. Very, very selfish.  Here are a few of the items I walked away with:

Gorgeous silk scarf, hand dyed with botanicals (for me)

The one item I bought for someone else. A pillow for my neice made by Gael.

I'm completely enamored of these beautiful paper ornaments which came with handmade boxes!

How's this for cool "yarn"? This is made from "spinning" fabric.

Overall, we had an amazing couple of days. I met some incredibly talented and good-hearted people and enjoyed the comraderie of a house full of "makers".  If you ever have a chance to do a sale like this, I encourage you to try some of the things we did to generate interest. It really worked for us!

- Alex

Handmade Holidays

I love handmade gifts. I love to make them - and to make them perfect for the person receiving the item. I love to give them because I'm very prideful of my work. And I love to receive them and see other people's work.

Last year's holiday scarf for my niece

In that spirit, we're going to feature a number of our tutorials in the Mighty Distractible sidebar during the holiday season. Hopefully, this will inspire you to make gifts for the people on your list. As Cassandra is fond of saying whenever we knit a gift, "Every stitch is knit with love".  Of course, she's usually saying it sarcastically while knitting something problematic but there is a smidge of truth to it regardless.

Also, today's post contains links to a number of my favorite holiday craft resources. I found some great ideas around the web and really wanted to share them.

Happy holiday season - regardless of which one you celebrate. :)

- Alex

Pinterest is always an amazing resource:

• Christmas Craft Ideas
• Hanukkah crafts
• Winter Solstice Crafts
• Gift Wrap Ideas

Meant as crafts for kids, this is a nice post of Winter Solstice craft ideas - The Crafty Crow

Everythingetsy.com is one of the best online link resources for crafters. Here are just two of my favorite posts:

• 101 Handmade Holiday Tutorials
• 101 Handmade Ornament Tutorials

And, of course, no one does it better than Martha!

• Christmas Crafts
• Christmas Gift Wrapping Ideas
• Hanukkah Crafts

An Embarassment of Riches

Hi everyone! We're back in action here after days and days of holiday celebration. I hope you all had as much fun and good food as we did.


I am so lucky to have family who know the way to my heart is through the craft room. The bulk of my gifts this year were for making. Yeah!


I have yarn for 2 sweaters:

The red will be used for Coraline by Ysolda Teague and the green is TBD. As soon as I finish my portion of the knitting pattern design for our entry in What Would Madame DeFarge Knit II, I am casting on for me. Me, me, me, me, me!

But, oh, new knitting isn't the only thing I can wait to start. I got some books that have me excited for new projects. Particularly the "Cozy Wool Jacket" in Sew Serendipity by Kay Whitt. I've never sewn outerwear before, but this is making my want to give it a shot!

And then, there is the best gift I have ever received in my life. No lie. I have the most generous husband ever. He enables this crafty obsession of mine in spades. Meet my new baby:

This sucker weighs 50 lbs.

I will have more to share about my new Bernina in the future I'm sure. The learning curve I have with new technology is both sad and amusing. But nothing is going to happen in my crafty world until this post-holiday mess is up and out of the house:

I should buy stock in the Rubbermaid Corporation.

I better scat and get going on my cleaning. Talk to you soon everyone!

–Cassandra

Friday Finds: REPRINT "Against Gift Giving"

For this week's Friday Finds, I'm offering up a reprint of a particularly eloquent article about seasonal gift giving. The reason I'm sharing this with you is because the author, Dave Bry, has captured EXACTLY how I feel about the whole tradition of giving and receiving gifts.

Of course, as a crafty person, I enjoy making gifts at the holiday - preferably consumable because I hate giving people stuff that just adds to their burden - and I expect nothing in return. As a matter of fact I would PREFER nothing in return, unless it's consumable.

When it's all said and done, I think that the spontaneous gift, given thoughtfully at some random time during the year, is more valued than a gift given because tradition dictates that you're supposed to give a gift. I'm just sayin'.

