The pandemic persists…

These are worrying times. Many of us will be badly affected by covid, other local upheavals (floods, protests) and horrific events occurring overseas. NZ businesses are suffering serious losses, some have already folded and yet others won’t survive for too much longer. In Wellington, shops in the CBD are suffering most, as many workers and shoppers stay home and buy essential supplies from stores out of the city centre.

Suburban businesses are suffering too. The reduction in customer numbers in our shop is very obvious and our in-store sales are at their lowest ebb. Surprisingly though, our class enrolments are better now than they were last year in level 2. Maybe more of us now accept that wearing masks and showing vaccine passes are prerequisites to developing the creative skills that make us happy. And doing the things that make us happy is what Wellington Sewing Centre is all about, which makes me confident that the shop will withstand these hard times.

The ongoing effects of covid and other disasters overseas aren’t going away any time soon, however. Reduced supplies and increased prices of many goods will continue to tighten the pressure on Kiwis’ spending. Wholesale prices for many of our stock items have increased over the last year and some items are no longer available, mainly due to the hugely increased costs of freight from overseas but sometimes because producers have gone out of business.

In light of the reduction in our shop sales, I’m investing in our online capability by hiring various professionals to improve our website’s user-friendliness and to promote our wide range of goods. (Wellington Sewing Centre is not just about sewing!) It’s always best, before buying, to see and touch fabrics and yarn, or test-drive a sewing machine, but for those who don’t have a shop like ours handy, especially if they live in rural areas, online research and buying is essential. More of our local customers are going online too, to reduce their exposure to covid. I want everyone to know that our website www.sewingdirect.co.nz is a reliable place to buy top quality goods and that everyone who works here is committed to helping customers, wherever they may be, make the right decisions for their needs!

Happily, so far, the additional investment in the website does seem to be producing an increase in online sales. (It’s not possible to be more precise because the presence of covid has also generated more online sales.) My immediate goal is to grow online sales to the point where they cover the cost of the additional investment! And then I hope to see continuing growth, so that online sales become a significant and steady source of the business’s total revenue. Wish me luck! But please keep coming into the shop whenever you can to see and touch our fantastic array of knitting yarns, dress fabrics, craft cottons, haberdashery, embroidery supplies, sewing machines, overlockers, coverseamers and more, and to check out our latest schedule of classes. And please don’t be afraid to ask us questions - face-to-face, by phone, text or email - about your proposed purchases and projects. We take pride in giving expert and honest advice (and finding the answers to more obscure questions!) and going the extra mile to maximise every customer’s satisfaction with their purchase decisions.

Happy news!

For the last few weeks, we’ve been working in two separate teams in the shop, so that if any of us gets covid and infects our team mates there’ll be another team to keep the shop open. This has meant I’ve had more days out of the shop each week than ever before and last week I had 5 days in a row working from home (and catching up with friends). On day 4, Sunday, when the shop was closed, I drove past and noticed the front window had been redecorated. I stopped and to my delight saw that a wonderful Easter display had been created with many knitted and crocheted bunnies, chickens, (and a rooster), eggs and baskets, all tastefully arranged against a backdrop of fabric (and stock items) and, in the foreground, coloured paper “grass” taped across the bottom of the window. (It will be in place till after Easter so come and see.)

I know who’s responsible for making all the cute creatures and their accessories - a group of customers who met at the shop about 5 years ago and who’ve met weekly (at least) since to knit, crochet, chat and share good news and sad news. They’ve been working on this project since late last year when I admired their knitted and crocheted Christmas decorations! A very big thankyou to them, and to Toni and Annie (Team B) who collaborated in putting together the lovely, clever and funny display.

New stock!

If you want to keep up with what’s hot in the shop, you can follow Wellington Sewing Centre on Instagram and/or Facebook, where I post photos of exciting new items as they arrive.

