Category: Uncategorized

Well here we are again in the busy shopping season, in the throws of yet another Canada Post strike. Except – surprise! – we got no notice of this one so I have many outgoing and incoming parcels (including necessary supplies) stuck in transit indefinitely. I am trying not to be irritated about things that are not within my control here, but I am growing increasingly frustrated with the options for shipping my products. I am still able to ship with Stallion Express and ChitChats within Canada, AND to the US, but the ChitChats plugin has been broken for a month with no resolution in sight. Something to do with the API for the new tariff codes. I am about to go disable all the CP options and re-enable the Stallion Express choices so I can finally get some options available for customers in the USA. Etsy is still rolling however, so please do feel free to purchase through my Etsy shop if you are having a hard time here.

I understand postal union members have to do what they have to do, but for everyone’s sake I hope they are back to work sooner rather than later. Whether I will resume shipping with them within Canada (convenient, relatively affordable) or remain solely with alternative carriers (less convenient, more affordable) in future remains to be seen. Shipping to the States with CP is probably out forever unless the tariffs change yet again, since they don’t let you send duty free (even on qualifying duty free products) for reasons I do not fully understand.

Online selling for small handmade businesses is changing, that’s for sure. A few years ago it was not even a difficult situation, just pop it in the mail and move on. I’ve never been really into the local handmade market circuit as it turns out the people who most want to buy my items are not necessarily local to me, and of course this problem is not unique to my shop. I’m going to keep sending things out however I can for as long as I can, and if that means 45 more apps and some paperwork then so be it, ha!

Thanks for reading if you made it this far!
-Heather

Hello friends, yes I am back with another update on shipping to the USA. But this time, I have good news! Since my products (hats and stockings at least, so far) qualify and have been approved for duty-free treatment under CUSMA, I can and will continue to ship there via Chit Chats without incurring extra surprise fees for anyone! Huzzah! But now the bad news is the Chit Chats API is currently showing no shipping rates available in cart to addresses in the USA. I’m working with support (for the plugin and CC directly) to get that resolved, but in the meantime my Etsy shop is good to go if you’d like to purchase through there.

I need to get stock levels for hats updated, both here and on Etsy. I didn’t stock up on huge amounts of yarn this summer since frankly I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to keep running my shop, but I was also able to get my hands on an extra shipment of the former (now out of production) yarn, from 2024 and before, so I’m going to make a new second listing with the old photos so you can see the exact differences before purchasing.

I am incredibly hopeful that this will be my last update on the topic of American shipping. It’s been stressful and confusing, but in the end it should be back to business as usual around here, at least for my two best-sellers.

Also while I have you, I am gradually in the process of merging my two creative websites, at least in some ways. I have a (badly neglected) blog, YouTube channel and Instagram dedicated to the process of making things. Since I’ve decided to start dipping my toes into the waters of knitting machine patterns for sale, (you may have noticed the Bella racked rib toque in my Shop – my first paid pattern offering!) I think it will only make sense to share some things back and forth between the two sites, such as video tutorials. So if you see any references to “Heather is Making Stuff”, it is still me. I’m also on Ravelry, and I’m going to be updating the free patterns that I’ve had there for years and adding them here, along with some refreshed branding and photos, perhaps a video tutorial or two, and so on.

Cheers,
Heather

Hello friends! I am back with another shipping update. I am trying to work out why ChitChats isn’t showing rates to the US (either here in cart or in my account directly on their site.) I have submitted the paperwork I need to submit and I believe it might start showing rates again once that is officially approved? I dunno man I’m trying my best, lol. In the meantime if you do not see any shipping rates available to the USA, you are not alone. I hope to be able to resume shipping there shortly and without extra costs.

Surprise, it’s another shipping update! As we continue to navigate changes regarding new duties and tariffs to the US, I will likely be forced to increase my Etsy listing prices for buyers in the US as of August 29th, OR change to a calculated shipping method instead of free shipping to avoid getting hit with extra shipping charges.

This website is already setup for calculated shipping, so that should be a pretty accurate estimate of the costs, and likely won’t change. I hope! I am currently still be able to ship (with duties paid by sender or DDP) through ChitChats, so there should not be any surprises at the time of delivery; I am not able (or willing) to send via Canada Post DDU to the US at this time. I apologize for any confusion and will do my best to keep prices as close to the same as I can.

If you, as a US customer, see any shipping rates in the cart here that start with “Canada Post” or “USPS” just avoid those for now. They are part of the ChitChats options, but I can’t disable them. Etsy has already disabled the ability to ship with Canada Post, and I have disabled all Canada Post live rates for US addresses on my site.

Luckily, if you are a Canadian customer, it’s business as usual, and you can select any available shipping method your heart desires on this site. Etsy has removed the ability to purchase Canada Post labels through them full stop right now, and this will be the same for Canadian buyers I believe, but I can purchase them directly from Canada Post as required for Etsy, so you shouldn’t feel much of an impact at this time.

