The end of an era.
For the past 24 years we have been happy to mail out a printed
copy of our catalog to anyone who requested one. However, between
increased production costs and the upcoming increase in postal rates,
as of May 1, we will no longer be able to do that. In the US it would
cost us $1.65 to send out one catalog and to Canada, $2.25, which adds
up in a hurry. Instead, we are working on a PDF version of our printed
catalog that you can print off on your home computer. That will also
make the "print" version of the catalog available to our customers
outside North America.
Postage Increases May 12.
Some of the postage increases from the US Postal Service are pretty
significant and we'll have to reflect those in our shipping rates in
May also. The biggest is the jump from $8.95 to $9.80 for the flat rate
priority mail box shipping which we use for large/bulky items (orders
with over 4 skeins of fabric, etc.) so if you're thinking about
ordering those types of things, make sure to do before the rates go up.
Like everyone else, we
have been faced with higher costs of production and are having to raise
some prices. The Rags to Rugs books are going up by $1.00 to $7.95 each
and the Rugmakers bulletins are going up by $.50 each to $4.00 (or
$3.50 each when you order three or more at the same time). The increase
on those items
is the first in twelve years, so we've done pretty well holding
the line on them. Recently, we also found out that someone has been
re-selling our rugmakers bulletins on ebay for a $6.00 starting price.
It's fine with us, and it makes us feel better about having to raise
prices.
Hardback Handbooks are now out of
print. The hardback editions of "Knitted Rag Rugs for the
Craftsman" and "Fabulous Rag Rugs from Simple Frames" are now
officially out of print. Because the printings were not large, they
have become collectors items. We will continue to carry them while our
stocks last and if you'd like your copy signed, just let us know.
For those who have asked as
of April 5th, we have had 15 feet, 6 inches of snow this year--the
third snowiest winter on record. Even with the warmer spring
temperatures,
there is still 3 to 4 feet of snow on the ground, and one very mad
robin in residence.
Now
you can preview the Rugmaker's Handbooks We've
created a new page just for our Rugmaker's Handbook Series which
includes the table of contents and introduction for each of the three
Handbooks. The contents will give you a much better idea of the scope
of the books which are just packed with information for the rugmaker. Preview
the Books
The
end of the snow emergency! We
are now back to a normal shipping schedule even though the snow total
is now over 13 feet. However, it will probably be a few more
days before we can again get into the workshop building, since the roof
is still dangerously overloaded with snow. We should be able to access
the building by the end of the week (Feb 22) so we will be able to
resume shipping fabrics and rug binding at that time. Our
sincerest thanks to everyone for their patience!
Feb.1: The
Governors of Idaho and Washington have declared disaster emergencies
for all of the counties in this area, and we are having to declare a
snow emergency ourselves. The
snowfall has now reached 11 feet (over 4 feet in the last few days) and
we
are having the same difficulties as everyone else getting dug/plowed
out. The roof of the workshop has become dangerously overloaded with
snow so for the time being we are having to suspend sales of fabric
strip (including kits) and rug binding which are located in that
building. We are
also experiencing delays in being able to ship orders (or recieve
mail). We hope to be able to get as far as the post office by Monday
February 4, but with more snow in the forecast we may have further
delays. Thanks for you patience while we are dealing with the emergency
conditions here. Dustcatcher
& Pinch-Pleat Rugs---New Free Instructions If you can sew, you can make a rug in an afternoon with these
shortcut sewn shag rugs. They can be made of all sorts of fabrics, but
the quickest way is using our heavy duty rug binding which is
already
bias-cut and ready to use.
What's
New 
ustcatcher
& Pinch-Pleat Rugs---New Free Instructions