Right now we have the largest selection ever of knitting yarns, dress fabrics and sewing machines – largely because earlier shortages of all these items prompted me to buy up large when the opportunities arose again! Among my fave new stock items are these:

• Broadway’s beautifully coloured hand-dyed 8 ply merino and merino/mohair skeins and hand-dyed merino/nylon sock yarn (4 ply)
• Countrywide’s hand painted merino/nylon sock yarn (4 ply) and its 8 ply merino range
• The 100 gram cakes of alpaca/nylon Easy wash Alpaca Sox (4 ply, machine washable and low-temperature clothes drier friendly!)
• Rowan’s Super Chunky Big Wool
• Our many 100% linens and linen mix fabrics (they’re all lovely!)
• A variety of checked ginghams – in Egyptian cotton, silk/modal, linen blends and stretch cotton
• Our selection of wool and wool mix fabrics for winter garments

And I still have my older faves –

• Malabrigo Rios 10 ply – for its gorgeous colours and liquid feel
• Indiecita 14 ply Baby Brush Alpaca – luxurious and cuddly in an array of beautiful colours
• Wild Earth Yarns’ huge 900 gram “balls” of super chunky NZ wool in 4 natural colours
• And (for the reasons given below) our range of Chiaogoo stainless steel circular needles with their non-twist braided cables!

Term 2 Adults’ Classes

Our classes for adults between May and July are now up on the website and a pamphlet about them is available instore. We have an excellent choice of sewing (at various levels), overlocking, knitting, crochet, embroidery and smocking classes - perfect activities for the cooler months!

Personal fact: everyone in my immediate family (my parents and sister) were school or university teachers and for the first 13 years of my career I was a law lecturer/senior lecturer at Sydney and Victoria Universities. So teaching, and a belief in the positive power of learning, are in my blood. When I bought the business 6 years ago, I was determined to develop a range of classes for adults and children and now I’m very proud of our full schedule of excellent classes, taught by highly skilled and personable tutors. For me, one of the delights of this job is seeing our enrolees - young and old - develop skills, confidence and pride in their creative endeavours. It’s very heart-warming! All thanks are due to our wonderful tutors and to Robyn Hambleton – also a teacher – for her great work in organising the class schedules and ensuring that enrolees (and tutors) get to their classes at the right time with the right gear!

We aren’t offering children’s classes these coming holidays because I feel it’s too risky in light of the covid situation. We can insist that our adult enrolees be masked and double vaccinated and can trust that adults will respect social distancing rules in class. But that’s not the case with children and I’m not prepared to ask our tutors to be responsible for the safe management of children’s classes until community transmission of covid is significantly reduced.

Knitting inventions

I’m amazed at all the new things there are to learn about knitting! The patterns that many of us more mature knitters are familiar with - requiring straight needles to make garment pieces from the bottom up that are then sewn together - are almost a thing of the past! Circular needles, top-down styles, different ways to cast on and off, new styles of cable needles and stitch holders, clever ways to shape garments, continental knitting, brioche and modular – there are so many different techniques and tools available to us now - not to mention the fantastic selection of yarns! I’m sure I’ll never grow tired of knitting because there’s so much I’ve not yet attempted.

My latest discovery is that the magic loop technique (another marvel of invention) is best worked on metal circular needles that have a very smooth join between the needle tip and cable. My first attempt at the magic loop was done on bamboo circulars : I love bamboo straight needles so chose bamboo for circular knitting too. And they are absolutely fine for general circular knitting but the magic loop requires a lot of moving of stitches, from the needle tip to the cable and back again, so it’s best done with needles that offer the least resistance. Needles that aren’t very “slidey”, or have any sort of hump between tip and cable, make the technique way more difficult to do: you have to fight to get your stitches onto and along the needle tip. I’ve found that Chiaogoo stainless steel needles, with their smoothly joined non-twist cables, are my choice of tool for the task. They are also great for all other circular knitting and, to my knowledge, don’t aggravate arthritic conditions (as aluminium needles can do).

That’s it for now.

We hope you stay safe and healthy or, if you catch covid, that you recover quickly and fully.

Best wishes from Jo, Robyn, Jess, Toni, Annie, Vincent and Susan (We look plentiful on the page but our total work hours add up to a little more than 3 full time people! And of course we’re all missing Gemma, who’s now living in Australia, but I’m happy to report that she’s enjoying life over there!)