REPRINT: Against Gift Giving
by Dave Bry, December 16, 2011

I would like to make a proposal: Let’s all stop giving presents to anyone over the age of 12.

We can consider this a new front in the laughably famous and obviously fictitious “war against Christmas” that people like Glenn Beck and Rick Perry always talk about. Because I’m really only proposing this for the holiday season. (So the following all goes for Chanukah, too. Oh, and birthdays. No presents on birthdays, either.) Presents at other times of the year, random days on the calendar, are fine. Like, if you’re going over to someone’s house, you should bring a bottle of wine. Or if you’re browsing in a bookstore and you find a book you think a friend would like, by all means, buy it for her or him.

But not on Christmas! Jesus, please! Enough with the gifts at Christmas, already. This time of year is hard enough to get through as it is.

I won’t be the first person you’ve heard say that the holiday season sucks. Because it does. Suicide statistics and the smoked salmon inside Dan Akroyd’s Santa costume and the music being piped into the fluorescent-bright aisles of Rite Aids all around the nation at this very moment say it better than words ever could anyway. It’s definitely the least wonderful time of year for a lot of people, full of all sorts of pressure and accounting and reminders of how we’re not doing as well at the job of being a human being as we’d like to be doing. The last thing any of us need is the added stress and extra shopping that this barbaric ritual entails. Let’s give ourselves a break.

The kids, we should still buy gifts for. If only because they’d complain so loudly if they came out into the living room and found nothing under the tree except the pine needles that will have to be vacuumed up later. (I actually think it’d be better for everybody if we broke them of the gift-getting habit, too. But it would be too hard to explain to the 8-year-olds the first two or three years to be worth it.) And, to be honest, it’s nice to see the expressions on the faces of children when they open their presents. Lovable little materialistic swine that children are.

But teenagers? Nothing’s going to relieve their misery except getting to have sex, and that’s nothing that anyone can buy for them. (Or, well, nothing that anyone should buy for them. Not for Christmas, anyway.) Teenagers might as well spend every family holiday alone in their rooms, masturbating and listening to Skrillex or playing World of Warcraft or whatever. The best gift we can give them is to not make them be around us. They don’t want us to see their braces.

And other adults? Why do we buy each other gifts? Why do we go to the trouble? So everyone can have to fake more excitement and gratitude than they actually feel upon opening them? “Oh, thanks for this book I told you I wanted that I could have just as easily bought for myself! Thanks for these gloves, this blouse, this bottle of wine. I’m so glad to have this pile of stuff to pack into the car or check at the baggage claim when I could have just bought it on my own time nearer to my own home, or even had it delivered directly to my door. Here, I got you something, too.” It’s like we’ve all entered into this mutual pact that makes everybody's lives a little bit worse. All anybody really wants is money anyway. And since there is a quid pro quo element to the stupid gift-giving tradition, we should all be getting back pretty much what we’d pay out. So let’s just skip it. Or establish a credit system. My gift to you is relieving you of the obligation of getting a gift for me. The gift of relaxation. The money you would have spent on me? Go buy yourself something you want with it. There. We’re even and happier. Bosses? Give a cash holiday bonus. Or better yet, don’t—and put it into raised yearly salaries and health benefits.

It’s not even just the giving. Receiving gifts stinks, too. People ask you what you want, and it’s hard to think of anything. (A yacht or a beach house or a portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer being unrealistic.) I mean, a bottle of nice something, sure, always. But again, then you’re stuck carting it home and the difficulty of not breaking it on the way. Generally, I think adults get the things they need or want when they need or want them. That’s one of the joys of being an adult. And in shopping for ourselves, we’re more likely to get exactly what we want; there’s less risk of mistakes.

