Knitting Hobby Crafts It’s Way Into A Business

MLive.com:

Ruth Boelkins resisted her mother-in-law’s crafty suggestion for years.

“(She) kept trying to push me to pick up needles and yarn,” said a smiling Boelkins, 38, of Jenison.

She longed for a creative outlet but didn’t think knitting was the answer. Then, about five years ago, Boelkins surrendered — finally picked up a pair of homemade needles fashioned from dowels and let Barb Boelkins teach her how to make a scarf.

“I was just hooked,” Boelkins said. “I remember that I forgot to make dinner the first day that I came home with my project. It was perfect because it was portable, small and simple — and affordable.”

Before long, Boelkins was knitting hats and other little gifts. A friend saw a felted purse in a magazine and suggested she try that, too. She found she was making adjustments to the pattern as she knitted hers, which quickly led her to start creating purses and hats of her own design.

She took notes in her journal, so she could recreate the items, and began selling them locally under the name nonstop knits.

In 2004, Boelkins’ sister-in-law encouraged her to get a table at Bizarre Bazaar in Eastown. The hand-knit items sold well, and Boelkins started taking custom orders. She sold handbags online for a couple of years and recently opened an etsy.com shop. However, most of her business is local, heavily driven by art sales and word of mouth.

Her latest design, a hockey toque hat, has become all the rage at Georgetown Ice Arena, where her sons, 12-year-old Adam and 9-year-old Ethan, play hockey.

“My intention was that Adam would have a cool hat,” she said.

He started wearing it to the rink and a coach commented on it, so she made hats for all the coaches. Then, parents started requesting hats for their kids.

Boelkins credits Barb Langerak, co-owner of Country Needleworks, in Jenison, with giving her the push to start selling her patterns. Langerak said she would sell Boelkins’ pattern for a felted purse if she would write it down.

“She really just took it and ran with it,” Langerak said. “Her patterns do well. We’re so happy for her success.”

Boelkins’ patterns are appealing to rookies and experienced knitters because the projects are quick to knit, and the directions are very detailed. Boelkins’ hat and purse patterns are made using either size 10.5 16-inch or size 11 24-inch circular needles and don’t require expensive yarns.