Monday, May 13, 2013

Featured Artist: The Needle House


The Needle House is a shop that has been with The CraftStar since we first launched over a year. I think nearly everyone on our team owns at least one set of colored dishcloths or an afghan from this store. Eva Harder is the brains and the brawn behind the business name and this week she's our Featured Artist. 


Eva Harder and her husband Denny live in Southern Minnesota. They have have been married for 51 years.  Together they have two children, both sons, and a grandson.


As a youngster Eva was taught how to embroidery and sew.  In her late teens her Great Grandma taught Eva how to hand piece quilts which she started but never finished. Then when she started her first job, her bosses wife taught Eva how to knit and the rest is history. The boss would sit at work knitting needles in hand making sweaters, but as it turned out afghans were Eva's forte. Eva loves to recline in her recliner in the evenings with her knitting needles or crochet hook and work on afghans. She started making stocking caps on the knitting machine about 25 years ago but when she couldn't get the yarn she liked anymore she went to making dishcloths and they have done very well. The dishcloths have a lot of repeat customers purchasing them and are a huge seller. Eva has been doing craft shows for about 31 years but now only does 2 or 3 big ones a year. It keeps her busy in her “retirement years”. 


It's often hard to to narrow down your favorite item in your entire shop so asking Eva to do this was exceptionally discouraging. It took a bit but she finally settled on one of her afghans. Eva makes a lot of afghans to sell or give as gifts. Can you believe she's never kept one for herself? This cable knit one is her absolute favorite. It takes a lot longer to complete than most of her other ones but it's certainly a best seller. The best part is that shipping is included in the extremely reasonable price!


Of course we also needed to know what items currently for sale on The CraftStar Eva was most impressed with and this week she picked some really great finds. She picked this brown scarf by Annes Knits, these blood splatter coasters by Queen of De Tile, and this adorable dog tag by Poochy Couture! 




You can find The Needle House on social media at the following locations: Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest.

Head over to her social media sites and say hello. You will never meet a nicer woman and the fact that she makes a product that helps us with the dishes makes her all the better! 



1 comment:

Unknown said...

So jealous of that stash!