A few years ago, back when CDs still seemed like things that were worth owning, I told someone who asked me what I wanted that I wanted a certain Townes Van Zandt CD that had been recommended to me by a friend. The Late, Great Townes Van Zandt, I think it was. But come Christmas, when I unwrapped one of my CD-shaped gifts, I saw a different Townes Van Zandt album—a compilation album. Of course, since the person who had bought it for me was sitting in the room, I did my best to hide my disappointment that this was not the CD I had asked for. I mean, it was a minor disappointment. And I certainly wasn’t, like, angry at the person for buying the wrong CD. I’m sure the person just couldn’t find the exact album I’d asked for. Maybe it was out of print? I don’t know. And, y’know, I don’t think this person should have been in the position of having to buy me a CD anyway. I blame society. But now I had this wrong Townes Van Zandt album. And the real problem was (and I know this probably has more to do my personal neurosis and human defects than anything else), this compilation had on it some, but not all, of the songs from the album I had in fact asked for, and I knew that owning it would in fact now make it harder for me to go and try to buy myself the original one. For the same reason that you always get off the subway one stop short of a destination that lies in between two subway stations, and not one stop past it. Nature abhors backtracking and redundancy and vacuuming up the pine needles that fall off of the Christmas tree.

See how gifts ruin everything?! At least for awful, unlovable neurotics devoid of the capacity for love or joy?! See?!!!

The whole problem is the obligation—that we’re expected to give gifts this time of year, and expected to want to receive gifts this time of year, and then expected to express gratitude, even if we’d rather just beg out of the whole deal. Don’t get me wrong, I know plenty of gifts—even those given to one adult by another—are given in the spirit of generosity and love. I like generosity and love. And other human beings. And chestnuts and roast goose and a big meal with lots of people. And even the smell of those pine needles making such a mess on the floor. And gratitude is a very good thing. But it’s easier to come to honestly in instances that aren’t so laden with all this heavy obligation, the feeling that we’re all taking part in an antiquated tradition that we’d actually rather not be taking part in.

Panic! At the Holiday!

So...yeah. Remember a couple of months ago when I talked about starting my Christmas knitting?

The thing I learned this holiday season is that, it's not about when you start a project, it's about when you finish. My (rather severe) lack of time management skills have left me, six days before Christmas, frantically knitting the last bits of my niece's present.

if the scarf ever gets done...

As a refresher, I'd let my niece and nephew each pick out their own scarf pattern from the fabulous Morehouse Farm Critter Collection. My nephew picked a green and gray gecko and my niece chose a pink poodle. I started the gecko first because I figured it would be better to knock out the two-color pattern first. Again... it's really a moot point which scarf goes first if one doesn't plan one's time well.


The gecko is done - and it came out pretty good. I ran out of the green yarn as I was finishing the third foot so he'll be going to my nephew as Greyfoot the Lizard. If my brain clears enough before I put it in the mail, there will be a story included about why he has one different colored foot.

one of these things is not like the others

Fortunately, I had Friday and today off from work so I've been a knitting fool all weekend (with a break on Saturday night for a really awesome Christmas party!) I feel a little guilty spending my entire long weekend on the sofa but it's nice to have an excuse to be supremely lazy. I'll take it as my Christmas gift to myself. :)


As of this moment, the poodle has 1.5 ears, no eyes, no feet, no tail, and no pom poms. Needless to say, I need to get back at it so this will be the shortest blog post I've ever written. I'll be sure to take pics of the finished project (I need them for Ravelry anyway) and let you all know if I actually made it in time to get this sucker in the mail. If not, there's going to be a frantic, last-minute shopping trip for my niece. LOL

where I am today...

Talk to y'all on Friday - hopefully with good news!!

- Alex

Etsy too, Brute?

Etsy is a savior. A savior for the gift-giver who has no idea what to buy. A savior for the online shopper who is missing out on cool, local artists work. A savior for the artist who's never had the wherewithal or the knowledge to open their own shop or site.

Etsy is not, however, the savior of Mighty Distractible.

Let me 'splain.

As you all know, we did the trunk show a couple of weeks ago. And then I blogged about how we were going to put up the rest of the stock on Etsy. But, as I began the foray into the world of setting up an Etsy shop, I learned a very valuable lesson - Etsy is not for every situation.

