New Yarn Shop in Kamloops - Knit 2 Yarns

It is always exciting when we get to announce a new shop that is selling our work.  Knit 2 Yarns is a brand new shop that just opened up last week in the Valley View district on the Trans Canada Hwy in Kamloops, BC.

While the store may be new, we are familiar with the owner, Carla, as she use to work at Katja's Quilt Shoppe, in the same shopping center, for quite a few years.  As an avid knitter, as well as quilter, she decided to follow her passion and fill a void for a much needed yarn shop on that side of town.

Carla, owner of Knit 2 Yarns

Carla's shop has a lovely set-up with plenty of country charm.  Her baskets and vintage suitcase displays add a nice touch and I love the barn doors in the back separating her classroom area for future knitting classes.  We are already discussing the possibility of doing a Button Make & Take class in the fall.

If you live in the area and love to knit or crochet, you will want to stop in and check this lovely store out.  Knit 2 Yarns also has a facebook page you can follow and Carla has a blog if you want to see some of the projects she is always working on and loves to share.

Brilliant Bloom Flower Buttons for Spring

We introduced our little Brilliant Bloom buttons a few years ago to the yarn shops that sell our work and they were a huge hit.  We make the flowers in 10 different colors along with leaves and ladybugs.  The Brilliant Bloom buttons below are about 3/4" in size and have 2 holes for sewing where the ones below are our Mini Blooms that are only 1/2" and have a metal shank embedded in the back.

Brilliant Bloom Buttons

Brilliant Bloom Lady bug, pink flower and leaf buttons

Mini Bloom Buttons

This year we are introducing a much larger version -- our Gigantic Blooms.  These buttons are a concave shape and two inches in diameter and each one comes with one of our signature lady bugs.

Gigantic Bloom Buttons

Gigantic Bloom Button in Teal Blue

These buttons are already available at Fibre Expressions Quilt Shop, on the Sunshine Coast in Sechelt, BC.  They are also available in our online store in our handcrafted buttons section.

Seam Rippers

We cover the double-ended seam rippers to sell but have had requests for single ones that can be worn around the neck so they are handy while sewing.  We created our own design by adding a swivel clip at the end and include a 30" stainless steel necklace chain.  The clip can also be used to attach to your bag.

Our seam rippers and other sewing, crochet and knitting accessories are available in our online store and our Etsy shop.

Getting Back into the Swing of Things and Mini Organizing Tips for Snaps

I can't believe it's been a month since I blogged last.  Dave and I are both recovering from some health issues.  I am happy to say that the physiotherapy has been helping with the Meniscus tear in my knee and hopefully I won't need the surgery and life can start getting back to normal.  Dave's health issues have been much more complicated with his kidney failure and all and hopefully he will feel up to helping with the clay again soon.

One of the things that can bog anyone down this time of year is tax time and inventory.  It seems like each year we add more items to our inventory list and it takes forever to count it all.  This year we have all our snaps and snap findings but I don't really mind as they have been a fun addition to the clay.  We have had to find new ways to organize everything and last year we set up a new area in our house to keep all of our finished clay work and a "shipping station" for orders.  I will share more of that with you in a future post.  For now I thought I would share with you a few other ways how we organize our interchangeable "Snap" art beads.

We have these plastic strips available in our online shop which are great for storing the snaps but we like to also organize them in smaller groupings.

For instance these snaps are matched up in pairs which work well for items such as earrings, a bracelet bangle with 2 snaps or even cuff links.

We also have snaps in groupings of three ready for other items such as a necklace or bracelet.

So it is easy to remake the cards yourself by simply cutting them into sections.  I cut this one just above the third hole (fourth actually if you count the hole at the top for hanging).  This will give me two cards.  One for a grouping of 2 snaps and the other for a grouping of 3.  For the bottom half, I just re-cut the top hole with a hole punch for hanging.

The cut edges can be quite sharp and a simple solution was this rounded corner punch I found at the craft store in the scrapbooking aisle.

For our cuff links, we punched 2 holes a little larger for them to fit through and rounded the corners.

It makes a nice display to show them off.

We print out our own tags to put on the back for finishing.

Another solution is the strips made with card-stock that are perforated for easy separation.  These work great for selling the snaps individually as well.

And of course the strips also work really well for displaying your snaps at shows.  You can arrange them on a table or hang them almost anywhere.  We have this large revolving stand we purchased for the Salmon Festival and didn't want to see it stored away when not in use.  It fits in the corner of the room and works really well for keeping our snap inventory organized.