Stitch 'n Dish

Category: Current Events

  • A loss of community

    A loss of community

    Crafters are creative and can transform simple things into works of art. As we continue to process the stages of “grief” around the loss of community that once resided in our neighborhood Joann stores, we can move on into new ways of being in community, finding and/or creating activities and small groups that promise a…

  • New habits, new norms

    New habits, new norms

    I suspect that a decent proportion of my fabric and yarn stashes came from past sessions of “therapy browsing” on Saturday afternoons or evenings at Joann’s, Michaels or in local fabric and yarn shops. While I have created many things over the years from those purchases, I have ALSO purchased a lot of fabric and…

  • Technology: friend or foe?

    Technology: friend or foe?

    To a person, we all have way more fabric/yarn and patterns than we will EVER make in our lifetimes, regardless of how old we are today. If we limit ourselves to only “wanting” patterns that we will actually sit down and make, there’s no reason – ZERO – we can’t afford the handful of dollars…

  • With apologies to my favorite small businesses

    With apologies to my favorite small businesses

    We don’t have to look far to read or hear bad news about the U.S. economy right now. It’s as close as the cost of increasingly smaller bags of groceries, or the mail box where the credit card companies have been sending out notices about increased interest rates since mid-Summer. Consider the data on a…

  • Summer odds & ends

    Summer odds & ends

    Change can be a challenge to navigate, and I am always grateful to the examples set by my grandmother and great-grandmothers on how to keep moving forward when life gets messy. I think it was their generations’ version of meditation, which tracks with so much of the research today around how crocheting, knitting and other…

  • Shopping my values

    Shopping my values

    Last weekend I decided to treat myself to some “me” time, so I mapped out a half-day excursion to an independent fiber store a decent distance from my house. I was excited because I had not been there since they changed hands, and was looking forward to seeing what the new owners have done with…

  • A fiber funk

    A fiber funk

    I have been in a bit of a “fiber funk” lately – otherwise known as a slump, or the loss of my CroJo (not sure what this is when it also extends to knitting!) I haven’t had any inspiration, motivation or even INTEREST to pick up my hooks or needles and crochet or knit. This…

  • That was fast!

    That was fast!

    My hope for assistance in avoiding mindless fabric and yarn shopping was short-lived. In fact, it didn’t even last a week! On May 31, 2025 the remaining Joann stores closed for good, and today – only 5 days later – the media was filled with announcements about Michaels acquiring Joann’s Intellectual Property (IP) and private…

  • The Joann story (as told by AI)

    The Joann story (as told by AI)

    I had a brief side-hustle at a local Joann store a couple years ago – right before the bottom fell out. As a long-time shopper and a former employee, I have been most interested in the trajectory of the bankruptcy and its eventual, and if we are being honest, expected, ending. On my other blog…

  • Analog time in a digital world

    Analog time in a digital world

    This past week was a whirlwind. I returned from a week at Walt Disney World in Florida with my kids and grandkids (flight landed Sunday), and Monday I had a professional conference to attend. It was an all-day event, and although it started earlier than I would have wanted after a week away, it was…