January 17, 2025 • 43 mins
Textile crafting is not just a creative outlet; it’s a growing industry filled with passionate entrepreneurs navigating sustainability and market challenges. From unique yarn offerings to balancing day jobs, these makers share their stories of perseverance and ambition.
• Importance of sustainability in textile crafts
• The journey from hobbyist to business owner
• Challenges in competing with online marketplaces
• Insights into marketing and communication strategies
• Personal stories from various artisans at Handwerk Beurs
• The need for community and support among craft business owners
• Emphasis on ethical practices in marketing and customer engagement
• Aspirations for growth and expansion in crafting businesses
• Discussion on the balance between creativity and commerce
• Exploration of unique products that meet modern consumer needs
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and welcome back to Pattern Shift in 2025.
You might notice that my voiceis a little bit off.
I have been coughing for thelast month again, I don't know
what's going on.
It feels like I've beencoughing for one reason or
another for three quarters of ayear now, so my voice gets
(00:22):
creaky.
It's fine, let's go ahead andstart with the new episode.
Are you running a textile craftbusiness or dreaming of starting
one?
Whether you are trying to makea living or something extra on
the side, turning from crafterto business owner can be a steep
(00:43):
learning curve.
It doesn't have to be With 16years of experience in running
small business in textile craftsand a drive to build a solid
alternative to fast fashion.
My mission is to provide youwith no BS, actionable exercises
and strategies in a languagethat makes sense to you that you
can implement right away so youcan organize, build and grow
(01:07):
your business.
Don't burn out before you getstarted.
Build a solid base.
With the help of Pattern ShiftPodcast and the Yavol community
and its programs, I have visitedthe Handwerk Beurs in the
center of the Netherlands, whichis a needle craft fair, and I
(01:27):
visited last Sunday, which wasSunday 12th of January.
I interviewed a bunch of smallbusinesses that were selling
there, basically just givingthem three questions to figure
out who they are, what drivesthem and all of those kind of
(01:49):
quick, important things that Ineed to know in my quest to
support business owners in theneedlecraft industry and
questions that you might findinteresting to hear those
answers.
So let's just start off byletting you know a little bit
(02:11):
about the reason why I wanted togo there and interview them.
If you're a first time listenerjust shortly, what I do is I
support small businesses andneedlecrafts to help them find
the balance that they need intheir business and life and give
(02:33):
them some practical tools sothey can organize their business
around their needs and do someethical marketing and branding
that feels right for them and,at the same time, also take care
of themselves so that they cankeep enjoying what they do, so
(02:53):
that, in turn, us makers canenjoy their products and make
our outfits instead of buyingfast fashion, and make our
outfits instead of buying fastfashion.
Like that's the fastest.
I can explain Whenever somebodycomes up to me at a party and
asks me what do you do?
I'm getting better at it.
It's just not really quick toexplain, but that's what I do.
(03:17):
I just love supporting peoplethat do a great job.
Yes, so this is as it usuallyis.
I try to be honest about my ownjourney in ethical marketing and
branding and finding my balancein my business.
Being clear and honest aboutthat is going to help you to
(03:42):
understand what it is that Ithink is important in small
business.
So, as you probably know ifyou're not a first time listener
I have been struggling andbattling social media, loving it
as well.
It's been.
It's just such a crazy ride,isn't it For a lot of us.
(04:05):
So I'm always looking for waysto find new people to welcome
into my community in a way thatreally feels authentic and real
and productive.
So not throwing a bunch ofthings in the air and seeing
(04:27):
what lands, but really thinkingit through and then doing some
experiments and then taking whatI've learned and turning it
into something that works.
So what has been working for meare two things, mainly when it
comes to marketing.
Communication is either myexisting customers talk about my
(04:51):
work and how they have beenenjoying it to other people in
the industry and they then comein my direction, which is my
preferred method.
I love that it's real, it'shonest, it's warm.
I love it, it's human and it'salso quite cheap.
It's one of the best ways to domarketing.
(05:13):
And then the second bit is thatI literally go and talk to
people where they're at.
So I talk to the businessowners when they're working, so
that could be in their shop,that could be on a festival or
whatever you might call that amarket, and then I try to make
(05:37):
myself not too intrusive.
So I was thinking about a wayhow can I make this work for
both of us?
So I'm going to interview themand I'll do it quickly and I'll
ask them questions that help meget some insight in who they are
, what they do, where they arein their journey, if they might
(06:02):
want my help or can use my help,and at the same time also
conveying all of that to you asmy listener, so that they then
in turn get a little bit of anaudience for their business.
I'm always so I'm laughing aboutmyself because I'm here talking
with my hands.
So I'm laughing about myselfbecause I'm here talking with my
(06:23):
hands.
Like my full body is moving andI can hear my actually my
earrings touching my headphones.
I'm going to take them off fora second.
I'm not even going to cut thisout because this is how it works
and I kind of love that kind ofstuff, although I do take out a
bunch of ums.
I have to be honest, although Ido take out a bunch of ums, I
(06:45):
have to be honest, I haven'tbeen able to be so in the moment
that I can speak without usingums.
So then I first of all ask themwould you like to answer a bunch
of questions for my podcast?
I'll take five minutes of yourtime.
(07:06):
You can cut me off at anymoment.
Any customer goes first.
If you don't want to do it,it's fine, and that's kind of
the way I approach people.
And this particular day therewas one of the people I ended up
interviewing was really, reallyshy, definitely well shy might
(07:28):
not be the word because I don'teven know them well enough to
say that Um, an introvert,absolutely an introvert feeling
not really comfortable inanswering any questions.
At the same time, sheimmediately expressed that she
knows it's so important, butit's one of the things she
(07:50):
doesn't feel that comfortablewith.
Of course, I then think there'sso many things that I can help
you with and do for you andfigure things out, but that's
not why I'm there at the moment.
So I have to kind of curb myenthusiasm a little bit.
And what I did in this case isI said you know what I'm just
gonna, I'm just gonna walkaround and I'll come back later
(08:13):
and you can think it through ifyou want to do it or not.
And I gave her some gentlenudges.
I don't know what I said, butthen I came back and she still
needed some support.
She was working there withsomebody else.
They were also supporting herin making this decision.
The weird thing is she did awonderful job.
(08:36):
It was so professional.
She knew exactly what to say.
Sometimes it's not that.
Sometimes you just need to kindof take that leap and come from
what they call a growth mindsetand think about what will
happen if I just take that leapand try it.
(08:57):
So that was really interestingand it was a good way to get to
know each other, just showingthat there was definitely no
have to and I wasn't going toput my microphone under her face
and just start talking.
So that's not my style.
I think if you don't know who Iam and I'm walking around there
(09:19):
and I'm interviewing, I have areally, really small microphone
on my phone so it doesn't looksuper professional and I guess
some people might think I don'tknow who you are, what the hell
you're doing, I'm not interested.
But yeah, for me it works thatit's not invasive, it's not
(09:40):
aggressive, and so that's how Ilike to do it.
Of course, the quality of thesound is not great.
I always kind of cringe alittle when people in podcasts
apologize for sound Like that'sjust how things are, you don't
need to apologize.
So I'm not apologizing, I'mjust letting you know if you're
(10:03):
sensitive to creaking sounds.
There's a.
It's not great, the sound isnot absolutely fabulous and I
don't think it needs to be.
We're on a market, on a fair,so there's people in the
background, but there is also alittle bit of a creaking noise
every now and then.
But the interviews are quiteshort.
So that is my.
(10:26):
That's what I found outinterviewing people, speaking to
them where they are and thenmoving from that into keeping in
touch with them later on, justletting them know that the
episode is airing, or also justasking what they need, and
(10:46):
sometimes actually a bunch oftimes in these interviews I got
so excited when they startedtalking about their business,
that I immediately wanted toshare some thoughts with them or
some things they might try orideas.
