The Crafty Ninja
Hi, I'm Jamie, owner of Crafty Ninja Studio! I'm from Ohio, and currently center most of my work and sales out of Findlay.
I love to work with my hands. My Grandma taught me to crochet when I was very little, and I learned to do leathercrafting and paper crafts such as Oragami while I was in elementary and middle school. Around that time, my Mom put myself and my sisters in a Karate school close to our home, which made me fall in love not only with martial arts, but also with Japanese culture. And finally, when I thought I'd never master using 2 needles to do anything useful with yarn, on of my friends in college taught me to knit.
Knitting and crochet actually helped me focus a lot during classes in college, which got me into the habit of taking yarn with me almost everywhere so my hands always had something to do.
Now I tend to do a lot of my crafting at home, all under the strictest of feline supervision, of course. I do still take it with me - to church, coffee houses, visiting friends... pretty much anywhere.
One of the driving forces behind starting Crafty Ninja Studio for me was not only my love of crafting, but also my passion for buying things made in small-scale, private operations, and my heart for Fair Trade and a desire to see more ethical practices providing high-quality goods, while paying the workers a practical living wage. Fair trade is being found more and more in food, especially coffee, and clothing manufacturers are catching on, but I truly want to see it no longer be a separate label - I look forward to the day where Fair Trade practices are the only practices. This year I decided I was going to do everything I could to start using more sustainable and fair practices in my life (for instance, knowing where my food is coming from, and not shopping at WalMart for anything), but for me it is still a bit of a transition as I'm learning to consider what I am eating, wearing and using on a daily basis. I am currently in the process of weaning myself off of Simply Soft yarn, which has been my favorite for years, but I hope to soon replace it with yarn from such companies as Manos del Uruguay.
