Happy Birthday Etsy, I'm Breaking Up With You

Dear Etsy: I'm breaking up with you.

This is long. If you decide to follow along, grab yourself a cup of tea (or glass of wine). You can also scroll down to the last paragraph to get to the important bit.

You may have heard that Etsy dropped some unpalatable news on its sellers this week. In addition to a fee increase, they announced a new commission on shipping rates. Many sellers are upset with this move and are protesting, signing petitions, and closing shop. While the increase doesn't particularly bother me as it's still competitive, the move in general has cemented for me my suspicion that Etsy's direction and mine are no longer co-linear. Their fees were always lower than other sites because they were all about helping the maker. I don’t feel like that value is still their priority.

I've been debating the direction of my online business for a while now, as it just hasn't been working for me. Etsy has made it more and more difficult to play in their field, and the time invested vs return wasn't balancing. I have been spending too much time trying to defeat Etsy's algorithms, and not enough time designing, making, communicating, and creating instructional materials. But most importantly, I felt that by playing by Etsy's rules, I was alienating those most important to me: Canadians.

While I’ve wanted to switch to my own individual shop site I worried that people wouldn't find me off of Etsy's platform, and an independent site is a pretty high per-month cost. However, this new move means that soon the two options will be at par, and that has made my decision easier. 

The biggest issue is this: I am a maker. I am not an Amazon business. And most importantly, I don’t want to be an Amazon business.

The stress-ridden, fast pace of next day shipping that Etsy sellers are expected to promise in order to be found in search results (because Amazon has made shoppers expect this) doesn’t suit a handmade, slow living lifestyle. I don’t think it’s reasonable to have to match eBay and Amazon in this way. Likewise the free shipping (which gets buried in the price of items), the constant promotions, and the American pricing that is required to be “in the game,” contradict my goals as a maker. 

Most of the people who visit my shop and Facebook page are Canadian. But very few Canadians make purchases. I can 100% understand. In order to compete on Etsy, my shop setup must cater to American shoppers as Etsy is an American site. And while I absolutely value my American customers, knowing that they will greatly benefit from Canadian pricing (our exchange rate!) and that it costs roughly the same to ship to the US as it does within Canada, keeping the shop set up in USD isn't helping anyone. Also, I can't pretend that I don’t grow more and more concerned about shipping my items across the border with the current administration.

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Are you still with me? Here's the nuts and bolts:

This week's news has been good for me. It has forced me to re-evaluate my priorities and take action on the direction I've been contemplating for a while now.

Next month I will be moving listings over to an up and coming Canadian makers' platform, called We Shop Canadian. These prices will all be in Canadian dollars.

I’m also going to open an independent site in Canadian pricing. My domain of www. rosesnpurls. com will direct patrons there rather than to Etsy.

My Etsy shop will remain open, but I'll be focusing my time and energy on the two new sites.

This will result in lower prices (not having to account for fluctuations in the exchange rate or commission rates in pricing), with Americans also reaping the benefit of the lower dollar. I will also be able to run direct pre-orders and offer options for local pickup and gift cards. All existing coupon codes will also apply on the new independent site.

My passion has been to support Canadian shepherds and Canadian fibre artists, and Etsy has been making that very difficult.

So Etsy it's been fun, but I'm breaking up with you. Happy Birthday anyway.

“So What Do I DO With This Stuff?”

Congratulations! You just bought a skein of beautiful handspun art yarn.

It looks unique.

 

It looks artsy.

It looks…like nothing you’ve ever used before! So what do you do with it, other than admire it?

First of all, let the yarn speak for itself. Avoid stitch or weave patterns that are too complicated and don’t let the yarn shine.

Next, get to know it (check the tag, or look at the yarn itself):

*How does it behave? Do the materials and techniques give it a lot of stretch, very little, or none? Go ahead and give it a gentle tug to see if it springs back. Stretchy? Use it in just about anything including hats, cowls, etc. Don’t use it in hard-wearing items like socks and mittens. Not so stretchy? Try an infinity scarf, shawl, scarf, or wall hanging.

*Are there threads or loops that you’ll need to work around if using knitting needles or a crochet hook?

Then check how much you have to work with - art yarns tend to be put up in smaller skeins. You can stretch your yardage by using patterns that allow you to use every bit of yarn, by combining it with another skein of yarn, and/or by using a larger needle or hook gauge (just remember that if you use too loose a gauge knit and crochet work can look sloppy. 10-15 mm is a good range.

Here are some basic knitting ‘recipes’:

Cowl: Using 10-15mm 16” circular needles, CO 20 stitches. Join in the round and knit in a rib pattern of your choice (so it doesn’t curl) until you have just enough left to bind off.

Or, cast on 12-16 stitches, knit flat in a rib pattern of your choice for 16”, bind off and stitch the ends together, with or without a twist.

For a shawl, choose a needle size appropriate to the yarn weight (6-8mm for bulky, 8-15mm for super bulky, 20mm and up for jumbo).

Cast on 5 stitches.

Row 1 (RS): k1, yo, k1, yo, k1 (mark this st as centre st), yo, k1, yo, k1.

Row 2 (WS): k all stitches. Row 3 (RS): k1, yo, k to centre stitch, yo, k1, yo, k to last stitch, yo, k1.
Repeat rows 2 and 3, switching row 2 to stockinette as you please. Be sure to end with a few rows of garter stitch before binding off. This is a great place to use a commercial yarn and use art yarn as an accent.

 

Hint: it can help to purl any stitches where you’ve reached a large bead, lock, or flower, regardless of what your next stitch should be.

Art yarns are great for weaving, especially wall art and scarves.

Art yarns can be worn in a loop as is like a cowl, or crocheted into a necklace or lariat.

Here are some suggestions for knit and crochet patterns you can find on Ravelry:

Cobble Hill Hat (Lion Brand)                                           
Burrow shawl (Lisa Mutch)

Through Thick and Thin cowl (Mari Chiba)                    
Flourish cowl (Ashley Martineau)

Brenhines shawl (Katie Weston)                                     
High Flying Kite shawl (Anna Clark)

City Chic hat (Nancy J Thomas)                                      
ASAP cowl (Taiga Hilliard)
Hominy cowl (Berroco)                                                    
Artfully Simple Infinity Scarf (Tamara Kelly)
Tail Spun Cowl (Lucca Dot Yarn)                                    
Bloom Striped Cowl (Sharyn Anhalt)
Ayuthaya Cowl (Petra Breakstone)                                 
Tailspun Tease shawl (Esther Rodgers)
Cocoon Pixie cowl (Amy Small)                                      

Also check out THISyarn.com, a whole site dedicated to weaving, knitting and crochet with art yarn.

 

Caring for your art yarn projects:

Always check the tag to see if any additional care needs to be taken. In general, you will want to wash items only when necessary. Fill your basin with tepid or cool water and no-rinse wool wash. Gently submerge the item, and let it soak for 10 minutes or so. Carefully lift it out, supporting the entire surface. Gently squeeze, or better yet use a salad spinner to remove excess water. Gently roll in a towel to remove more water, then lay flat, well-supported, to dry.