And what happened was a bunchof these interviews.
I just started to talk to themabout their business and I
(11:11):
stopped myself and stopped therecording then and there were
just little nuggets ofexperience that I shared with
them or ideas that I shared withthem at the spot.
And then the idea is thatthey'll be listening right now
and hopefully they'll listen tosome other episodes I made and
(11:31):
hopefully they'll look into mycommunity online and the
services that I have to offer onmy website and the services
that I have to offer on mywebsite.
So that has kind of been theway forward for me, because as a
business, I don't need thatmany clients, I just need a few,
and I just love talking topeople when they're doing what
(11:56):
they love doing most, and I'm ahuge problem solver.
I'm a very creative mind, I cansay so.
I can be a great partner in allthose kinds of things.
So, yeah, it's just, I justit's my thing, I love it, and
I'm really happy to have kind ofembraced for myself that
(12:20):
marketing is whatever works foryou and your customers and it's
not a set of strict rules thatyou have to follow, because
everybody else is doing it, andit's always good that you take
that to heart yourself as well.
Good that you take that toheart yourself as well.
(12:44):
So every moment in my businessis a moment and an opportunity
where I learn.
I'm not a guru by any means.
I'm somebody with a specificset of talents.
I'm creative, I have experienceand love to help, and all of
that I bring together in what Ioffer.
So, moving along swiftly.
(13:05):
First of all, let me say thisbecause I wanted to interview
her as well a little bit, butthe day flew by and basically I
just have some sound of usmeeting at the door and
Françoise of Bad Cattoo Yarnoffering me a ticket for the
(13:26):
show.
So she invited me in.
She's been one of my clientsand I've loved working with her.
I love what she does and, yeah,it's an amazing person.
And I wanted to say thank you,françois, for inviting me and
offering me the little bracelet.
You will hear that in a second.
(13:47):
It's Dutch, but just forambiance sake I'm putting it in.
I've just arrived, I've parkeda car, I've arrived at the
Handwerkburs and today I'm goingto interview, hopefully a bunch
of small businesses in fibercrafts and slow fashion, to see
(14:10):
what they're up to this year andhow things are going.
So I hope you like this andhave fun.
(14:57):
Let's start with our firstinterview.
I'm going to get thisconversation going, so reach out
to me with your thoughts andideas.
You'll find all the informationin the show notes.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
And let me know what you think.
My name is Maaike.
We are from the Handwerk Tempel, a business that has been
started by Sylvia Verhoef and weexist about three years now.
It was a long wish from ourowner, in combination with more
sustainability in the craftworld and to make a nice
connection between sustainableyarn and accessible for everyone
(15:36):
.
So we have a big shop with lotsof place for workshops so
everyone can join us.
You call it the boat fairexample, which means craft
sample.
Yes, something like that.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
How would you say your business is different from
another?
Speaker 3 (15:53):
yarn business.
Well, first of all, we have alot of sustainable yarn.
So, for example, our seaweed.
We are the only one now whosells the 100% seaweed yarn.
We get it from Belgium and wedye it our own so we can make
every color.
Lots of seaweed is onlyavailable now in a combination
with, for example, cotton or ina plain color, and we have a big
(16:18):
shop, a big place whereeveryone can come and join us
for knitting, weaving, spinning,crocheting, and we like to give
you advice and really help youwith your project and not just
sell yarn.
We sell the package.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Nice, so why should I choose seaweed?
Speaker 3 (16:36):
for the museum Cotton yeah, for example, cotton is
also a really nice yarn, but itis very evasive.
It uses a lot of water.
There are how do you say it?
Chemicals they use to produceand this is biological produce.
For as much as possible, we usecornstarch.
It's been used to uncolor theseaweed, to make it, and then we
(17:01):
color it back with prosciuttodye.
But in all, it's less invasivefor the planet.
And to make everything moresustainable, we need to make use
of other resources.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
I don't know if you can answer this question.
What would you?
Speaker 1 (17:18):
say, is hard as a small business in this industry.
What is a challenge for?
Speaker 3 (17:24):
you the online business.
There is a big business inonline shops and they want to
sell you as much as possible foras low as possible, and we try
to sell quality and service.
So that's kind of the oppositeof the online business and
that's what we are standing forour service, our quality.
(17:44):
But that's sometimes a hardfight to the online shops.
So you don't have an onlineshop.
We have a shop.
People can always email orcontact us and we are happy to
send you a package, but we arenot competing in the online game
.
No, interesting.
Yes, lovely, slow world Better,we have tried to do it, but you
(18:10):
have to make a lot of costs foryour online shop and you have
to make a lot of costs for yourphysical shop.
Yeah, yeah, and that's a hardone.
So for now, we're stuck on thephysical shop.
Yeah, yeah, and that's a hardone, yeah, so, uh, for now we
stuck on the, on the physicalshop, but it's still a
possibility.
We are going to start an onlineshop, but it's a, it's a
balance yeah, yeah, it's alwaysthe amount of time and money and
(18:31):
people and everything together.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Yeah, thank you so much for this and good luck with
selling all these beautifulyarns.
So that was Maaike at theHandwerk Tempel and we're moving
on with Myrthe from FrogmouseStudio.
Well, I've talked to Myrthe acouple of times before on
(18:54):
different occasions.
She has the most durableillustrations for her brand, so
definitely check that out.
Her yarns are really fun incolor, in style, and she
definitely is going places andfiguring out the balance of how
(19:14):
to run a business as a hobby,potentially bringing in some
extra cash.
Speaker 5 (19:21):
Business as a hobby, potentially bringing in some
extra cash.
Listen to Myrthe.
My name is Myrthe and I run ahand dyed yarn shop called From
my Studio.
What inspired you to start yourstudio?
So I've always been crafting.
When I was little, my mom wouldsend me to workshops in felting
and stuff like that, and mygrandma taught how to knit.
And then, during the pandemic,I picked it back up and I was
(19:42):
like I love this, I want to dothis all the time, but, um, you
can only collect so much yarnbefore your house gets too small
and you have to start sellingit.
So that's how we ended up hereand how's the journey been so
far?
Uh, it's been great.
It's such a nice group ofpeople.
Um, you see all the same peopleat market so you can make a
(20:02):
chat with other store owners andcustomers that come back and
it's really fun to see whateveryone's been making.
So the longer this goes on, themore I see what people have
made with my yarn and that'sjust really fun.
Amazing.
What's your?
Speaker 4 (20:14):
biggest challenge in running your business, you'd say
.
Speaker 5 (20:18):
I think it's balancing this, which is it's a
hobby, it's not a living wage,so it's balancing putting enough
time into this to make it work,with working a day job, where
you would actually want to spendmore time on this, but you
can't really do that.
That's pretty difficult.
So what would be your visionfor the future?
(20:38):
So, on short term, I would liketo buy bigger quantities of
yarn so I can do actual sweaterquantities instead of just a few
skeins.
But largely, I would like tohave a physical store where I
can have workshops and actuallydo this for a living instead of
just as a hobby.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Great, Last question what would you say makes your
brand different from otherbrands?
Speaker 5 (21:04):
I think mostly I despise neutral colors Not to
wear, but for dyeing it has tobe bright colors all the time.
The four or five neutrals thatI dye are the least fun time I
have dyeing.
So definitely more color ismore better.
More color, more better.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Thank you so much.
Yeah, no worries, that wasmyrta, and definitely more color
is more better.
That was lovely.
So we're moving on with petra.
She is the owner of what volley?
Um, what the hell do you want?
It's a kind of a literaltranslation, but it's a fun pun
(21:45):
on wool and she has a veryspecific vision for the future.
