Hi, welcome to jewelry. as your side hustle with
Sugar Gay Isbur, and I'm Sugar Gay Isbur. And
today we have Edie Eckman on and she is gonna
tell us all about all kinds of fascinating things.
Her and I know each other actually from the Cracked
Industry Alliance. And I have lots of people
on here from that group. So if you're a creator,
get into your groups, contact me if you wanna
be on my show. It's so much fun. And by the end...
we're going to be best friends so so good okay
so welcome to my show you know this is really
for entrepreneurs i i started this office saying
jewelry but you know because I knew a lot of
jewelry makers, but they don't want to be on
the show. They're all very shy. So I'm so glad
I've opened it to the world and other members
that we know from our collective groups. And
I would love to hear all about you. So welcome
to the show. Take it away. Tell us all about
you. Well, I'm so excited to be here and I don't
make jewelry. Although I guess I have made jewelry
because some time ago I did a crochet jewelry
booklet. So I don't know. I've been a professional
in the, let's say, yarn industry for 30 years.
Wow. Almost 30 years. I base it on my daughter's
age. Which is always changing. Well, actually,
let's say 35 years, because I started by buying
into a yarn shop when my baby was two months
old. Wow. That's a big move. That was cool. Well,
I was going to be a stay -at -home mom. And I
had always worked, and so that lasted a total
of about six weeks before I needed to be doing
something else. So the nice thing about being
a partner in a yarn shop at that time, this was
the early 90s, was I could bring my baby to work
with me. I remember those days. I took my baby
to work too. So my baby came to work with me,
and then my other baby came to work with me 20
months later. Yeah, I had children at work with
me for a while. It's really good for them because
they get like the work ethic I think comes from
seeing their mother just like, you know, being
an entrepreneur and a business owner, that's
a whole different slog than, you know, than people
that have a nine to five, you've got this whole
different mindset, because it's like 24 hours
a day, right? Right. Right. And you're not to
be entrepreneurial? Well, no, but no, and yes.
they didn't stay, they didn't stay in retail
very long and I didn't stay in retail very long.
I learned every, I used to say every 10 years
I would do some kind of retail gig and then go,
oh yeah, retail's not really for me. Retail sucks.
I've had three stores, I can say that. I was
a yarn shop co -owner for five years and then
that was, that was it and I moved on to something
else because I didn't I didn't want to do retail.
So I have great respect for retail. businesses
because it's really hard. You have to be nice
to people all the time. It's just, it's tough.
The general public has just really got a thing.
I have so many memories of just going, did that
really just happen? I remember telling my parents,
even when I was in high school, which was my
first experience with retail was that I really
like people, but I don't like the public. So
retail is not really for me. I think the one
story that always just goes into my head, I had
a brand new store that was spectacular. I had
built it from ground up. It was a big deal. I
had somebody that was homeless came in and said,
oh, can I just go to the bathroom? I'm like,
I understand. Sure, use the bathroom. It was
right there. She came out a few minutes later.
A little bit later, we walked in there. She had
destroyed the bathroom. I mean, the toilet had
to be repaired. I mean, like, it was broken.
Like, how in, like, the three minutes that she
was in there, did she just... So yeah, the general
public. Nobody tells you that part about being
in retail. So when we closed the yarn shop, I
decided I had been doing designs, knit designs.
custom designs for people you know they couldn't
find a pattern they liked remember this was just
like before the internet really early 90s so
you couldn't patterns came from magazines So
knitting patterns, crochet patterns all came
from magazines or books or yarn companies where
you would go to the shop and you would buy a
pattern. So sometimes people couldn't find what
they wanted or they wanted something to fit because
they had an interesting body shape as we all
do. So I had been doing sort of custom designing
before when I had the shop and I thought, oh,
I need to stay, I've been buying yarn at wholesale.
So I needed to like keep myself in yarn. send
a proposal to a magazine because I looked at
a magazine, I thought, I've done better work
than this. And the first proposal I ever sent
to a magazine was accepted. And I thought, this
is easy. Of course, it's not that easy, but it
seemed like it was easy. I even had, it was for
a felted pot holder, I think. And the letter
that I sent, and this was a letter. This is like
a typed, mailed letter. This shows you how old
I am. We were mailing letters through the post.
