Crafters Gonna Craft
Well, like any crafter with an ounce of audacity, I looked at something and thought "I bet I could make that" and Novel Notions was born.
I've been knitting for over 20 years and have always loved collecting cute accessories and notions. I have handmade project bags sewn by dear friends and local crafters, I have cute jars, tins, and pouches to hold all my bits and bobs, and of course I have a myriad of stitch markers.
Like many crafty folks, I need to keep my hands busy lest I engage in less desirable behavior like picking at my cuticles and nails. I discovered these adorable little things called "pick pads" where people submerge beads into soft silicone while it's liquidy and when it cures to a delightfully solid-yet-floppy texture, you can use your grubby little fingers to dig out all the beads now suspended in substrate. I of course immediately bought 3 from an Etsy shop, picked the beads out of their silicone prison for a week or two, and eventually had an entire cup full of beads to show for it (along with some rather mangled pucks of pitted silicone). As I absently sorted the beads by size, color, cuteness, and shape, it occurred to me that some of my stitch markers had been made with beads on some sort of looped wire. I watched some youtube videos, went to my local Michael's craft store, and made my first few sets of markers using my left over pick pad beads. The rest is history.
I have felt no temptation to make any other sort of beaded odds and ends, the jewelry crafters of the world will likely never add me to their glorious ranks. I truly just love making stitch marker sets. I love having sets with one special marker for projects that need a Beginning of Round marker, or projects with some other need for one particular distinction. There is something so satisfying to me about casting onto a project knowing I have a matching set of stitch markers to employ. I hope to bring this oddly satisfying experience to any and all knitters.