Today on the YarnThing Podcast with Marly Bird: Crochet Expert Stacey Trock!

Listen in below to hear Marly and Stacey talk about how Stacey got started, Etsy, her website and so much more!  This was a great show so don’t miss it!

Stacey learned to crochet when she was 10 and immediately started designing and making thing to enter in the local fair.  She kept crocheting throughout college.  Stacey finished graduate school and she and her partner (and future husband) Tim realized that it was very unlikely that they could both be in the same place with their academic degrees.  So while Tim was away for a summer, Stacey decided that she would use her lifelong hobby as her new career.  She made a lion and a koala and the rest is history.  Today, she designs crochet stuffed toys and amigurumi (little stuffed things).  Stacey’s website where she shares her designs is called FreshStitches (links below) and she also still maintains her Etsy shop.

Stacey has done a lot in the insustry including written three books and done two Craftsy classes.  Her first book was Cuddly Crochet: Adorable Toys, Hats and More and focuses awesomely cute animal toys and coordinating accessories for babies.  Her second book was Crocheted Softies which has 18 stuffed animal designs that were made with earth friendly yarns (Julie here, I especially like the owls, they are so cute!).  Her latest book is called Modern Baby Crochet and is full of great modern patterns for baby things that range from blankets to toys to accessories.  Stacey’s Craftsy classes take you through the reading of patterns and making amigurumi animals and monsters (Woodland Animals and Design Your Own Monster).  Stacey has also published in many magazines.

In addition to her classes, Stacey sells kits for her patterns on her website.  The great thing about kits is that you don’t have to buy a whole skein of yarn if you don’t need a lot for the patterns.  There are two types of kits, the Basic Kit and the Starter Kit.  The Basic kit has everything for the pattern except stuffing and is for people who already crochet and have the hooks and notions.  The Starter Kit is special because it comes with absolutely everything you need: a crochet hook, darning needles, and stitch markers in addition to the yarn and pattern.  The only thing you provide is stuffing!  For people who don’t want a kit, Stacey is starting a dog pattern club on the 1st of April.

Important links from today’s show:

• FreshStitches.com, Stacey’s website
• FreshStitches blog
• Stacey’s classes on Craftsy: Amigurumi Woodland Animals and Amigurumi Design Your Own Monster
• Stacey’s Etsy shop
• And the new Craftsy class Marly talked about today, Fair Isle Crochet: Demystifying Colorwork with Karen Whooley

You can also find Stacy on: Ravelry, Facebook, and Twitter.

And we won’t forget the Giveaway!  Leave a comment below with Stacey’s keyword for your chance to win entry into Stacey’s Craftsy class!

Let’s give some love to our sponsors! 
XRX Books, Knitter’s Magazine, STITCHES Expos
Craftsy.com/yarnthing
Indian  Lake Artisans
Fiesta Yarns
Drew Emborsky
Bijou Basin Ranch
Buffalo Wool Co.
Green Mountain Spinnery
KnitCrate

Today on the YarnThing Podcast with Marly Bird: the owners of Webs America’s Yarn Store, Kathy and Steve Elkins!

Kathy learned to crochet, along with several other crafts, when she was small from one of her neighbors, an older German lady.  She tried to learned to knit around the same time, but it just didn’t really click until much later in life.  Kathy can knit, but as she said, most of her staff could knit her into a corner and she might not be able to frog herself out ;).  Steve doesn’t knit or crochet but he can weave.  His parents founded Webs originally as a weaving store so knitting and crochet were not a large part of their business.  Kathy and Steve met when they were both sales analysts for a Budweiser distributor.  While they had a bit of friction at the beginning, they eventually found themselves in love.  After moving around several companies in the New England area, Steve was going to be moved again but not to anyplace that really appealed to both of them.  Steve’s parents were ready to move on from the store and asked them one last time if they would like to take over for them.  After talking it over, Kathy and Steve decided to do it.