I remember these days. You remember that? You
leave a stamp and all that. And the letter that
I had sent was just, please consider my proposal
for this design, whatever. And that didn't seem
long enough to fill the page. So I also wrote.
felting has been popular in my area recently,
I'd be happy to write an article to go with the
design. And a few days later, I got an acceptance
for both the design and the article. So look,
that's what they call it, right? I was like,
this is easy. Now I worked with that editor for
many years and probably eight years later, I
said, Jean, how did you like, you never heard
of me, how did you know that I could even write
an article? And she said, we could tell from
your, let's face it, it was a four sentence letter.
She said, we could tell from your letter that
you could write well enough, we could edit it
if we needed to. I was like, okay. So that's
how my design career kind of got started was
just not on a whim, but it was me trying to somehow
monetize Just enough to keep myself in yarn because
Yeah Well, of course I used to live in Canada
where people wore a lot of sweaters and so I
was heavily into a knitting group But they were
really also spinners and weavers Which is I it's
like the precursor to you because they got to
spin the wool in order to get right and it was
fascinating these girls They literally it was
like that. They were from ancient times it was
like they were from like 3 ,000 years ago because
they could walk and Spin as they walked because
as they explained back then you weren't sitting
around you were spinning in order to make a You
know a little bit of fabric took a lot of stuff
to make and you know, so it's an ancient craft
It's like so old like it's from the beginnings
of man. They figured this out you know after
bear skins got a little rough they're like oh
let's make this hair and a little something smoother.
We have to figure out how to make fabric right?
I mean seriously it goes back so far do you feel
part of that that history that heritage that
eons ago kind of a. Right and the thing about
modern Knitting and crocheting and spinning and
weaving and and whatever needle felting all of
those We're we're in matched. Of course back
then we were everybody Everybody knew how to
do all the things because that's how you yeah
finished clothing, right? But I just got back
from Maryland sheep and wool. Well, I just got
back from H &H America's but for that I went
to Maryland sheep and wool where we where we
have the shepherds and we have the spinners and
we have the dyers and we have just the entire
gamut from wool on the hoof all the way through
the finest shawls and sweaters and so on. So
that's fun. That Maryland sheep and wool and
then Rhineback, of course, in the fall are two
of the big fiber festivals. And if you are a
yarn fanatic, go to those because that's really
it's for all ages and and you know if you're
into jewelry there's stuff there you're interested
in too so it's it's a really fun type of event
to go to. I had somebody from our group on um
I forgot her name right now but she only uses
like one breed of whatever her sheep. goats.
I'm not sure which one it was, but and then like
that that is like what she searches for this
one kind of breed that's within like a radius
where she could drive to to go get their yarn.
Are you kind of like that too, like very specialized?
No, I am very much a generalist and I generally
use commercially available yarn because I need,
I do this for a living, you know, and sometimes
we We have to either specialize or generalize
depending on what our business plan is so I do
tend to use I'm not a spinner. I'm going to I'm
going to spin when I retire But I'm not retired
yet, so I'll take that up later, but I certainly
know plenty of spinners But I generally use yarn
that you can purchase At a yarn shop because
if I'm selling patterns or I'm teaching or something
people want to be able to use the same yarn exactly
and the colors that are available which is the
other problem is because on custom dyed things
and people will be like oh what's that about
because i don't have that it's like yeah so tell
me a little bit about h &h because i Could have
gone I didn't go. I just kind of have a lot going
on. I'm I'm still reeling from it It was a lot
of peopling, you know, it's a big show. It was
bigger this year than last year that it's full
of yarn and fabric and there were embroidery
kits and and needle felting and Wow, I mean I
think there were 24 aisles and I don't know how
many vendors but I was there for the whole show
for three full days. I didn't get to everything.
Um, it was, it was enormous. This is for those
who don't know the H and H America's trade show
is where yarn shops and fabric shops and designers
and any anybody in the yarn or fabric industry
goes to learn about new products and meet with
vendors and network with each other and had an
amazing time and didn't sleep much and Lots of
people came home with COVID so far so good. I
seem to be okay. Wouldn't have occurred to me
that that would be what was on the radar, but
that's okay. Apparently a lot of people, you
know, there was a lot of talking going on. We
were talking to each other a lot. Which is of
course. The energy, it must have been so great.
