I still continue working on “The Beatitudes” from My Big Toe Designs and have at least reached the bottom. I am safe in the knowledge that I have reached the bottom without running out of fabric. I am however running low on one of the colours – this is the second time on this piece that I’ve had to order a “top-up” as I have misjudged how much I needed.
The problem is in part the fact that I am working in DMC threads. For some reason I have still yet to understand, DMC doesnt sell through Bricks and Mortar shops – you can only buy it online. This means that when I run low or out of a shade, rather than nipping down the shops like I can with Anchor threads I need to order online, pay P&P…..and wait.
So I ordered some more skeins this morning. Hopefully they will turn up before I run out completely. I have perhaps a line of heavy lettering in this one colour, plus finishing off the border.
And I was proud of myself – I didnt order anything else off the site! I already have at least 2 other charts (and 5 wips) sitting there ready to go, and I really need to be trying something different out!
“DMC doesn’t sell through Bricks and Mortar shops – you can only buy it online.”
That absolutely boggled my mind for a moment; I had to come look up where you are. In the US, the reverse is true: DMC is available in every shop that carries anything cross-stitch related, and Coats and Anchor are a challenge to find anywhere but by mail-order. I think that must not always have been the case; some of my older patterns (20+ years) list color sets for two or three of the brands; most newer ones don’t.
I’ve just checked DMC’s website – and a slight exaggeration by myself. There are no shops stocking DMC……..in the county (state) I live in. Which makes it equivalent to “you can only buy online”.
I do occasionally see it at the big exhibition shows (trunk shows?) we get here, but we get those only twice a year, and then you cant rely on an exhibitor being there with the colour you want. It’s not quite the same as “nipping down the shop on a Sunday afternoon to pick up two skeins” really.
Part of the problem is that we have so few independents where I live. Those “LYS”s are really large chain department stores that have a small-ish concession shoved in the corner, usually done by the same company (e.g. Coates Crafts) who seem to have their own faves….Rowan, Anchor. So no Debbie Bliss, no DMC etc
We’re losing a lot of our small, independent shops here, as well. When I got the bug and moved across the country, one of the things I left behind was a cross-stitch focused shop where I could get anything I needed, have just about anything odd ordered, and get some amazing framing work done besides. Since I’ve moved, the single shop even remotely like that I’ve found has closed, and the only place I can get supplies is JoAnn Fabrics (also a large cross-stitch-in-the-corner chain). I have yet to find a new framer who knows how to handle needlework properly. I don’t live in a remote area, either; I actually moved to a much larger metro area than I was in before. Specialty stitching shops just seem to be a sadly dying breed.
I found a framer in my new city almost by accident. I was following someone completely different on twitter – he is a photographer – and he mentioned going to IKEA for frames. I asked him “do you know any non-IKEA framers who could handle embroidery?” and he goes…..”Try these people…….”. In the city centre, easy to get to from me, in an area I’d always meant to visit – and much cheaper than my previous framers.
I have long bemoaned the loss of LYSs in the cities – Birmingham is classed as the UK’s “second city” (after London) and yet we dont seem to have a single indi LYS in the near-city-centre. Chicken or egg, do you know?
The mom-and-pop version of just about all retail varieties has been dying out here since the 80s. It’s gotten especially obvious in the past 15 years, I’d say. There aren’t many indie bookstores left, and that was the case long before technology took its bite; the massive chains did to them what Amazon and e-books are doing to the chains now. Small clothing stores are now almost a dead breed.
The economy is hurting craft stores, of course; hobbies and entertainment always feel the pinch first. But I was in the southern US in the 80s, when things were even worse there than they are on a wide scale now, and a lot of hobby/entertainment stuff weathered the storm, which lasted about 5 years at its worst. Call it retail genetics, I guess? With less diversity, every crisis leaves greater damage to the whole because there’s less available to bounce back.