A few particulars about the business.  Webs was founded in 1974 by Steve’s mother Barbara Elkins and her business partner, Donna Muller.  Originally based out of their basement, they moved to a store front several years later and Donna sold her share to Barbara.  Soon after Steve’s father retired from being a professor at UMass and joined his wife in the business.  After moving house several times, they ended up in their current location in Northampton Massachusetts in 1992.  Steve and Kathy took over 10 years later and they are still going strong!  They offer both their own line of yarns, Valley Yarns, as well as all of the big yarn lines in the knitting, crochet, and weaving industries.  Their brick and mortar store in Northampton offers a LYS experience in the front, with most of the yarns they sell displayed, and they also have the warehouse area in the back where they have their inventory.  One of their big draw points is their bulk discount.  If you order/buy enough in yarn and books, they will automatically give a percentage discount based on your original total, 20% off if you spend at least $6o and 25% off if you spend over $120!

Hope this has piqued your interest to hear more about Webs and everything going on with Kathy and Steve.  Listen in below to hear all the details about their blog, podcast and Stitches events!

Important links:

• Webs America’s Yarn Store website, yarn.com
• Webs podcast, Ready-Set-Knit
• Webs Facebook page
• Webs on Twitter
• Webs Ravelry page
• Webs blog page

Let’s give some love to our sponsors! 
XRX Books, Knitter’s Magazine, STITCHES Expos
Craftsy.com/yarnthing
Indian  Lake Artisans
Fiesta Yarns
Drew Emborsky
Bijou Basin Ranch
Buffalo Wool Co.
Green Mountain Spinnery
KnitCrate

Today on the YarnThing Podcast with Marly Bird: Heather Zoppetti and Stitch Sprouts!

Heather learned to knit in college when she and her roommate decided they wanted to learn a craft.  Her roommate wanted to learn crochet but Heather had tried to learn already from her mother and it just hadn’t worked out.  Heather decided to learn how to knit instead of crochet.  They went to the craft store and bought the I Can’t Believe I’m Knitting and I Can’t Believe I’m Crocheting books by Leisure Arts.  After learning how, Heather kept knitting, not letting so called difficult techniques stop her.  For several years knitting was just a part of her life.  She became a programmer after college and met and married her husband.  One day Heather came to the realization that she enjoyed knitting and designing more than her job as a programmer.  After talking with her husband, she decided to give designing as her full time job a try.  As we know now, that was a great decision and she is still going strong.

Heather’s first published pattern was the Tamarix Quilt in the Fall 2010 issue of Interweave Knits.  She has continued publishing with Interweave and been in Knitscene, Jane Austin Knits, Holiday Knit Gifts, and knit.wear.  Heather also worked for the Alpaca Yarn Company for a while and has several designs with them and has a pattern in the book Free Spirit Shawls 20 Eclectic Knits for Every Day from Lisa Shroyer.

Heather’s newest venture is Stitch Sprouts.  Part of Stitch Sprouts is a designer collective.  Because there are so many things involved in publishing and distributing patterns, working together can help designers be stronger.  Stitch Sprouts brings those people together and markets their patterns to yarns shops (the paper patterns you can get at a shop).  Stitch Sprouts also offers a wide range of services for designers including tech editing, logo design, pattern layouts, chart making, and many more.  In addition to the designer services, Stitch Sprouts also is the distributor for Crabapple Yarns and they just started offering stitch markers (both of these they distribute to yarn shops so check and see if your LYS carries them!).  Later this year they will also debut their own yarn line!

You can find Heather many places on the web:

• Her website Hzoppettidesigns.com, (she doesn’t update that often so check out her other sites)
• Her blog, Digital Nabi
• Ravelry designer page
• Facebook page
• Stitch Sprouts website

And we won’t forget the Giveaway!  Leave a comment on this post that includes Heather’s keyword for your chance to win 3 free patterns from her Ravelry store!

Let’s give some love to our sponsors! 
XRX Books, Knitter’s Magazine, STITCHES Expos
Craftsy.com/yarnthing
Indian  Lake Artisans
Fiesta Yarns
Drew Emborsky
Bijou Basin Ranch
Buffalo Wool Co.
Green Mountain Spinnery
KnitCrate