Did you come home like inspired and like with
some new ideas? I have an entire notebook of
follow -up emails that I need to be sending or
have sent. And yeah, and it's just taken me three
days. This is Thursday. I don't even know what
day it is. It's taking me several days just to
kind of unpack and figure out where my head is.
Did you see Abby? I did see Abby. I saw Abby
a couple of times. She was up at the front of
the room a lot of times, behind the microphone
and behind the podium. She's wonderful. She gets
my hats off. I know she's the real deal. She
really cares about her peeps. And I hope that
she makes it to H &H Europe, or whatever they
call it over there, because that would be a whole
other level of action. But not that that would
be anything bad, but it's also kind of good to
know your American counterparts and who all's
here. Well, and I met a fair number of people
from the UK as well, and there was a whole German
pavilion with, because of course H &H is, Colin
Misa I think runs it, and they're a German company,
so there was a whole German pavilion. Irish,
like I say, there were a lot of people from other
countries, Mexico. And that makes sense because
they do a lot of, it's a lot colder there. I
mean, like in Texas, you know, I was wearing
a sweater here in the house yesterday, but that's
because I had the AC on too low. But I also know
that when I lived in Canada, I was making pins
that coordinated with the really beautiful yarns
that they had like all these multi -colors and
then they would like that's what you would close
your shawl with right but here we just don't
see in Texas you know our warm weather is more
than our cold weather right you don't have a
lot of need for all that maybe a beanie cap or
a scarf something like that that's like your
beautiful scarf you have on today which i'm sure
you made it is and this is cotton So it would
be something you would wear in Texas for too
much air conditioning. And it has a lot of holes
in it. It has a lot of holes in it, as does the
one behind me. Oh, that's beautiful, too. That's
gorgeous. It can be a scarf or a shawl. I grew
up in Georgia, so although I live in Virginia
now, where we do have some cold weather, I don't
think I had a winter coat every winter when I
was growing up because we just didn't need it.
So yeah, I know what you mean. Well, what was
some of the new stuff that you found that was
really interesting that you saw at this convention?
Because you're a great spot for us to get a little
bit of behind the curtain of what we missed.
Right. Well, I will admit that I spent more time
with the yarn people than the fabric people.
So that's just because there were so many boots.
So I can't really speak to the fabric as much.
What I did see a lot of were craft kits, needle
felting, embroidery, wood, like little wood ornament
kits. So there seems to be a trend where people
want, like they're branching out a little bit
into other crafts. And so there were quite a
few interesting kits available that were not
knitting, crochet, or sewing. necessarily. So
that was kind of the main thing I saw. I didn't
see a huge amount of what I thought was new yarn.
There was an interesting new C cell yarn. So
yarn made from seaweed, which was an interesting
thing. And I've, and I heard buzz. There was,
there was one company that had it, but then I
heard some buzz that some other companies are
coming out with a similar fiber. I guess fiber.
So that will be interesting to see and what I
felt felt really nice so I'm going to be excited
about. Oh exciting. I saw something yesterday
about how pineapples had been used for fiber
for a really long time and I was like I don't
know how that works but I can't even imagine
like 10 times more I can't imagine seaweed. You
know, some magic happens between the ocean and
the ball of yarn, and we have to know what that
is. It's like it's got to dry. And some other
stuff, right? Well, I love it that we're all
being more adventuresome and trying our new products
and that also all of these technologies are really
trying to, I mean, I don't think you can ever
replace an Angora sheep or a rabbit or whatever
for that softness. But if they're figuring out
things, I just read that they figured out how
to make wood stronger than steel. These are really
big things that we don't know how they will develop.
in the years to come, but it's certainly on our
radar. I'm always looking to see what's out there
that's new and product -wise because that interests
me, right? And some of the discussion that I
heard in the aisles and so on was certainly around
sustainability. We want to save the planet and
reuse things at the same time. We need to keep
our stores in business. And if everybody is reusing,
recycle, go to thrift stores. Taking apart their
old sweaters. Taking apart their old sweaters
then they're not buying you and that's not supporting
the business of maintaining our local yarn shop
or in local fabric shops. So it's an interesting
dichotomy where we're trying to sort of balance
what sort of materials we're using and what we're
taking from the earth versus you know, we also
want, like, I want my local yarn shops to succeed
and my local small businesses to succeed. So
that was just kind of an interesting discussions
going on around that topic. Yeah, because ships,
their fur is always going to grow and it has
to come off every year. So that's a product of
something, like it's got to be made into something.