The brilliance of Etsy is that, if you're going to have an online shop, they do it all for you - and for a very reasonable cost. Fees are like this:

• Each listing generates a non-refundable "listing fee" of $0.20 per item so, if you list 100 items, your listing fee would be $20. Not bad, except that the listing is only good for 60 days. If you need to re-list the item (it hasn't sold or it's a standard item that you'll always carry) you pay that 20 cents again - every 60 days - for as long as you want the listing active. Also, it's per item so, just like the grocery store check out lane, 30 cans of cat food is 30 items, not one. If you list 10 of the same item under one listing you pay $2.
• Then, for every sale you make you pay Etsy 3.5% of the total sale price (not including shipping). So, if you sell one item for $25, you give Etsy approximately $0.88.
• Fees are paid at the end of the month - they don't come out of your individual sale - so you have to stay on top of it and not spend that entire $25 because at the end of the month, Etsy's coming knocking for their $1.08 (listing fee plus sales fee). This can add up pretty fast so it's important to have halfway decent book-keeping skills. 

For these fees, you get a cool, customizable online storefront where you can conveniently sell your wares. For the average bear, the idea of having to build their own website, with a shopping cart, is too much. It costs money to get set up and then you have all the hassle of marketing your store and dealing with issues like your server going  down or your shopping cart not working. Etsy is a savior.

But if, like us, you really just need a place to sell off some inventory, Etsy isn't really the solution. Can you imagine how sad the Mighty Distractible Etsy shop would be once we were down to five skeins of yarn and two or three embroidery kits??

No... a successful Etsy shop needs to be a living, breathing thing. A constantly restocked, lovely to look at, store. Not a fire sale.

So, we have a question for you all. What would you think if we just posted what we have left out here on the blog and did our transactions via email? We could take PayPal and/or credit cards (thanks to Square!) and just work with you individually. Let us know. Comment below and tell us if you think this is a good idea or complete rubbish (that's for you @pinkundine!).  If you all vote that it's a good idea, we'll put photos, quantities and prices up on the site this weekend and then we can get down to business.

Speak up friends! And thanks. :)

Alex

Worlds Collide

As we've mentioned here and there, Alex and I work at Company X. It is a big place, very corporate, very typical. We are creatives in a sea of non-creatives. Sometimes that can be a little lonely and, occasionally, frustrating. But, there are moments when we hit the happiness jackpot... and it keeps us sane. Yesterday we had one of those moments.

First some background: A few years back, we did an ad campaign that featured squirrels. There were huge squirrels on billboards, small ones on mailers, millions of them on newspaper inserts, and chattering squirrels on radio ads. The "sales" response rate was respectable, but the emotional response it generated was amazing. It was the only time we've ever had customers show up in our lobby looking to meet our creative/marketing staff, and to see if they could get their hands on more printed copies. The most notable of these visitors were the local firefighters from Ladder 2 who showed up, in full gear, after having responded to a call across the street. We were so proud. Then sales started dropping, and reluctantly we had to move on to a new, non-squirrel campaign. But, we always hoped to resurrect the squirrels again at some point.

Our Spokesquirrel: Chopper Crazypaws

Time shift to this past summer: Our senior-management team was out in the field. They were visiting offices around the country and they kept hearing how much people loved the squirrels and hoped to see them again. When they came back and reported this to marketing, a testing plan was hatched. Fourth quarter this year, we pulled out a sample group to send a "squirrel" version against our (non-squirrel) control. I am sad to report that the control was the winner and the squirrels will not be gracing billboards anytime soon. But, at the end of the day, it was amazing that customers had such an emotional tie to these "characters" that we actually took the time to test the campaign again.

What does this have to do with crafting, you ask? Well, as a result of this latest squirrel test, one of our customers sent us some hand-made goodness. I'm telling you the truth! Because she was responding to a "holiday card" (which was a thinly disguised sales message about our latest promotion) she sent us a crocheted angel ornament AND a crocheted squirrel magnet! The "card" that she was responding to was co-signed by the president of our company and our spokes-squirrel, Chopper Crazypaws - so she wanted to send both a gift. How sweet is that?