My hats have always been made in Canada with American-spun, 100% wool, and will continue to be for as long as possible. The stockings are usually made (by me, in Canada) with acrylic yarn spun in Mexico. I am still working on double-checking and updating HS codes for those and making sure all my paperwork and labeling is up to scratch for the new policies. I’ve always had clear labeling that complies with the Textile Labeling Act, including country of origin, my manufacturer CA#, and all that good stuff, but even with all that, recently I have had some hats sit in customs for up to 8 days. I hope the impacts of all the new policies don’t mean extensive delays or packages getting returned or seized, but at this point it’s a bit of an unknown.

My wonderful US-based customers have been incredibly supportive over the years, and I do not want to stop shipping to the US if at all possible, so please bear with me during this period of flux. If you have any questions about shipping rates, please send me a message and I will do my best to find out the answers.

Well, what a year 2024 has been over here! I definitely wasn’t counting on a postal strike during my busiest season, or that my longtime supplier of yarn for the moose hats would announce they are ceasing operations in the new year. I don’t know that I’ve ever had to pivot so much as I have this year, but you know what they say about the only constant in life being change…

The good news is Canada Post is back to delivering, so I will re-enable their shipping methods shortly once they have had some time to work on the incredible backlogs they are dealing with. I will also keep all the other options available as well. If you see a whole lot of shipping options available in the cart and are confused about what to choose or who the carriers are, feel free to reach out.

Regarding the yarn, it’s definitely a bummer, but I have found a replacement yarn that I actually really love. I am working on getting photos of the new hats, as well as some side-by-side comparisons with the original style, and finalizing sizing. It changes the gauge a little bit as it’s a bit thicker, but the extra warmth certainly doesn’t hurt. Here is a photo of the new adult size:

I had planned to bring in at least one more shipment of the original yarn before operations completely cease in Feburary, but with all the shipping delays I am not sure it makes sense anymore. All of that is a long-winded way of saying that the moose hats are coming back in stock as soon as I can figure out what I am doing with regard to yarn and take some new photos, which should be early in January.

I also knit a lot of stockings this year, and have enjoyed getting to work on some really fun designs, such as these beauties:

I have a few new products I’d like to start offering in the new year as well that I’m currently working on, so be on the lookout for that as soon as I can find the time. (Where does it go?)

I can’t thank you all enough for your continued support this year through all of the challenges and changes that have come for us all. I am so thrilled to be able to create things that people enjoy, year after year, and I look forward to doing more of the same in the upcoming year. Wishing you all the best for the holiday season and a very happy new year. Bring on 2025!
-Heather

Hello again! It recently came to my attention that live shipping rates were not properly being displayed across all browsers in all circumstances, d’oh! I have (I believe) fixed the problem in two ways:

1. In the cart (which slides open from the side,) you will no longer have the ability to calculate shipping. It was causing some issues when switching between cart and checkout. You should now only see something like this:

2. I have also adjusted the checkout page to a slightly less “fancy” version and made some cosmetic changes. It appears to be working correctly across all the browsers I have tried, both mobile and desktop, and should give you a variety of options like this:

These options will be sorted from least to most expensive, and are live rates based on your cart contents calculated by the two carriers I am currently using in place of Canada Post. If anything here seems out of sorts cost-wise, it is always possible something is going haywire in the cart, and I’d be happy to get you a proper quote as a human being, haha.

I hope that clears up the issues with checkout for now. As always if something looks bananas, please reach out. Thanks!

Due to the ongoing postal strike, I have temporarily deactivated all Canada Post shipping options so that you can’t select them by accident. Everything you see is – or should be – an available shipping method to your shipping location. I apologize for the increased postage on formerly-lettermail-eligible small items, but I don’t really like to ship without tracking anyhow.

I hope this allows everyone to see what options are available while we wait for the return of Canada Post. Thanks!

Hi everyone. As the Canada Post strike is still ongoing with no end in sight, I have updated my website with the ability to select ChitChats shipping instead. These are live rates, and reflect the available options to your shipping address. If you have any questions about these rates, or if something doesn’t look right, please let me know (heather at rainbowsquirrel dot ca). This option seems to be available everywhere in the US – they hand off to the USPS for delivery – but in Canada there are some places where they are unable to deliver. In certain locations a courier may be possible, but the cost can be prohibitive. If you’d like a quote, please let me know and I can look into available shipping options. Thanks!

Hi everyone! Please note that I am making some website changes at the moment. Things may look or act a little funky over the next little while, but hopefully everything will be better than ever when all is said and done. If you have any questions or think something isn’t working right, you can always email me, and my Etsy shop (RainbowSquirrelCA) will be unaffected by these changes.

The downside of being the only one here is that I get to do the website work in addition to the fun stuff 🙂 But also, no one yells at me if I break everything, so I guess it’s not all bad.

Hi everyone! Thanks for stopping by the new website. You may remember me from Hippeez Cloth Diapers. I have now expanded my product line away from diapers and baby items. I am still offering Hippeez swim diapers, though I am no longer making fitted diapers on a regular basis. I can do them by custom request, but the diaper-making landscape has changed significantly since I started making them a decade ago. So has my family – no babies anymore! – and I have moved into knitting machine work as well.
I will try to post regular blog posts about relevant topics to the shop, but since when have I ever been good at regular posting, ha ha.
In any event, thanks for checking out the site, and I hope you see something you like.
Cheers,
Heather