So let's hear Petra.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
I am Petra Ruiter.
My brand is Watvolley whichwhat do you want?
But it's also a pun on mooloo.
I'm a hand dyer.
I dye mostly stockyard and alittle bit of non-superwash
yarns and I also spinyard fromDutch wool and I have a small
(22:13):
collection of lead lopie becauseit matches my hand spot very
well.
I love that, love it.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Yeah, my favorite thing, um, but it's not about me
.
So what inspired you to startyour business in the first place
?
Speaker 2 (22:30):
there were two reasons.
Yeah, one was I couldn't findhand diced yarn which suited my
projects, so I started dying myown.
And then happened, and my workstopped temporarily and I
thought what are we going to do?
I'm going to dye yarn.
And my husband said but whereare you going to keep all that
(22:50):
yarn?
Because you will never knit allthat yarn.
So why don't you share less?
And I thought, well, why not?
Why not?
Yeah, let's see if we can makea business out of this.
And Well, why not?
Why not?
Yeah, let's see if we can makea business out of this and maybe
can even live out of it.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
That's not the case, but I still like it.
So that's the next question.
Actually, what?
Speaker 4 (23:08):
is your biggest challenge in business.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Lots of them, lots of them.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Do you want to be able to live from what you do,
or is it something extra?
I would like to live out ofthem.
Yeah, so do you want to be ableto live from YouTube, or is it
something?
Speaker 2 (23:22):
extra.
I would like to live out of it,but I want to sell different
things.
I'm now mostly living from thesock yard.
The biggest income is from thesock yard, but I would like it
to be something else.
Right, and that's my biggestchallenge.
I would like to spin yarn andsell that.
(23:44):
So that's actually my lastquestion.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
What's your vision for the future Spinning yarn?
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Spinning yarn and selling yarn, dutch yarn it
doesn't even have to be Dutch,but local yarn from local sheep
died by me Spun.
It would be nice if I couldspin it all and living out that
that's not the case.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
It's like you know the questions I'm going to ask.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
The last one is how is your business different?
I dye things I would like towear and things I like to dye.
I wear a lot of muted colors,greens, and I'm thinking a lot
about pooling, because I'm asweater knitter another soccer
team so I do not want my yarnsto pool, so I have a big focus
(24:32):
on that.
So I think that's different.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
So this is the conscious way of how you dye
your yarn, so that wooling isminimal.
Yeah, minimalized, yes.
Speaker 5 (24:43):
No no, no, no, no no.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
It's minimalized and I dyed some neons because I just
love dyeing neons, but I'm notone to wear it and I think a
collection of non-superwashyarns and some spun yarns from
local wool.
I think that's different.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
So it's like a very passionate creative yes, yeah,
how's that for the business part?
Are you very passionatebusiness?
No, not at all.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Because I would like to sell my spun yarn from local
wool but people find it tooexpensive.
I don't think it's tooexpensive.
It is a lot of money, but Idon't think it's too expensive
for what you're getting.
But I'd rather give it away tosomeone who's very enthusiastic
than selling it for less.
I'm not selling it for less.
There's a lot of education thatcomes in with the selling.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
I think there's an audience for everything, and
sometimes it's really hard toacknowledge that the people that
you are trying to sell to nowmight not be that audience.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
No, I know.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
But that's very difficult.
That's completely mindfuck.
I'm really struggling to sayI'm not doing Sakyong anymore.
No more in Ireland.
I don't want this.
I'm just going to sell.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
I think this is going beyond the interview, but I'm
just going to keep it.
Actually, I'm just going tosell.
I think this is going beyondthe interview.
Yeah, I was going to keep it.
Actually, I'm going to stopinterviewing and I'm going to
tell you something out of myexperience that I'll share with
you.
So, thank you, thank you andgood luck.
That was Petra.
Hand dyed, hand spun yarn.
(26:18):
Is there an audience for that?
I think so.
What are your thoughts?
Send me a message and let meknow.
So next up is Ingrid.
She runs Icke, which is Dutchfor me, but also cut up is her
name and also a pun kind ofbrand name.
(26:40):
I have to translate thisinterview because we did it in
Dutch and I left it to the endso that you can decide if you
don't speak Dutch, if you wantto hear what that sounds like.
So here's editing saucedropping in for a little bit.
This is not the end of theepisode.
I am really going to wrap it upand have some conclusions at
(27:03):
the end that you might findinteresting.
So there's a bit of Dutch andthen the episode continues.
So Ingrid has only had herbusiness for a year.
It looks quite professional interms of her branding, she's got
consistent branding on herskein bands and on her drop in
(27:29):
the back of her stall and itlooks really neat and tidy and
clean and it has good contrastso you can immediately see what
brand it is when you pass pastthe stall.
I did notice that she hasbecause she is actually
hand-dyeing cotton.
(27:50):
This is quite unique in ourfield, at least where I live,
because people usually use woolbecause of different reasons,
but we don't get to see hand dyecotton a lot.
So she had that actually on abanner on the side of her stall.
I think it would be morevisible if it was moved up,
(28:12):
because it's definitely a uniqueselling point for her.
She offers two differentthicknesses and she starts by
designing crochet kits foramigurumi crocheted animals and
she felt like she didn't havethe fun colors that she would
see in wool and so she startedto dye them herself.
(28:36):
That is how her businessstarted and then for the future
she's thinking about expandinginto designing more clothing
kits with yarn, with the samekind of yarn and bigger amounts,
because obviously as a businessit's better to sell larger
(28:56):
amounts.
At the same time I got the ideaand I think that she was saying
that it's restricted If you'rejust working with amigurumi.
She wanted to move a little bitbeyond that and also offering
her yarns to different crafters,not only crochet, but knitters
(29:17):
and weavers alike.
So here's Ingrid.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
And I liked that.
And then I saw some really nicegarden but it's all mud and
it's not suitable for animals.
And then I started to paintmyself.
(29:42):
So you paint?
What kind of material?
100% nature.
I have two differentthicknesses 400 meters on 100
grams and 200 meters on 100grams.
What makes your brand differentfrom all the others?
You already have 7 answers it's100% nature.
What makes your brand differentfrom all the others?
You have already said theanswer it is 100% cotton and
(30:02):
hand-painted yes, hand-paintedcotton to make hair.
And you can also turn it andweave.
I have already done that Exactly, but you hardly see this, so
you really have a uniqueposition.
Yes, how long ago did you starta unique position?
How long ago did you start Ayear?
A year, and it already lookslike this?
(30:24):
Yes, wow, thank you, I amreally impressed.
You also have a very clear logo, are you?
Speaker 2 (30:32):
working on that a lot .
Speaker 4 (30:34):
Yes, I am working on that a lot, but I do want
recognition.
I think it's important that therecognition of the product and
that people can find it.
I see a banner behind yourstand where you clearly see your
logo on the address.
What do you find difficultabout running your company?
(30:56):
What is a challenge?
Let's put it that way thechallenge is indeed finding the
balance, because the paintingpart I like the colors very much
, but I don't paint for myselfalone.
Of course, I paint for myselftoo, but also for someone else,
and I am very much my owninterpretation and that also
(31:17):
belongs to my own interpretationand that is also part of your
own use.
But someone who really loves itwon't see that in me.
No, because it's a very gated.
Yes, we call that.
Yes, so you also haveself-striping.
Yes, because if you make smallrounds, it becomes fast.
I have had that, but I thinkthe paint is very intense, so I
(31:40):
have the minis as an alternativefor that, so you can actually
find your own colors and decidewhat you want to do with the
color combination.
Yes, exactly, it looks reallyfantastic.
You've been working for a year,so do you have any goals for
next year or do you have avision?
Where do you want to go?