Crocheted Squirrel Magnet on Whiteboard

Crocheted Angel Ornament in Corporate Setting

Like the title of this post says, worlds collide. As marketing people, Alex and I are just amazed at how fond people are of a silly promotional tool like the squirrels. As crafters, we are especially touched by this gesture from one, loyal and sweet customer. It is one thing to give a gift, yet another to give such a thoughtful hand-made gift. So...Miss Nancy from Indiana, thank you! You are a treasure.

–Cassandra

Everybody Loves Free Stuff

Ah, the holidays! It's a time of...well...stress, frankly. And the source of that stress? (besides family of course) Gift giving.

What started as a simple gesture of generosity, love, and friendship has turned into a billion dollar industry with layers of guilt and inadequacy piled on top. Just makes you all tingly for the season, doesn't it?

Between having to find the "perfect" gift for every Tom, Dick, and Harry in the phone book and the cost associated with that quest, the holidays are more of a nightmare than a hot chocolate-filled dream.

On top of it all, we crafters get to experience our very own extra-special gift stress. Here's how it works:

1. Crafter says: "I'm going to put 75 hours of my time, plus the cost of materials, into this handmade item. I am going to meticulously choose a pattern and colors that will be perfect for the receiver. I'm going to craft every bit of this with love and care for this special person."
2. Receiver opens gift and says: "Oh, isn't that pretty. Thanks!" and moves on to the next gift.
3. Crafter is crushed.

Ralphie's aunt worked hard on this

Do you see what's happening here? There's a huge disconnect between the crafter's and non-crafter's perceived value of the gift. I have family members that would be appalled if I gave them something handcrafted - regardless of how expensive and lovely the materials and finished product. I mean...only poor people and hippies "do" crafts, right? On top of that, it's hard to convince a non-crafter of an item's value when a machine-made, off-the-rack version is cheaper and looks as good. The industrial revolution really took it's toll on handcrafting, in a lot of ways.

When it's all said and done, if you want to give a handcrafted gift, the key is to keep your costs and efforts down and make the actual value of the present a little closer to the perceived value (and save yourself some soul crushing.) Here are my tips:

Use free patterns.

I can't remember the last time I paid for a pattern because there are tons of resources on the web. Granted, you may only be saving $5-$10 but, if you're making more than a couple of handmade items, this can add up quickly. My favorite resources are:

1. Ravelry - Also known as "Facebook for knitters." There are, literally, thousands of amazing free patterns (as well as patterns for sale) on this site. The very best part is that, for most patterns, you can look at other people's attempts at making the piece. This gives you invaluable insight into the pattern's difficulty level and flaws. I can't recommend this site enough.
2. All Free Sewing - This site is incredibly comprehensive - with patterns for everything from accessories to quilts to holiday projects. The clean and easy interface makes searching for patterns a breeze. The site even has video tutorials. You are going to love this resource.
3. Craft Bits - Most of the free-craft project sites online are aggregators - they gather links to free projects on myriad other sites. Craft Bits, as best I can tell, has all "original" content so you're not popping off the site every time you click a project link. I also really like the site design and I find the projects appealing. One specific tip for this site: scroll down! There's tons of content below the fold on every page. It's easy to miss it if you don't think to scroll.

Keep materials cost in line.

Let's be honest, it's easy to want to buy that gorgeous yarn that's $20 a skein because the scarf is for your mom. But, honestly, she'll probably never be able to tell the difference between that and the $10-a-skein version. The key to this one is: know your audience. If the person you're crafting for has an eye for good materials and you KNOW they'll appreciate the color or hand of the piece at the end, go ahead and look for the material on sale somewhere. Otherwise, buy materials that are "good enough" to make the piece nice but not over-the-top. My favorite resources for reasonably-priced and sale goods are:

