About us

Kraftykiwis is the online presence of Woolly Valley and The Embroidery Shop.

The shop is owned by Diane and Bill McDonald. We started out buying Woolly Valley in Kilbirnie, Wellington in 1995. Over time we opened up a shop in Johnsonville and then branched out and purchased The Embroidery Shop in Masterton. As any retailer will tell you running a shop is not easy, and overheads such as ever increasing rents make things very differcult. We had to make some hard decisions along the way and decided to close our Wellington shops and retain The Embroidery Shop in Masterton and add Woolly Valley into it's business.

I really enjoy cross stitch and knitting. I learnt to knit watching my mother, and started off with peggy squares. I remember my Oma (Grandmother) came to visit us in New Zealand from Holland when I was in my early teens and she helped me knit more peggy squares that we sewed together into a big blanket. When I first went flatting that blanket was my bedspread. My first ever garment was a jersey that I finished just before I went on my O.E. when I was 20.

I learnt the basics of how to cross stitch when I was at intermediate, making little bookmarks on aida banding that I sold to my friends at school for 50 cents. (Now I'm really showing my age). Like any stitcher I have lots of UFO's or Projects on the Go, and I make little resolutions with myself to get things finish before starting other projects, sometimes this works and the UFO pile goes down but then I treat myself with a new project and the cycle starts again.

At the Embroidery Shop, We have three lovely ladies who look after our customers and the shop for us. Brenda, Nola and Andi all share the load, and they all stitch or knit. They often tell me they  work so they can earn the money to buy their next project. I guess some of us are like addicts when it comes to knitting and stitching.  If you are passing through Masterton and pop in you may find them stitching or knitting if they can snatch a bit of quiet time, and they love to show their projects to you, we all also like to see the varied projects that our customers are working on so please do bring some of your work in to show us as well.

This website is a work in progress, which I expect to take months to get really up and running, so please come back and visit regularly to see what has been added.

Happy Stitching  

Diane