I really want to make moreclothing pieces Haken and Breien
(32:04):
More because you have very niceyarn and it looks very nice on
a animal, but as clothing scarfhat it's just as nice.
Thank you for sharing that.
Thank you and good luck, thankyou.
Thank you for sharing, thankyou and good luck.
Thank you, bye.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Let's bring them all together.
Let's start with Maaike at theHandwerk Temple.
What they do is they focus onsustainability.
They're offering 100% seaweedyarn how cool is that and
creating a space for workshop.
Their big challenge iscompeting with online shop that
(32:42):
push for low prices over quality, and their vision is finding
the balance between theirphysical shop and the
possibility of going onlinesomeday.
Now what I got from thatconversation was fear about
being online and selling online,but what I also heard was that
they have this unique productthat they are, in fact, now
(33:05):
offering to a limited amount ofpeople, just their community.
I think they should definitelylook into having an online shop
and combining the two, and Idon't think it's as scary as
they think it is, especially ifyou have a Shopify webshop that
(33:27):
really combines everything witha point of sale system.
I love that.
It just works seamlessly andthere's limited amounts of work
to get it all going.
So that was the thing thatstruck me most in this short
conversation.
Then there's Myrthe fromFrogmouse Studio.
(33:50):
What she does is she offershand-dyed yarns in bright, bold
colors, and her big challenge isto balance the passion project
with a day job.
Her vision for the future isoffering bigger quantities of
yarn so that people can makefull projects and eventually
running a physical shop withworkshops.
(34:11):
What struck me most is thatbalancing part of a passion with
a day job.
So she's really figuring outhow much money do I push into
this, how much is coming out,what is worth pursuing and what
decisions do I make in thefuture?
She would love to offer biggerquantities of yarn and that
(34:33):
means that she is limited inbuying the undyed yarn in the
amounts that she wants to have.
So there's something to learnthere and to connect a strategy
to then.
Next was Petra Petra Ruiter, ofwhat it's hard to say in Dutch
(34:56):
when you're speaking English WatWollie, and what she does is
she sells hand dyed and handspun yarns, or she wants to do
that, but she now also sellshand dyed yarns and sock yarns
and some Let Low Be a mix ofdifferent yarns.
She wants to sell purelyspinning hand dyed yarns in the
(35:20):
future and her big challenge isthat to make that financially
sustainable, because it is avery valuable product when you
first spin it and then dye it,or the other way around.
And how can that work?
When we were talking, I saidthere's always a way.
(35:41):
I mean that I think there'salways a customer for what you
have to sell, and sometimes thecustomer is not who you think it
is.
These kinds of yarns might beamazing for fashion designers or
fiber artists, like in anotherarea, the artists that do
(36:04):
weaving and need particularyarns.
She could potentially spin anddye to order for specific people
, so it's not necessarily thosecrafters that come to a yarn
shop that want to knit a sweater, so there's something to work
(36:24):
around there.
And then, lastly, it is Ingridfrom Icke.
She sells 100% hand-paintedcotton yarns in vibrant colors
and different thicknesses.
She mentioned her biggestchallenge is balancing
(36:45):
creativity with what customerswant, and her vision is
expanding into clothing itemsand growing a recognizable brand
.
Now she has just started withthis business, so there's lots
of things to learn, but she alsohas got a really good mind for
business, as I could tell.
So she's got another job thatbrings in the money and she does
(37:09):
this to decide.
Now I think she knows whereshe's going.
It's a matter of making astrategy of how to get to the
point where you can do more ofwhat you love and less of that
other job.
All right, these were the fourpeople that I talked to A lot of
(37:32):
them, quite new to the scene.
A bunch of them had startedtheir business during COVID
dyeing for themselves, becomingaware that you can only dye so
much for yourself before youstart accumulating too much
hand-dyed yarn and then sellingthat.
They had definitely someoverlap in how they approach
(37:58):
colors, in dyeing bright colorsand fun colors, because it's
just more fun to dye and some ofthem are actually thinking
about what the audience wants.
Others were more focused onwhat they love to dye and wear
and there was a little bit ofoverlap but also a little bit of
(38:19):
difference in that Lots of boldcolors, by the way.
So there's definitely someawareness about sustainability
in one way or another, justbalancing things out for
themselves and in their businessthere's always a little bit of
an open mind towards being moresustainable, so that was good to
(38:42):
hear.
Not all of that came across inthe interviews.
Sometimes I had a little bitlonger conversations where that
was said.
The bigger picture we can sayis that these businesses are
really driven by creativity andfun, but they're also really
(39:03):
starting to notice thechallenges of scaling up without
losing the personal touch,educating customers about the
value and the prices and alsobalancing their passion with
making a living, because some ofthem really do this as a hobby
still and are trying to figureout, or are actually practically
(39:27):
at this moment figuring out,what it means to spend so many
hours and earning this amount ofmoney and what that means to
them and their other job orother responsibilities.
So these conversations reallyreminded me why I love doing
(39:51):
what I do.
I remember myself at that pointso well and I also remember the
drive that I had to figure itout, to go on this trial and
error and perhaps if I do this,perhaps if I do that, and then
building things on top of otherthings and figuring it out, and
(40:12):
it's just amazing.
But also so much hard work to apoint where sometimes it gets so
much hard work that the fun andthe creativity of it is pushed
to the back.
And that's where I come in andthat's where I now am in my
happy place and listening tothem and thinking, okay, we can
(40:34):
work with this, we can work withthis.
There's so many things that wecan do to get you to that next
level or just get things clearfor you, basically building
roots or a strategy, or figuringout what your goals are, or
even figuring out what the hella goal is in business, because
(40:57):
sometimes that's where we startjust really figuring out the
basics and we can do it as we go, which I have done.
But now I know some shortcutsand I'm really itching in these
conversations to just I'm almostjumping on them like let's sit
down and work at this, andsometimes I invited them for a
(41:20):
call so that we can talk aboutit some more.
I have such a weird business forpeople in this industry because
they're not at all used tomentoring, teaching, coaching in
terms of business, that's notreally a thing.
It might be in the corporateworld, but that's not at all
(41:41):
what I do, what we know ofbusiness coaching.
I have a different approach,and so I'm trying to sell my
product to people that don'treally know that they might need
it.
I'm making it really hard formyself.
I could do so many other things, but I want to do this because
(42:02):
it really excites me and I hopethat you've been inspired by
their stories as well and thatyou want to join in on this
conversation.
You can do so by reacting to thepodcast and just talking to me,
or joining our community onyeah-volcom, or just
(42:26):
patternshiftfm, for that matter.
You'll find it there as well,and if you join our community,
you'll get in a place with otherpeople that are going through
the same thing.
And let me tell you, there isso much we can learn from each
other without even getting intoeach other's spaces, because
(42:47):
sometimes people like us feel alittle bit scared, they're
introverted, they're shy, theyfeel like they want to protect
their business with everythingthey have, because people are
copying things.
You are not sharing anythingyou don't want to share.
And at the same time, we canstill really support each other
(43:09):
in really practical but alsosome more deeper things like
philosophy about what we do andthose kinds of things.
In addition to that, we do notforget the crafter behind the
seller.
So all these people, all thepeople that run these businesses
(43:30):
, are crafters themselves.
In the community you can learnabout fibers, you can learn
about different kinds of things.
I recently made this wholestash challenge so you can
really get your stash, yourpersonal stash, in order or, for
that matter, your professionalstash.
(43:51):
So there's a lot of fun in thecommunity.
It's a really low entry.
Feel free to join and hang outwith us and if you want to work
with me to figure things outone-on-one.
That's definitely a possibility.
And, of course, I do bulletjournal workshops because I
think, if anything start byorganizing your life and your
(44:16):
work and being mindful about it,and the bullet journal is the
best method to do it.