It just can't be like, you know, gotten rid of.
So these are really, these are things that really,
I think it's such a great material to be using
up things that are naturally, it's not hurting
an animal, for example, it's just, you know,
and it doesn't require a lot of energy. Like
if you were melting down metals or something,
you know, there's a lot of, but this is just
kind of like somebody goes out there and then
there's all the behind the scenes. But I'm just
saying, like, it's a pretty, It's a low -tech,
high -tech world out there. Well, and that's
maybe for sheep's wool, but there's so many other
fibers and I can't pretend to speak knowledgeably
about the environmental impact of any particular
fiber. It's just something that was kind of in
the wind, if you will. Yeah, it's a discussion
for sure because right now we have everything
else that's being taxed or tariffed or whatever
to death. So, and I'm sure there's a lot of great
fibers that are just made here in the U .S. So
you're, you know, you must have a pretty good
pool. So now let's talk about your patterning.
So I've had people on here that were crochet
people and I've had people that are knitting
people. So I know you kind of do a little bit
of both, right? Right. So I started as a knitwear
designer and knitting was all the thing. Crochet
is having a moment now. Finally, should I say
finally? I was a professional knitwear designer.
In other words, I was getting paid to design
sweaters and other things for a decade before
I ever started doing crochet. And I got a call
one day in 2004, maybe out of the blue. Is that
right? I can't even remember what year it was.
90, 92, yeah, 2004. Maybe 20, 21 years ago. What
year are we in now? I don't know. Somebody said,
this is, I'm not gonna say your name, but this
is so -and -so from Story Publishing. We heard
that you know how to crochet, and I said, yes.
This was an actual phone call. I'm holding my
hands like we phone. It was that kind of phone,
you know, regular landline. It wasn't this kind
of a phone. It was a punch button, but it was
still a phone phone. And I said, Yes, and she
said we we're thinking about doing a book and
we would wonder a crochet book. Would you like
to write it and I was like How did you get my
name? And she said we've been working with Margaret
Radcliffe who was doing a similar book for knitting
and we asked her if she knew anybody Who crocheted
and and she gave us your name now Margaret and
I have known each other for a long time We're
both knitwear designers. Um, you know back in
the day. So I said, I don't know that I know
enough about crochet I mean, yes, I know how
to do it, but I don't know that I know enough
to write a book and she said, well, just think
of all the questions you have and then answer
them. And so I did and it became the crochet
answer book which is sold hundreds of thousands
of copies. It fell into my lap for me to say
yes to this thing that I. didn't know if I knew
how to do it. But then from then on I became
known as a crocheter. I've written several other
crochet books which most people know me for.
They don't know that I knit. I'm actually a pretty
good knitter. But I also, lately I've been doing
a lot of technical editing for knit and crochet
because it's hard to make living as just a knit
or crochet designer. So I do a lot of other things
and always have. I've always had multiple income
streams over the over the decades to sustain
myself. Yeah, it really is. It is the answer.
I mean right now jewelry sales, for example,
are way down because nobody's going to work and
dressing up and they're not buying things. Right.
But I've pivoted to books and I'm having fun
with that. So it's constantly you got to be thinking,
okay, what am I gonna do? So, I mean. Right,
and a lot of people think, oh, it would be so
nice to just have a job where you can sit and
knit or make jewelry or crochet all day. And
the number of hours I do that compared to the
number of hours I do all the other things, I
probably spend, I don't know, 3 % of my time
producing an item. compared to all the other
stuff that goes with that. So it's certainly
not sitting around crocheting. I have a full
-time job for a multinational giant company but
yet when I'm not busy my other computer is right
next to that one and I segue over or make my
jewelry or pack jewelry or whatever I do like
it's a constant like but I do put in at least
11 hours five days a week and then half of a
day on the weekend so I get a day and a half
off geez to clean the house and all that kind
of stuff but you know because as an entrepreneur
it takes grit it takes survival skills just to
be able to keep my hat in the game. So I am with
you, doll. It's a lot of fun. My husband, if
you said, oh, would you like do this little entrepreneurial
thing, he would cry, like literally man tears,
like can't handle the thought of that. But then
there's us, people like us, we're like, we can
pivot to this, we can pivot to that, we can go
to this, we can, you know, it's just. And when
COVID came, I had been traveling a lot. I had
been, on the road teaching at least, you know,
probably 15 times a year. So hopping on and spending
a lot of weekends away from home and COVID came
along and everybody's like, oh, I have to work
from home. And I'm like, oh, I get to work from
home because I don't have to get on an airplane.