1. Knit Picks - Knit Picks is an all-around great site for yarn crafters. They have beautiful tools, like their interchangeable circular needles set (I seriously covet these), but they also have great basic yarns for ridiculously low prices.
2. Fabric.com - This clean and easy-to-navigate site is one of my favorite resources for fabric. Their selection can be light - especially in specialty fabrics, like decorator (upholstery) weights - but most of the time, the styles are really tasteful and the brands are higher-quality. The thing I love most about this site (besides the amazing prices) is that, under each fabric "swatch", they list the number of yards they have in stock. Saves me tons of time if I know how much yardage I need.
3. Joann.com - You may have a Joann Fabrics in your area so this may be redundant but... not for nothin' Joann is a great resource for craft supplies and their online store has damn-near anything you'd need. The quality tends towards the middle and the prices are reasonable (not super-cheap) - but you can be assured that they have what you need and that, if you need to return anything, their customer service will do you right.

The 5-minute Skirt: http://bit.ly/WaK1o

Finally, don't pick difficult projects. This one is easy, people. If it's a gift, make it something you can complete with plenty of time to spare and that it's easy enough that you won't be struggling. That way, you'll spend less total time on the project and your finished piece will be top-quality because its instructions will be well within your comfort zone.

So, there you go. My tips for making the 2010 holiday season a little less stressful. I think what it boils down to is this: if the person you're making a gift for won't appreciate the time, money, and effort that went in to your handmade creation then to heck with 'em. Go buy them something that they've seen on TV and save yourself some heartache. ;)

- Alex (bah-humbug)

Bonafide

“Craft is the word of the decade,” says Murray Moss, founder of the design gallery Moss in New York. “It went from having the most pejorative meaning to being embraced.”

photo courtesy of Die Hipster Die!

Crafting has been enjoying a resurgence in recent years. Some view it as a desire to connect with our past, or a movement to a 'softer' aesthetic, or, simply, an extension of the hipster milieu - like ironic facial hair on men. There are, as with all things that reach a tipping point, myriad theories for "why."

Perhaps it's our attempt to hold on to something "real" as our society moves farther and farther into the world of information and technology. Crafting recalls our history. Crafting results in a single, finished, imperfect product and adds a bit of beauty to the world. Crafting creates something that can't be digitized or duplicated. 


Our great-grandmothers did these activities out of necessity. Frugality was the primary reason to learn to cook, bake, sew, knit, etc. But there was also a cultural need. Cooking and baking were part of the woman's "job" and women used crafting as a way to stay busy and to socialize. Sewing, knitting, or quilting in a group was a great way to spend an afternoon gossiping with the girls.

Today, frugality doesn't even come into the equation. It's rarely, if ever, cheaper to make something by hand - including a meal. Cheap knit goods from China, fast food restaurants on every corner, and mass production, means that crafting today is exclusively about aesthetics and the pleasure of creating. Interestingly, this dynamic has also created a  big gap in the perceived value of  hand-created items. A "non-crafter" has no real sense of the time, effort, and cost associated with that gift they just got or that cool piece they just saw at the shop. For the crafter, that misunderstanding of the "value" of the finished item can represent a huge blow to the ego. When you spend three months knitting a baby blanket for someone ("every stitch is knit with love!") it's tough to see it given the same reaction as the one purchased from a big-box store.

I'd like to think that, as crafting becomes more widespread and legitimized, more people will recognize the beauty and value in hand-crafted items. I got my first taste of legitimacy when I saw the movie Handmade Nation at our local film festival. But, it was an indie film with a narrow release so it really wasn't changing too many perceptions. Today, however, the Wall Street Journal Magazine helped us take a great leap forward. In the story titled "A Gripping Yarn," the WSJ editors explore the phenomenon of neo-crafting in regard to home furnishing and interior decoration. It's an intriguing article in both the subject matter (knitted chairs??) and the validity it gives to the crafting movement.

For me, personally, this article represents the moment that my hobby became bonafide - legitimate and beyond scorn from those who give me "the look" when I knit in public. Now, if the NY Times will just do an in-depth article on the cost and effort to create something from scratch, maybe my sister will stop looking at my "homemade" gifts as though they're dead rats.

– Alex