So I have bullet journalworkshops as well.
All right, I'm wrapping it up.
Thank you so much for listening, and if you wanna invite me to
any fair market or whatever, letme know and I'll be happy to
come over and interview you andyour peers.
(44:37):
Bye, know, and I'll be happy tocome over and interview you and
your peers.
Bye.
Hello and welcome back to Pattern Shift in 2025.
You might notice that my voiceis a little bit off.
I have been coughing for thelast month again, I don't know
what's going on.
It feels like I've beencoughing for one reason or
another for three quarters of ayear now, so my voice gets
(00:22):
creaky.
It's fine, let's go ahead andstart with the new episode.
Are you running a textile craftbusiness or dreaming of starting
one?
Whether you are trying to makea living or something extra on
the side, turning from crafterto business owner can be a steep
(00:43):
learning curve.
It doesn't have to be With 16years of experience in running
small business in textile craftsand a drive to build a solid
alternative to fast fashion.
My mission is to provide youwith no BS, actionable exercises
and strategies in a languagethat makes sense to you that you
can implement right away so youcan organize, build and grow
(01:07):
your business.
Don't burn out before you getstarted.
Build a solid base.
With the help of Pattern ShiftPodcast and the Yavol community
and its programs, I have visitedthe Handwerk Beurs in the
center of the Netherlands, whichis a needle craft fair, and I
(01:27):
visited last Sunday, which wasSunday 12th of January.
I interviewed a bunch of smallbusinesses that were selling
there, basically just givingthem three questions to figure
out who they are, what drivesthem and all of those kind of
(01:49):
quick, important things that Ineed to know in my quest to
support business owners in theneedlecraft industry and
questions that you might findinteresting to hear those
answers.
So let's just start off byletting you know a little bit
(02:11):
about the reason why I wanted togo there and interview them.
If you're a first time listenerjust shortly, what I do is I
support small businesses andneedlecrafts to help them find
the balance that they need intheir business and life and give
(02:33):
them some practical tools sothey can organize their business
around their needs and do someethical marketing and branding
that feels right for them and,at the same time, also take care
of themselves so that they cankeep enjoying what they do, so
(02:53):
that, in turn, us makers canenjoy their products and make
our outfits instead of buyingfast fashion, and make our
outfits instead of buying fastfashion.
Like that's the fastest.
I can explain Whenever somebodycomes up to me at a party and
asks me what do you do?
I'm getting better at it.
It's just not really quick toexplain, but that's what I do.
(03:17):
I just love supporting peoplethat do a great job.
Yes, so this is as it usuallyis.
I try to be honest about my ownjourney in ethical marketing and
branding and finding my balancein my business.
Being clear and honest aboutthat is going to help you to
(03:42):
understand what it is that Ithink is important in small
business.
So, as you probably know ifyou're not a first time listener
I have been struggling andbattling social media, loving it
as well.
It's been.
It's just such a crazy ride,isn't it For a lot of us.
(04:05):
So I'm always looking for waysto find new people to welcome
into my community in a way thatreally feels authentic and real
and productive.
So not throwing a bunch ofthings in the air and seeing
(04:27):
what lands, but really thinkingit through and then doing some
experiments and then taking whatI've learned and turning it
into something that works.
So what has been working for meare two things, mainly when it
comes to marketing.
Communication is either myexisting customers talk about my
(04:51):
work and how they have beenenjoying it to other people in
the industry and they then comein my direction, which is my
preferred method.
I love that it's real, it'shonest, it's warm.
I love it, it's human and it'salso quite cheap.
It's one of the best ways to domarketing.
(05:13):
And then the second bit is thatI literally go and talk to
people where they're at.
So I talk to the businessowners when they're working, so
that could be in their shop,that could be on a festival or
whatever you might call that amarket, and then I try to make
(05:37):
myself not too intrusive.
So I was thinking about a wayhow can I make this work for
both of us?
So I'm going to interview themand I'll do it quickly and I'll
ask them questions that help meget some insight in who they are
, what they do, where they arein their journey, if they might
(06:02):
want my help or can use my help,and at the same time also
conveying all of that to you asmy listener, so that they then
in turn get a little bit of anaudience for their business.
I'm always so I'm laughing aboutmyself because I'm here talking
with my hands.
So I'm laughing about myselfbecause I'm here talking with my
(06:23):
hands.
Like my full body is moving andI can hear my actually my
earrings touching my headphones.
I'm going to take them off fora second.
I'm not even going to cut thisout because this is how it works
and I kind of love that kind ofstuff, although I do take out a
bunch of ums.
I have to be honest, although Ido take out a bunch of ums, I
(06:45):
have to be honest, I haven'tbeen able to be so in the moment
that I can speak without usingums.
So then I first of all ask themwould you like to answer a bunch
of questions for my podcast?
I'll take five minutes of yourtime.
(07:06):
You can cut me off at anymoment.
Any customer goes first.
If you don't want to do it,it's fine, and that's kind of
the way I approach people.
And this particular day therewas one of the people I ended up
interviewing was really, reallyshy, definitely well shy might
(07:28):
not be the word because I don'teven know them well enough to
say that Um, an introvert,absolutely an introvert feeling
not really comfortable inanswering any questions.
At the same time, sheimmediately expressed that she
knows it's so important, butit's one of the things she
(07:50):
doesn't feel that comfortablewith.
Of course, I then think there'sso many things that I can help
you with and do for you andfigure things out, but that's
not why I'm there at the moment.
So I have to kind of curb myenthusiasm a little bit.
And what I did in this case isI said you know what I'm just
gonna, I'm just gonna walkaround and I'll come back later
(08:13):
and you can think it through ifyou want to do it or not.
And I gave her some gentlenudges.
I don't know what I said, butthen I came back and she still
needed some support.
She was working there withsomebody else.
They were also supporting herin making this decision.
The weird thing is she did awonderful job.
(08:36):
It was so professional.
She knew exactly what to say.
Sometimes it's not that.
Sometimes you just need to kindof take that leap and come from
what they call a growth mindsetand think about what will
happen if I just take that leapand try it.
(08:57):
So that was really interestingand it was a good way to get to
know each other, just showingthat there was definitely no
have to and I wasn't going toput my microphone under her face
and just start talking.
So that's not my style.
I think if you don't know who Iam and I'm walking around there
(09:19):
and I'm interviewing, I have areally, really small microphone
on my phone so it doesn't looksuper professional and I guess
some people might think I don'tknow who you are, what the hell
you're doing, I'm not interested.
But yeah, for me it works thatit's not invasive, it's not
(09:40):
aggressive, and so that's how Ilike to do it.
Of course, the quality of thesound is not great.
I always kind of cringe alittle when people in podcasts
apologize for sound Like that'sjust how things are, you don't
need to apologize.
So I'm not apologizing, I'mjust letting you know if you're
(10:03):
sensitive to creaking sounds.
There's a.
It's not great, the sound isnot absolutely fabulous and I
don't think it needs to be.
We're on a market, on a fair,so there's people in the
background, but there is also alittle bit of a creaking noise
every now and then.
But the interviews are quiteshort.
So that is my.
(10:26):
That's what I found outinterviewing people, speaking to
them where they are and thenmoving from that into keeping in
touch with them later on, justletting them know that the
episode is airing, or also justasking what they need, and
(10:46):
sometimes actually a bunch oftimes in these interviews I got
so excited when they startedtalking about their business,
that I immediately wanted toshare some thoughts with them or
some things they might try orideas.
And what happened was a bunchof these interviews.
I just started to talk to themabout their business and I
(11:11):
stopped myself and stopped therecording then and there were
just little nuggets ofexperience that I shared with
them or ideas that I shared withthem at the spot.