So that was, you know, that was a change, but
it wasn't that much of a change because I was
already working from home. I wasn't getting dressed
and going to an office. I was getting dressed
-ish and walking into my office. So my commute
didn't change at all. I love being at home, I
have to say. That was the best thing that ever
came out of COVID. So I remember the day I came
home, I'm like, ah, yeah, I'm liking this. Although
it just also ramps up your other parts. I'm responsible
for keeping the house clean and you know making
sure dinner's on the table and the groceries
are on you know like because I'm home but it
is what it is well but you have you have to draw
those lines and say I am working these hours
and like you have to not let it seep into work
which is something I had balanced for years already
because I was already working from home and and
raising children and you know, keeping the house,
whatever. So, you know, just protecting that
work time, I think, is an important skill to
learn. Oh, for sure. Time management, too. So,
I know. So, tell me about your online presence.
Where can people find you? Well, I am Edie Eckman.
everywhere. I don't have a business name. I started
doing this before it ever occurred to us. Well,
I started doing it before we had an online presence.
And so I'm Edie Eckman, E -D -I -E -E -C -K -M
-A -N on Instagram, Blue Sky, YouTube, Facebook.
My email address, like my website is EdieEckman
.com. So I am not hard to find. If you Google
Edie Eckman, You will find me. Actually, I just
Googled myself because, and I put on Facebook
to remind everybody, Google yourself and put
Google alerts on your name because I saw some
stuff on there. I'm like, oh, look at that. I
made it in here. My books are now in Great Britain.
Who knew? But it's something that we should be
doing on an ongoing, but keeping our name, like
you and I both have the same thing, where our
name is who we are. It is a thing. So I appreciate
that. Like, I'm with you because we're old girls.
We started back, I started back the same time
you did. Right. 2000. And I've had my website
gayisware .com since 2002. So it's been a long
time I've been supporting GoDaddy. Right. Well,
I have I have changed hosts a few times. But
exactly. It's It makes it easy, but it makes
it hard to hide. I can't hide behind. I know,
I know. You'll find me. The fun of that. And
all the fun of that. Right, right. Yeah, so are
you going to now be selling kits? Is that going
to be a new thing? I don't think I'm going to
be selling kits, but I did have some, I did make
some notes at various. through various discussions
and round tables at the recent shows. And I'm
not quite ready to say what I'm going to be doing
next. But certainly made a lot of good connections
and need to follow up with some some great opportunities.
And I hate to be cagey about that. But you know,
we can't talk about what we're doing. I will
see things to come. Right. Exactly. One thing
I do have coming up, if anybody's listening to
this. like in real time. I'm starting a new crochet
tech edit along. So a lot of people don't know
how to tech edit crochet patterns and one of
the things I love to do is help professional
designers and teachers and so on get better at
their crafts. And so I'm doing a crochet tech
edit along. You can find out about that. I'll
give you a link so that you'll You'll have added
to the bottom. It'll be in the description of
the podcast with all of your links, of course,
I will, I will share a link to that. So that
starts June 11 so I love for people to join me
in that And where can they find out more about
that. Would that be on your Instagram or your
I it's on my website. It's Edie atman .com slash
crochet edit along But you can find all my classes
on my website. If you go to Edie atman .com and
click on classes there. they'll pop up. I hope.
I know I'm always checking my email on my website
too. It's like I hope that's true. We're assuming
it's true or it will be soon. It will be soon
as I get off the off the zoom call with you right.
Oh my gosh while you're there I just have to
ask did you meet one of our members She's from
Africa, like from Cameroon, Elizabeth. Elizabeth,
yes. Did you meet her? That's the only reason
where I really wanted to go was just to be a
crocheter. Right, so one of the many gigs that
I do is I work with the Craft Yarn Council in
their certified instructors program and that
is a program that they have to help knitters
and crocheters become teachers because teaching
is a skill. You may know how to knit or crochet,
but being able to teach is a different skill.
