Sale Stuff

Previous Issues

October 05 - special offer on needlepoint

June 05 - new crewel kits

Spring 05 Introduction to our new web site

Jan 05 - needlepoint basics

December 04 - gift ideas, items for less than $15 

Thread Color converter is now online!

1. Needlepoint redux - new yarn assortment

2. Postal and price increases

3. Needlepoint Basics - a great primer

Return to www.discountneedlework.com

The Print your Own Catalog pages feature can be accessed at www.discountneedlework.com/print.asp

Needlepoint Redux

We've been seeing a huge increase in yarn and canvas sales.  It seems we're not the only ones.  Needlepoint is enjoying something of a renaissance.  Could it be all the baby boomers are having trouble seeing the tiny cross stitches?  Or maybe it was just time.  Anyway, selling knots of yarn is very time intensive, so we're having to adjust staffing to handle it.  

Meanwhile, since our silk ribbon stashes have been so popular, we're trying something similar for needlepoint.  Order one of our Yarn Assortments and get some bits and pieces of 20 colors for just $5.  When we tie up an 1/8 pound of yarn, there are uusally 2-9 strands left over that we use to keep the knots of one dye lot together.  When we sell the last knot, we toss the left over strands in a bin.  We've sorted the bin into color families and are offering some colors from every group in our 20 color assortment.  It's a great way to get started without ordering full knots.  (20 colors in full knots would be over $16, while this assortment is only $5)

Try an Assortment as a way of keeping a few accent colors on hand.  Or order it along with needles, book and canvas and start practicing stitches.    Every one is different, though some colors appear in several assortments because we sell a lot of it.  Blues and greens appear the most, white and black the least.  Any way you slice it, the Yarn Assortment is a fabulous deal.

In January, the postal service increased rates by 15 cents or more for every pound on priority mail service.  We have been trying to maintain both prices and shipping rates at our pre-increase levels by being more efficient about packaging and by not splitting shipments when we're out of one item.  Even after this, our shipping costs are still about 10% higher than last year.  Shipping is our single largest expense after product and payroll costs, so an increase has a large effect on our business.  Our shipping is value based, which means that you pay shipping based on the value of your purchase rather than based on the weight.

Regretfully, we have raised prices on items that are heavy.  For example, it costs us $5.30 or more to ship a yard of interlock canvas, but each customer is charged only $5.  The more canvas we sell, the more money we lose on shipping.  So canvas prices have been raised to reflect the relatively higher price of shipping canvas.

Our vendors have been raising prices for the same reasons.  Elsa Williams and Needle Treasures kits have had minor price increases.  Candamar has raised prices a LOT.  We only increase our price on a kit when we get our first bill from the manufacturer with the new price, so typically there's a short grace period while we sell through existing stock.  If you're on a budget, consider ordering your kits now before the new prices start rippling through the system.

Some of the pictures and links may have expired, but ti's still a great resource.  Our thanks to our former warehouse manager, Leigh, who wrote this excellent article.

See it here