And then the idea is thatthey'll be listening right now
and hopefully they'll listen tosome other episodes I made and
(11:31):
hopefully they'll look into mycommunity online and the
services that I have to offer onmy website and the services
that I have to offer on mywebsite.
So that has kind of been theway forward for me, because as a
business, I don't need thatmany clients, I just need a few,
and I just love talking topeople when they're doing what
(11:56):
they love doing most, and I'm ahuge problem solver.
I'm a very creative mind, I cansay so.
I can be a great partner in allthose kinds of things.
So, yeah, it's just, I justit's my thing, I love it, and
I'm really happy to have kind ofembraced for myself that
(12:20):
marketing is whatever works foryou and your customers and it's
not a set of strict rules thatyou have to follow, because
everybody else is doing it, andit's always good that you take
that to heart yourself as well.
Good that you take that toheart yourself as well.
(12:44):
So every moment in my businessis a moment and an opportunity
where I learn.
I'm not a guru by any means.
I'm somebody with a specificset of talents.
I'm creative, I have experienceand love to help, and all of
that I bring together in what Ioffer.
So, moving along swiftly.
(13:05):
First of all, let me say thisbecause I wanted to interview
her as well a little bit, butthe day flew by and basically I
just have some sound of usmeeting at the door and
Françoise of Bad Cattoo Yarnoffering me a ticket for the
(13:26):
show.
So she invited me in.
She's been one of my clientsand I've loved working with her.
I love what she does and, yeah,it's an amazing person.
And I wanted to say thank you,françois, for inviting me and
offering me the little bracelet.
You will hear that in a second.
(13:47):
It's Dutch, but just forambiance sake I'm putting it in.
I've just arrived, I've parkeda car, I've arrived at the
Handwerkburs and today I'm goingto interview, hopefully a bunch
of small businesses in fibercrafts and slow fashion, to see
(14:10):
what they're up to this year andhow things are going.
So I hope you like this andhave fun.
(14:57):
Let's start with our firstinterview.
I'm going to get thisconversation going, so reach out
to me with your thoughts andideas.
You'll find all the informationin the show notes.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
And let me know what you think.
My name is Maaike.
We are from the Handwerk Tempel, a business that has been
started by Sylvia Verhoef and weexist about three years now.
It was a long wish from ourowner, in combination with more
sustainability in the craftworld and to make a nice
connection between sustainableyarn and accessible for everyone
(15:36):
.
So we have a big shop with lotsof place for workshops so
everyone can join us.
You call it the boat fairexample, which means craft
sample.
Yes, something like that.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
How would you say your business is different from
another?
Speaker 3 (15:53):
yarn business.
Well, first of all, we have alot of sustainable yarn.
So, for example, our seaweed.
We are the only one now whosells the 100% seaweed yarn.
We get it from Belgium and wedye it our own so we can make
every color.
Lots of seaweed is onlyavailable now in a combination
with, for example, cotton or ina plain color, and we have a big
(16:18):
shop, a big place whereeveryone can come and join us
for knitting, weaving, spinning,crocheting, and we like to give
you advice and really help youwith your project and not just
sell yarn.
We sell the package.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Nice, so why should I choose seaweed?
Speaker 3 (16:36):
for the museum Cotton yeah, for example, cotton is
also a really nice yarn, but itis very evasive.
It uses a lot of water.
There are how do you say it?
Chemicals they use to produceand this is biological produce.
For as much as possible, we usecornstarch.
It's been used to uncolor theseaweed, to make it, and then we
(17:01):
color it back with prosciuttodye.
But in all, it's less invasivefor the planet.
And to make everything moresustainable, we need to make use
of other resources.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
I don't know if you can answer this question.
What would you?
Speaker 1 (17:18):
say, is hard as a small business in this industry.
What is a challenge for?
Speaker 3 (17:24):
you the online business.
There is a big business inonline shops and they want to
sell you as much as possible foras low as possible, and we try
to sell quality and service.
So that's kind of the oppositeof the online business and
that's what we are standing forour service, our quality.
(17:44):
But that's sometimes a hardfight to the online shops.
So you don't have an onlineshop.
We have a shop.
People can always email orcontact us and we are happy to
send you a package, but we arenot competing in the online game
.
No, interesting.
Yes, lovely, slow world Better,we have tried to do it, but you
(18:10):
have to make a lot of costs foryour online shop and you have
to make a lot of costs for yourphysical shop.
Yeah, yeah, and that's a hardone.
So for now, we're stuck on thephysical shop.
Yeah, yeah, and that's a hardone, yeah, so, uh, for now we
stuck on the, on the physicalshop, but it's still a
possibility.
We are going to start an onlineshop, but it's a, it's a
balance yeah, yeah, it's alwaysthe amount of time and money and
(18:31):
people and everything together.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Yeah, thank you so much for this and good luck with
selling all these beautifulyarns.
So that was Maaike at theHandwerk Tempel and we're moving
on with Myrthe from FrogmouseStudio.
Well, I've talked to Myrthe acouple of times before on
(18:54):
different occasions.
She has the most durableillustrations for her brand, so
definitely check that out.
Her yarns are really fun incolor, in style, and she
definitely is going places andfiguring out the balance of how
(19:14):
to run a business as a hobby,potentially bringing in some
extra cash.
Speaker 5 (19:21):
Business as a hobby, potentially bringing in some
extra cash.
Listen to Myrthe.
My name is Myrthe and I run ahand dyed yarn shop called From
my Studio.
What inspired you to start yourstudio?
So I've always been crafting.
When I was little, my mom wouldsend me to workshops in felting
and stuff like that, and mygrandma taught how to knit.
And then, during the pandemic,I picked it back up and I was
(19:42):
like I love this, I want to dothis all the time, but, um, you
can only collect so much yarnbefore your house gets too small
and you have to start sellingit.
So that's how we ended up hereand how's the journey been so
far?
Uh, it's been great.
It's such a nice group ofpeople.
Um, you see all the same peopleat market so you can make a
(20:02):
chat with other store owners andcustomers that come back and
it's really fun to see whateveryone's been making.
So the longer this goes on, themore I see what people have
made with my yarn and that'sjust really fun.
Amazing.
What's your?
Speaker 4 (20:14):
biggest challenge in running your business, you'd say
.
Speaker 5 (20:18):
I think it's balancing this, which is it's a
hobby, it's not a living wage,so it's balancing putting enough
time into this to make it work,with working a day job, where
you would actually want to spendmore time on this, but you
can't really do that.
That's pretty difficult.
So what would be your visionfor the future?
(20:38):
So, on short term, I would liketo buy bigger quantities of
yarn so I can do actual sweaterquantities instead of just a few
skeins.
But largely, I would like tohave a physical store where I
can have workshops and actuallydo this for a living instead of
just as a hobby.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Great, Last question what would you say makes your
brand different from otherbrands?
Speaker 5 (21:04):
I think mostly I despise neutral colors Not to
wear, but for dyeing it has tobe bright colors all the time.
The four or five neutrals thatI dye are the least fun time I
have dyeing.
So definitely more color ismore better.
More color, more better.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Thank you so much.
Yeah, no worries, that wasmyrta, and definitely more color
is more better.
That was lovely.
So we're moving on with petra.
She is the owner of what volley?
Um, what the hell do you want?
It's a kind of a literaltranslation, but it's a fun pun
(21:45):
on wool and she has a veryspecific vision for the future.
So let's hear Petra.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
I am Petra Ruiter.
My brand is Watvolley whichwhat do you want?
But it's also a pun on mooloo.
I'm a hand dyer.
I dye mostly stockyard and alittle bit of non-superwash
yarns and I also spinyard fromDutch wool and I have a small
(22:13):
collection of lead lopie becauseit matches my hand spot very
well.
