Taking The Long Way Home

Starting a knitting group was more challenging than I'd expected. What I learned, after taking votes and trying to juggle the scheduling and location preferences of 5 to 10 people, is that somebody ultimately has to make a decision, let the rest of the group know, and then see who shows up. It's all negotiable from there, but it's a good way to at least get things started. Rick and I eventually decided on our local Starbucks, and have been meeting with a few knitting friends each week for a while now. Taking turns hosting the group in our homes seemed like a good idea, but it turned out to be confusing and inconsistent. A public space doesn't put the hosting burden on anyone, and we all know where to go and when to go there. There was, and still is, some discussion about our location (especially on days when the coffeehouse vibe is a bit too loud). As much as we'd like to support some of our favorite local businesses, so far none of them have the seating and ...

I closed my Etsy shop recently. What??? Why??? Well, because I think Etsy has done great harm to the livelihoods of makers everywhere. If you do manage to get noticed, which is pretty difficult these days, it's impossible to compete with the pricing on so-called "handmade" goods that are mass produced in foreign countries. Equally frustrating to me is the number of actual makers who drastically underprice their work, effectively turning themselves into voluntary sweatshop laborers in order to stay in the game at all. I'm not playing. I would love to see makers of all fine handmade things everywhere reclaim a sense of dignity, and charge a fair price for their skills and talents. Until I find such a group of folks that I can join, I'm back to being on my own here, in my own little shop, charging a reasonable price for the quality materials and hours of work it takes to make the things I make. I feel good about this. The Shop, at the moment, contains exactl...