So the craft yarn council has this program where
they help people become teachers. So Elizabeth
was part of that program. She was assigned to
me as a master teacher, a master evaluator. So
I had the pleasure of meeting her through basically
correspondence course. I mean, she sent me materials
and then we met over, I think it was Zoom, it
might have been Skype or whatever and had a little
interview. So I've known her for several years
and she does amazing work teaching kids in Africa.
So that's... I just want to make a collection
and buy her yarn because I think where her project
is such a... heartwarming to me. It's a great
thing. I have one thing of yarn sitting right
over there. I'm like, yeah, that's nothing. That's
not worth mailing it to her. I'm not a yarn person.
It's amazing work. I think last year she won
the Golden Scissors Award at H &H for, I don't
remember what the category was, but yeah. I got
her hooked up with Ness, which is Tori Burch,
so I think she was kind of going forward with
that a little bit. Like she's got she's got the
chop she's got the story and she's a good person
so she's my only really crocheter friend now
besides you so okay but you said we're friends
forever now so we're friends forever now so i
have two crochet friends right i'm knit also
don't forget oh yeah yeah yeah i know but you
know i had one person on that they were just
a crocheter and i said knitter and I got in,
wow, world's a trouble for that. I'm like, it's
two separate things. I'm like, I gotcha, I gotcha.
Working with yarn. They're very similar. I've,
you know, there's been this over the years, there
was some sort of schism going on between knitters
would say, I'm not a crocheter. And crocheters
would say, I'm not a knitter. And I've always
thought that was just ridiculous because you
want to do like, like you can do both. You can
be both. You can You know, you can quilt and
you can make jewelry. And it's OK. Nobody says,
I'm not a quilter or I'm not a jewelry maker.
And like, no, like we can all do both. We can
embrace all of these creative arts without putting
up stupid barriers. I shouldn't say stupid, should
I? But they're stupid. They're stupid barriers.
We don't need barriers. We need to all come together
because we're making stuff. It does charm me
because I remember vividly my grandmother showing
me how to crochet just sitting next to her in
embroidery. And that led me years later to having
the skills to make my first piece of jewelry,
to make my next piece of jewelry. Like it all
started from that time with my grandmother, you
know, doing handiwork. So I have really great
feel. I loved my grandmother. So I love all of
this. It makes it really fun for me to see how
other people have evolved with their skills.
And I think it's really important. You talk about
your grandmother. I learned from my grandmother.
But even if we don't have grandmothers who can
teach us or grandchildren to teach, I think it
just shows how important it is to pass these
skills along one to one. whether it's friends
or groups or or elizabeth teaching children or
or whatever um just that we we can pass these
skills along because you're passing along relationships
as well for sure well if we ever get together
i'll teach you some jewelry and you can teach
me some crochet right so we are going to be cut
off by zoom because okay it's like law can't
go past this time it's like okay but really it
was Great to meet you. And I really, I appreciate
this time with you today and say your last things
to your fans and then we'll wrap it up. Well,
I love to create confidence in crocheters and
knitters. So look me up on any of the platforms.
Join my newsletter because I send out weekly
tips and I just want you to be confident because
I think the more, you know, the more confident
you are and the more confident you are, the happier
you're going to be with your craft, whatever
that craft is. That's a lovely thing. And thank
you. And thank you for your time today. Thanks
for having a lot of fun having you on the show.
And again, this is Jewelry Stars. Not Jewelry
Stars. That's my TV show. Jewelry is Your Side
Hustle with Sugar Gay Isbur. And today we've
been talking to Adi Eckhart and she is a master
of all things yarn. Oh, I got you mixed up with
that movie star. Sorry about that. I told you
I'm terrible with names. It's a filter problem.
I don't even know my kids' names. Who are they?
I don't know. Anyway, thank you again. And it's
been fun getting to know you. And this thing
is going to time out any second. So I will stop
from it being abrupt. And thank you very much.
And we'll be talking again soon, hopefully, especially
at the Crafty Industry Alliance meetings. Right.
Thanks. Thank you, dear. Bye -bye.