I love that, love it.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Yeah, my favorite thing, um, but it's not about me
.
So what inspired you to startyour business in the first place
?
Speaker 2 (22:30):
there were two reasons.
Yeah, one was I couldn't findhand diced yarn which suited my
projects, so I started dying myown.
And then happened, and my workstopped temporarily and I
thought what are we going to do?
I'm going to dye yarn.
And my husband said but whereare you going to keep all that
(22:50):
yarn?
Because you will never knit allthat yarn.
So why don't you share less?
And I thought, well, why not?
Why not?
Yeah, let's see if we can makea business out of this.
And Well, why not?
Why not?
Yeah, let's see if we can makea business out of this and maybe
can even live out of it.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
That's not the case, but I still like it.
So that's the next question.
Actually, what?
Speaker 4 (23:08):
is your biggest challenge in business.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Lots of them, lots of them.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Do you want to be able to live from what you do,
or is it something extra?
I would like to live out ofthem.
Yeah, so do you want to be ableto live from YouTube, or is it
something?
Speaker 2 (23:22):
extra.
I would like to live out of it,but I want to sell different
things.
I'm now mostly living from thesock yard.
The biggest income is from thesock yard, but I would like it
to be something else.
Right, and that's my biggestchallenge.
I would like to spin yarn andsell that.
(23:44):
So that's actually my lastquestion.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
What's your vision for the future Spinning yarn?
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Spinning yarn and selling yarn, dutch yarn it
doesn't even have to be Dutch,but local yarn from local sheep
died by me Spun.
It would be nice if I couldspin it all and living out that
that's not the case.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
It's like you know the questions I'm going to ask.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
The last one is how is your business different?
I dye things I would like towear and things I like to dye.
I wear a lot of muted colors,greens, and I'm thinking a lot
about pooling, because I'm asweater knitter another soccer
team so I do not want my yarnsto pool, so I have a big focus
(24:32):
on that.
So I think that's different.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
So this is the conscious way of how you dye
your yarn, so that wooling isminimal.
Yeah, minimalized, yes.
Speaker 5 (24:43):
No no, no, no, no no.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
It's minimalized and I dyed some neons because I just
love dyeing neons, but I'm notone to wear it and I think a
collection of non-superwashyarns and some spun yarns from
local wool.
I think that's different.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
So it's like a very passionate creative yes, yeah,
how's that for the business part?
Are you very passionatebusiness?
No, not at all.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Because I would like to sell my spun yarn from local
wool but people find it tooexpensive.
I don't think it's tooexpensive.
It is a lot of money, but Idon't think it's too expensive
for what you're getting.
But I'd rather give it away tosomeone who's very enthusiastic
than selling it for less.
I'm not selling it for less.
There's a lot of education thatcomes in with the selling.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
I think there's an audience for everything, and
sometimes it's really hard toacknowledge that the people that
you are trying to sell to nowmight not be that audience.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
No, I know.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
But that's very difficult.
That's completely mindfuck.
I'm really struggling to sayI'm not doing Sakyong anymore.
No more in Ireland.
I don't want this.
I'm just going to sell.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
I think this is going beyond the interview, but I'm
just going to keep it.
Actually, I'm just going tosell.
I think this is going beyondthe interview.
Yeah, I was going to keep it.
Actually, I'm going to stopinterviewing and I'm going to
tell you something out of myexperience that I'll share with
you.
So, thank you, thank you andgood luck.
That was Petra.
Hand dyed, hand spun yarn.
(26:18):
Is there an audience for that?
I think so.
What are your thoughts?
Send me a message and let meknow.
So next up is Ingrid.
She runs Icke, which is Dutchfor me, but also cut up is her
name and also a pun kind ofbrand name.
(26:40):
I have to translate thisinterview because we did it in
Dutch and I left it to the endso that you can decide if you
don't speak Dutch, if you wantto hear what that sounds like.
So here's editing saucedropping in for a little bit.
This is not the end of theepisode.
I am really going to wrap it upand have some conclusions at
(27:03):
the end that you might findinteresting.
So there's a bit of Dutch andthen the episode continues.
So Ingrid has only had herbusiness for a year.
It looks quite professional interms of her branding, she's got
consistent branding on herskein bands and on her drop in
(27:29):
the back of her stall and itlooks really neat and tidy and
clean and it has good contrastso you can immediately see what
brand it is when you pass pastthe stall.
I did notice that she hasbecause she is actually
hand-dyeing cotton.
(27:50):
This is quite unique in ourfield, at least where I live,
because people usually use woolbecause of different reasons,
but we don't get to see hand dyecotton a lot.
So she had that actually on abanner on the side of her stall.
I think it would be morevisible if it was moved up,
(28:12):
because it's definitely a uniqueselling point for her.
She offers two differentthicknesses and she starts by
designing crochet kits foramigurumi crocheted animals and
she felt like she didn't havethe fun colors that she would
see in wool and so she startedto dye them herself.
(28:36):
That is how her businessstarted and then for the future
she's thinking about expandinginto designing more clothing
kits with yarn, with the samekind of yarn and bigger amounts,
because obviously as a businessit's better to sell larger
(28:56):
amounts.
At the same time I got the ideaand I think that she was saying
that it's restricted If you'rejust working with amigurumi.
She wanted to move a little bitbeyond that and also offering
her yarns to different crafters,not only crochet, but knitters
(29:17):
and weavers alike.
So here's Ingrid.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
And I liked that.
And then I saw some really nicegarden but it's all mud and
it's not suitable for animals.
And then I started to paintmyself.
(29:42):
So you paint?
What kind of material?
100% nature.
I have two differentthicknesses 400 meters on 100
grams and 200 meters on 100grams.
What makes your brand differentfrom all the others?
You already have 7 answers it's100% nature.
What makes your brand differentfrom all the others?
You have already said theanswer it is 100% cotton and
(30:02):
hand-painted yes, hand-paintedcotton to make hair.
And you can also turn it andweave.
I have already done that Exactly, but you hardly see this, so
you really have a uniqueposition.
Yes, how long ago did you starta unique position?
How long ago did you start Ayear?
A year, and it already lookslike this?
(30:24):
Yes, wow, thank you, I amreally impressed.
You also have a very clear logo, are you?
Speaker 2 (30:32):
working on that a lot .
Speaker 4 (30:34):
Yes, I am working on that a lot, but I do want
recognition.
I think it's important that therecognition of the product and
that people can find it.
I see a banner behind yourstand where you clearly see your
logo on the address.
What do you find difficultabout running your company?
(30:56):
What is a challenge?
Let's put it that way thechallenge is indeed finding the
balance, because the paintingpart I like the colors very much
, but I don't paint for myselfalone.
Of course, I paint for myselftoo, but also for someone else,
and I am very much my owninterpretation and that also
(31:17):
belongs to my own interpretationand that is also part of your
own use.
But someone who really loves itwon't see that in me.
No, because it's a very gated.
Yes, we call that.
Yes, so you also haveself-striping.
Yes, because if you make smallrounds, it becomes fast.
I have had that, but I thinkthe paint is very intense, so I
(31:40):
have the minis as an alternativefor that, so you can actually
find your own colors and decidewhat you want to do with the
color combination.
Yes, exactly, it looks reallyfantastic.
You've been working for a year,so do you have any goals for
next year or do you have avision?
Where do you want to go?
I really want to make moreclothing pieces Haken and Breien
(32:04):
More because you have very niceyarn and it looks very nice on
a animal, but as clothing scarfhat it's just as nice.
Thank you for sharing that.
Thank you and good luck, thankyou.
Thank you for sharing, thankyou and good luck.
Thank you, bye.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Let's bring them all together.
Let's start with Maaike at theHandwerk Temple.
