Getting Started . . .

A couple in their 40s is starting a yarn shop despite having absolutely no retail experience.  Sounds like a mid-life crisis to me!

But, it’s not.  Patrick and I have been married for 19 years this month.  Until five years ago, I was practicing medicine (Family Practice) here in Central Wisconsin – and I loved it!  Unfortunately, I developed debilitating migraines that make it impossible to practice medicine.  After I quit working, we moved about 6 miles down the road to Weyauwega and I have been a stay-at-home mom homeschooling my two kids.  (Patrick was the homeschooling parent when I was working full-time.)  Patrick got a teaching certificate for secondary math and set up MathTools, a tutoring business.

I learned to knit a couple of years before I quit working.  At first, it was just scarves and hats.  When I took a three month leave from work, I made my first couple of sweaters.  Since then, I have been absolutely hooked!!  I love fibers – my current favorite is Alpaca.  Patrick and I have jokingly talked about opening a yarn shop, but I never took the idea seriously because I know how much work it’s going to be.

Patrick brought it up again about six months ago, but this time he was serious about it.  He knows how to crochet and is learning to knit.  He’s not quite as passionate about fibers as I am, but he enjoys working with them.  He also loves wood-working and is planning to learn to turn knitting needles and shawl pins.

So, we’re starting a yarn shop!  And, it’s the best of all worlds.  Patrick will manage the day-to-day “gotta get done now” stuff, while I will be involved mostly with choosing what to sell, how to decorate the store, etc.  Basically, I can work when my headaches aren’t bad; I can sit in the shop and knit when the headache is moderate; and I can stay home with an ice pack on my head when it’s bad.  When I can be in the shop, Patrick can use his extra time to do his wood-working, some of which we can then sell.

Where are we now in shop planning?  Good question!  We sign the lease on the shop space tomorrow.  We have the LLC set up as “The Knitting Nest”, so Patrick will probably open our bank account tomorrow.  We have an appointment to talk with someone about artwork and a webpage (that will link to this blog).

We are talking to someone about buying some local wool and having it spun into yarn at a Wisconsin mill.  We want to visit the mill and see how the wool goes from fleece to yarn.  In the shop, we plan to have pictures of all the steps in processing wool to educate our customers.

We’ve also got an idea about fixtures (shelves, etc.).  We will be meeting with the accountant to learn to do our bookkeeping. 

And, eventually, we’ll order yarn!!  The locally produced yarn will probably be 10-15% of our inventory.  The rest will be high quality brands of all different types of fiber.  And we’ll have all the other things that knitters/crocheters need – needles, hooks, stitch markers, etc.

As you can see, there’s still a good bit to be done, but we think we can open in early Fall.  Keep an eye out for blog updates!

Tomorrow – my current knitting projects and some pictures (I hope)