How We Got Here

How in the world did an electrical engineer from Louisiana and a family doctor from Florida end up opening a yarn shop in Central Wisconsin? That’s a very good question and has a long and involved answer. But, I’ll try to give you a short version.

Patrick and I met in Laville cafeteria at LSU. After he graduated, he went to Colorado Springs to work for a defense contractor. After I graduated, I started medical school at Tulane University in New Orleans. While I was in my 2nd year of med school, Patrick quit his job and moved to New Orleans because we were in love and wanted to get married. So, on June 6, 1992, we got married. Two years later, I graduated from Tulane med school and we moved to Kentucky for my family practice residency. After residency, we moved to Waupaca for me to join ThedaCare Physicians as a family doctor. Whew! That’s the first 28 years of our lives in one paragraph!

I worked for ThedaCare for 10 years as a family doctor and loved it. Our kids were born in 1995 and 1998, and Patrick was a stay at home Dad. In 2006, I quit working because of chronic migraines (despite many, many attempts at traditional and alternative treatments). Patrick got his teaching certificate to teach high school math and started MathTools, a math tutoring business. We’ve homeschooled our kids this entire time. When I was working full-time, Patrick was the “homeschooling parent”. After I quit working, I supervised their education. OK, there’s another 10 years of our lives in a paragraph!

In about 2001 or 2002, I started knitting, partly because I wanted to find a relaxing hobby that would help me keep the migraines at bay but also because the nurse-practitioner with whom I shared an office wore some amazing sweaters that she knit herself. (True story: One morning, I got into the office and said, “Tina, help!! I started with 15 stitches, but now I have 29!!” Tina looked at my work and showed me that I was making yarn-overs instead of bringing the yarn between the needles when I was going from knit to purl. Thanks, Tina!!) When I quit work, I kept knitting. I found that I could do easy knitting even with bad headaches, and when I was feeling well, I would try more adventurous techniques. Eventually, I was doing socks, cables, entrelac, and lace. And I was (and still am) completely addicted to knitting and yarn!

I would often joke to Patrick that we should open a yarn shop so we could keep up with my yarn needs. About six or eight months ago, I made this joke, but Patrick said, “Why don’t we?” Well, because a yarn shop needs to have regular hours, which I can’t keep because of the frequent migraines. Patrick pointed out, though, that he could be the one to keep the regular hours and make sure things happened when I don’t feel well while I could work only on my good days.

Hmmmmmm. Could this work? Well, after several months of lots of research, hard work, and prayer, The Knitting Nest is open. Patrick is there the vast majority of the time, and I’m there whenever I can be. So far, it seems to be working. (OK, it’s only been a week, but I’m being optimistic!) Patrick has been learning to knit so that he can help customers when I’m not available and so that he can teach classes.

So far, the whole family has been involved in getting this venture off the ground. And we’ve enjoyed it! I can work when I can, and don’t have to feel guilty about staying home on my bad days. Patrick and I are working together, which is good because we really like each other! And the kids are learning a lot about business.

Not exactly a fairy tale and I don’t see any fairy godmothers around (although Patrick makes a great Prince Charming), but that’s how we got here. And it looks like this is going to be a great next stage in life.