We at 3 Kittens are lucky enough to have the most wonderful needle artists in Minnesota come into the shop every day. Whether you’re a yarn-lover, a needlepoint maven – or both – we’re honored to have you with us.

Recently, we’ve been answering a lot of questions about our “house rules,” so we decided to write about it and share it with everyone in case there are more stitchers out there wondering the same things.

As we expect it is for many of you, for us it all comes down to The Golden Rule. Here are the 2 most common ways we love to see you use it toward 3 Kittens AND how we turn it around and “do unto YOU.”

1. Be a good guest. Gosh, we just love to have you here. If we had our way, we’d have a full house every day to sit around the tables and work on projects together. It’s such a privilege to know you all and share in our handiwork with you.

When you come to a 3 Kittens class or Studio session, we ask that you bring a project to work on that you purchased with us at 3 Kittens. After all, it’d be pretty shocking to go to a restaurant and pull out a meal you bought down the road, wouldn’t it? We just ask that you extend us the same courtesy during project classes, Studios, and Embellishment Classes.

That being said, aside from in classes and Studio sessions, we’re ALWAYS happy to help you on ANY project ANY time during regular shopping hours or in a private coaching session. No matter where you bought your project, we’d love to talk with you, find supplies for, ooh and ahh over, or help you with something you bought elsewhere, so don’t feel like you have to keep it a secret that you sometimes “go to the restaurant down the road for lunch.”

2. Share the love. We promise that we will never stop carrying the best yarn, thread, canvases, patterns, supplies, and special goodies. Never! You, the amazing needle artists we love to visit with each day, are our best ambassadors. We love when you tell your friends what you’ve found at our shop, how we’ve helped you, and how much fun you’ve had at our classes. (Just don’t do it while you’re taking a class at that “restaurant down the road!”)

We’re a locally-owned, independent shop, and we couldn’t thrive if we stayed anyone’s “best-kept secret,” so we’ll make sure to stock more than enough treasures to go around.

Since, of course, The Golden Rule is about doing unto others as you’d have them do unto you, shall we discuss what’s in it for you? (This is our favorite part!)

• The 3K Club. The 3K Club is our easy, paperless, and highly rewarding loyalty club. For every dollar you spend in the store, you earn points toward a $50 gift certificate (because freebies at your needle arts shop are always welcome, right?). You’ll also get a birthday bonus, discounts only available to 3K Club members, early sign-up for special events, and pre-sale notifications (so you can grab that skein you’ve had your eye on before anyone else even knows it’s on sale…). Every time you reach 500 points, you will earn a $50 gift certificate. You can spend it on anything in the store: merchandise, classes, finishing—anything! (It’s just like cash so always make sure you put it in a safe place!) And, of course, you’ll get to ring our gong!

You can join anytime, and our most well-rewarded customers make sure they stay in the know on both our Facebook page and with our weekly newsletters. You never know when we’ll throw in double points or a 3K special bonus! Our goal is always to get you to the gong faster… click here to find out more and join.

Not sure if you “like” us on Facebook? Click on over to our page and click “like!” You’ll see our inspirational photos of new items, project pics, new needlepoint finishing arrivals, customers showing off their fabulous completed projects, interesting articles, and so much more! Plus, there are some fun flash sales or bonuses that only go out to Facebook and our email newsletter, so let’s keep in touch!

• We can get you almost anything. And we love when you ask us to, because it gives us a chance to see what’s new and exciting out there and bring it here to 3 Kittens. If you see a new canvas, yarn, pattern, notion, or thread online…we can probably get it for you! We’ve got wonderful relationships with artists, suppliers, and all things needle arts world-wide, so let us bring the good stuff to you. Just call or stop in, tell us what you saw and must have, and we’ll do our best to make it happen.

After all, you won’t get any 3K Club points when you order from someone else online (do we need to remind you about the gong?).

• We give back locally. You and your organizations are more important to us than just handing you a gift certificate. We partner with local schools, organizations, churches, and more to make a huge impact for your cause. Our goal is to strengthen our local community any way we can, including donating up to fifty $10 gift certificates at a time to your group! We’re here for the long haul, and we support you. To find out all the ways we can assist your organization, click here.

• We have exclusives – from yarn to canvas designs. We want to bring you something special and unique whenever we can, so our scrumptious Hazel Knits yarn and our newest Penguin ornament mini-club from Pepperberry Designs are current exclusives. Plus, we’ve just announced the first three of our exclusive Minnesota State Symbols Ornaments designed just for us by Melissa Prince. They’re gorgeous!

We’re just as pleased as can be to have you with us, and we’ll always do everything we can to make your creative life fulfilling, fun, and filled with your favorite needle arts. Thank you for giving us the privilege of being your stitch shop. We’re grateful every day to see your faces (and, let’s be honest) all the creative choices you make on your projects, and we couldn’t imagine any better people to “Golden Rule” with.

Experienced stitchers of 3 Kittens, you can make a difference.

Do you remember when you didn’t know any better than to head over to your local big box store for supplies? Whether it was the same place you bought your milk and eggs or a special crafty big box that sure seemed like it had a lot of choices, but you were too new at your craft to realize all the choices were actually the same…

There are needle artists out there – many of whom are beloved friends and family members of yours – who still knit with yarn that squeaks (squeaks!) and who still stitch with thread that makes it 5 times harder to get a good stitch. There are still folks who have no idea there’s a whole world of canvases, patterns, and fiber that are as lovely to work with as they are to have as a finished product.

There are creative geniuses whipping out hats, scarves, pillows, ornaments, and even sweaters who have never squooshed a skein of alpaca or felt Vineyard Silk in their needles. Really, you could be related to the next needlepoint Picasso or knitwear Michaelangelo, but it’s nigh impossible to make a masterpiece with substandard tools.

Find them, take them under your wing, and bring them in.

They may get weak in the knees at first, but we can give them a refreshing bottle of water and have a nice sit down. They’ll get their strength back and credit you for saving them from the years they could be wasting on plasticky acrylics that feel like grocery sacks* or uninspired canvases destined to be forever-WIP’s, too boring to be finished.

Trust us. You’ll be changing lives.

 

*Unless you are actually knitting with plastic grocery sacks. In which case, carry on, environmental warrior. You can use your new tote to hold some alpaca.