What they do is they focus onsustainability.
They're offering 100% seaweedyarn how cool is that and
creating a space for workshop.
Their big challenge iscompeting with online shop that
(32:42):
push for low prices over quality, and their vision is finding
the balance between theirphysical shop and the
possibility of going onlinesomeday.
Now what I got from thatconversation was fear about
being online and selling online,but what I also heard was that
they have this unique productthat they are, in fact, now
(33:05):
offering to a limited amount ofpeople, just their community.
I think they should definitelylook into having an online shop
and combining the two, and Idon't think it's as scary as
they think it is, especially ifyou have a Shopify webshop that
(33:27):
really combines everything witha point of sale system.
I love that.
It just works seamlessly andthere's limited amounts of work
to get it all going.
So that was the thing thatstruck me most in this short
conversation.
Then there's Myrthe fromFrogmouse Studio.
(33:50):
What she does is she offershand-dyed yarns in bright, bold
colors, and her big challenge isto balance the passion project
with a day job.
Her vision for the future isoffering bigger quantities of
yarn so that people can makefull projects and eventually
running a physical shop withworkshops.
(34:11):
What struck me most is thatbalancing part of a passion with
a day job.
So she's really figuring outhow much money do I push into
this, how much is coming out,what is worth pursuing and what
decisions do I make in thefuture?
She would love to offer biggerquantities of yarn and that
(34:33):
means that she is limited inbuying the undyed yarn in the
amounts that she wants to have.
So there's something to learnthere and to connect a strategy
to then.
Next was Petra Petra Ruiter, ofwhat it's hard to say in Dutch
(34:56):
when you're speaking English WatWollie, and what she does is
she sells hand dyed and handspun yarns, or she wants to do
that, but she now also sellshand dyed yarns and sock yarns
and some Let Low Be a mix ofdifferent yarns.
She wants to sell purelyspinning hand dyed yarns in the
(35:20):
future and her big challenge isthat to make that financially
sustainable, because it is avery valuable product when you
first spin it and then dye it,or the other way around.
And how can that work?
When we were talking, I saidthere's always a way.
(35:41):
I mean that I think there'salways a customer for what you
have to sell, and sometimes thecustomer is not who you think it
is.
These kinds of yarns might beamazing for fashion designers or
fiber artists, like in anotherarea, the artists that do
(36:04):
weaving and need particularyarns.
She could potentially spin anddye to order for specific people
, so it's not necessarily thosecrafters that come to a yarn
shop that want to knit a sweater, so there's something to work
(36:24):
around there.
And then, lastly, it is Ingridfrom Icke.
She sells 100% hand-paintedcotton yarns in vibrant colors
and different thicknesses.
She mentioned her biggestchallenge is balancing
(36:45):
creativity with what customerswant, and her vision is
expanding into clothing itemsand growing a recognizable brand
.
Now she has just started withthis business, so there's lots
of things to learn, but she alsohas got a really good mind for
business, as I could tell.
So she's got another job thatbrings in the money and she does
(37:09):
this to decide.
Now I think she knows whereshe's going.
It's a matter of making astrategy of how to get to the
point where you can do more ofwhat you love and less of that
other job.
All right, these were the fourpeople that I talked to A lot of
(37:32):
them, quite new to the scene.
A bunch of them had startedtheir business during COVID
dyeing for themselves, becomingaware that you can only dye so
much for yourself before youstart accumulating too much
hand-dyed yarn and then sellingthat.
They had definitely someoverlap in how they approach
(37:58):
colors, in dyeing bright colorsand fun colors, because it's
just more fun to dye and some ofthem are actually thinking
about what the audience wants.
Others were more focused onwhat they love to dye and wear
and there was a little bit ofoverlap but also a little bit of
(38:19):
difference in that Lots of boldcolors, by the way.
So there's definitely someawareness about sustainability
in one way or another, justbalancing things out for
themselves and in their businessthere's always a little bit of
an open mind towards being moresustainable, so that was good to
(38:42):
hear.
Not all of that came across inthe interviews.
Sometimes I had a little bitlonger conversations where that
was said.
The bigger picture we can sayis that these businesses are
really driven by creativity andfun, but they're also really
(39:03):
starting to notice thechallenges of scaling up without
losing the personal touch,educating customers about the
value and the prices and alsobalancing their passion with
making a living, because some ofthem really do this as a hobby
still and are trying to figureout, or are actually practically
(39:27):
at this moment figuring out,what it means to spend so many
hours and earning this amount ofmoney and what that means to
them and their other job orother responsibilities.
So these conversations reallyreminded me why I love doing
(39:51):
what I do.
I remember myself at that pointso well and I also remember the
drive that I had to figure itout, to go on this trial and
error and perhaps if I do this,perhaps if I do that, and then
building things on top of otherthings and figuring it out, and
(40:12):
it's just amazing.
But also so much hard work to apoint where sometimes it gets so
much hard work that the fun andthe creativity of it is pushed
to the back.
And that's where I come in andthat's where I now am in my
happy place and listening tothem and thinking, okay, we can
(40:34):
work with this, we can work withthis.
There's so many things that wecan do to get you to that next
level or just get things clearfor you, basically building
roots or a strategy, or figuringout what your goals are, or
even figuring out what the hella goal is in business, because
(40:57):
sometimes that's where we startjust really figuring out the
basics and we can do it as we go, which I have done.
But now I know some shortcutsand I'm really itching in these
conversations to just I'm almostjumping on them like let's sit
down and work at this, andsometimes I invited them for a
(41:20):
call so that we can talk aboutit some more.
I have such a weird business forpeople in this industry because
they're not at all used tomentoring, teaching, coaching in
terms of business, that's notreally a thing.
It might be in the corporateworld, but that's not at all
(41:41):
what I do, what we know ofbusiness coaching.
I have a different approach,and so I'm trying to sell my
product to people that don'treally know that they might need
it.
I'm making it really hard formyself.
I could do so many other things, but I want to do this because
(42:02):
it really excites me and I hopethat you've been inspired by
their stories as well and thatyou want to join in on this
conversation.
You can do so by reacting to thepodcast and just talking to me,
or joining our community onyeah-volcom, or just
(42:26):
patternshiftfm, for that matter.
You'll find it there as well,and if you join our community,
you'll get in a place with otherpeople that are going through
the same thing.
And let me tell you, there isso much we can learn from each
other without even getting intoeach other's spaces, because
(42:47):
sometimes people like us feel alittle bit scared, they're
introverted, they're shy, theyfeel like they want to protect
their business with everythingthey have, because people are
copying things.
You are not sharing anythingyou don't want to share.
And at the same time, we canstill really support each other
(43:09):
in really practical but alsosome more deeper things like
philosophy about what we do andthose kinds of things.
In addition to that, we do notforget the crafter behind the
seller.
So all these people, all thepeople that run these businesses
(43:30):
, are crafters themselves.
In the community you can learnabout fibers, you can learn
about different kinds of things.
I recently made this wholestash challenge so you can
really get your stash, yourpersonal stash, in order or, for
that matter, your professionalstash.
(43:51):
So there's a lot of fun in thecommunity.
It's a really low entry.
Feel free to join and hang outwith us and if you want to work
with me to figure things outone-on-one.
That's definitely a possibility.
And, of course, I do bulletjournal workshops because I
think, if anything start byorganizing your life and your
(44:16):
work and being mindful about it,and the bullet journal is the
best method to do it.
So I have bullet journalworkshops as well.
All right, I'm wrapping it up.
Thank you so much for listening, and if you wanna invite me to
any fair market or whatever, letme know and I'll be happy to
come over and interview you andyour peers.
(44:37):
Bye, know, and I'll be happy tocome over and interview you and
your peers.
Bye.
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