LIKE THE WHITE RABBIT, OWNER KEEPS EYE ON TIME

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 8, 1993                   TAG: 9304080479
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: W-15   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By AMANDA BARRETT STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
LIKE THE WHITE RABBIT, OWNER KEEPS EYE ON TIME
Like the tiny door that transplanted Alice to another place in Wonderland, the small, white entrance of the Stitchin' Station opens up to another world.
It's a world of counted-thread work.
Rows of embroidery threads in a prism of colors hang on nails along the walls of the entranceway. Framing pieces and supplies sit on a table in the foyer.
In the main room, finished pieces of cross-stitch and embroidery dot the walls and surround the door frame. To the left is a display of different types of needlework.
Behind a desk, surrounded by paperwork and supplies, sits owner Betsy Hanson.
Like the white rabbit in Lewis Carroll's tale, she is constantly conscious of time's passage as she tries to catch up on her work.
Hanson, who has owned the business for six years, started cross-stitching nine years ago as a hobby.
She took a job in a craft shop and when another business became available, Hanson bought it.
The Stitchin' Station, which cost about $10,000 to take over and stock, was on Main Street in Salem for its first two years. Four years ago, Hanson moved her business to the basement of a two-story brick house on McCauley Drive, across from Salem's Longwood Park.
Hanson, mother of a 7-year-old, considers Stitchin' Station a success.
"In our business, it is said that if you have been in business for three years and are continuing to stay, you are going to stay put," she said.
But, it has been a "trial-and-error" experience for Hanson. "I had to have some retail sales knowledge to do the bookkeeping, framing, ordering, going to markets to select products, teaching classes and preparing taxes - corporate taxes and sales taxes," she said.
And though the sign on the door lists the shop's hours as 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, Hanson has had to put in many more hours.
"This is not a 9-to-5 job. The shop may have set hours but when you own a business, you work a lot more because you are responsible for it," said Hanson, whose mother lives with her and sometimes baby-sits.
"Extra stuff has to be done. You can't just say, `Oh, this can wait until tomorrow' or just pass it off on someone else."
As a certified instructor in Danish techniques, Hanson gives private lessons and teaches classes at the shop, as well as at schools in the area. For people who prefer craft books, she stocks racks of instruction booklets in varying degrees of difficulty.
"Cross-stitching is easy to learn, and you don't have to have any artistic ability to do something nice," said Hanson, adding that her daughter, Katy, has learned.
Running a stitching business is not as simple, though.
"A lot of people think that once you open the shop, you can sit and cross-stitch all day, but that's not true," said Hanson, whose husband, Randy, helps out at the shop.
Stitchin' Station is at 15 McCauley Drive, Salem. The telephone number is 389-5733.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB