Year in Review, Changes Afoot

Year in Review, Changes Afoot

Year in Review

What a year it's been for Artisanthropy. After doing our first two offline shows in the Fall of 2016, we quickly decided we needed a shopfront. I started writing my business plan while looking for potential properties, and by February of 2017, we had settled on exactly the right spot - 79C King St West, in downtown Cobourg. The town was ripe for it - with a huge community of fibre artists, and no yarn shop for miles around, it was an easy decision to make. After working just - so, so hard - you really have no idea - all with a baby usually on one of our backs, we opened up our doors at the beginning of May 2017. And while it felt like it had been a journey just getting to that point, little did we know the journey was actually only about to begin.

The Journey

Since opening up, I've met so many inspiring and interesting people. Citizens of Cobourg, and the surrounding area, and tourists alike, all with a story to tell about yarn, having a baby while working in a shop, running a business in downtown Cobourg, knitting, crochet, tatting, embroidery, all of it. I have really enjoyed my time meeting and talking to everyone who comes in the door. I am honoured that Artisanthropy has been so welcomed and embraced by the community, and absolutely honoured to have been approached by some of the most talented fibre artists I've met at the shop. I didn't have to look for people to teach the classes I was so looking forward to hosting at Artisanthropy. All of the teachers we've hosted found me, and we look forward to them continuing to teach with us in the new year. If you're local to Northumberland County and have ever wanted to learn a needlecraft or fibre art, now is the time to do it. (Check out our Calendar of Events for upcoming classes).

The journey hasn't only been about meeting people. The journey has also been in the continuous growth, morphing and evolution of the space since we opened it up. Sometimes it floors me how many times we re-arranged the shelving units, how much product is on the shelves now compared to when we first opened, and how frequently I've had to change up displays. It has been a whole lot of work, but every second of it gratifying. Of course, it's all part of the joy of making Artisanthropy ever-better.

Changes Afoot

Back in September, I found out that fibre artist Martina Munroe of the Kniterary in downtown Whitby had put up her business for sale. Intrigued, I immediately investigated. And now the big news: we're growing! On Dec 28, 2017, we took over ownership of Kniterary from Martina. We will continue to run the shop as Kniterary and as it has been, jointly with Hedgehog Stitchery, for the time-being. There will likely be some sharing of products between Kniterary and Artisanthropy, but generally they will each continue to serve their unique communities as they have been.

New Faces at Artisanthropy

What's even more interesting about this changeover in ownership, is that while Martina has decided to retire, she is still interested in being active in the fibre arts community - and she's moved to Port Hope. As part of our transition, Martina will be working at Artisanthropy for the next three months. She will spend Tuesdays to Fridays at Artisanthropy helping out all you wonderful crafters, and Saturdays back in Whitby at Kniterary teaching the classes she has been teaching for 12 years there. Check out Martina's Ravelry profile - you'll enjoy her numerous knitwear designs. Martina's help at Artisanthropy will also extend to weekly Wednesday afternoon drop-ins, more details to come, and she will continue teaching various intermediate to advanced knitting techniques as well in more formal classes, to be set up.

You will also sometimes see another face local to the community, behind our counter: Kelly. While Kelly normally teaches needle tatting for us, she will also now be helping out whenever Martina is unavailable, and I'm not able to be in Cobourg.

In the meantime, you will still see my face at Artisanthropy on Saturdays, where I'll be continuing our morning drop-ins, cleaning up, re-arranging things and all that other fun shop-keep stuff.

I am floored by both the support we've seen online and in-shop for Artisanthropy to date, and we look forward to bringing you more creative endeavours in 2018!

Back to blog