Three Weeks In and Having a Blast!!

The Knitting Nest has been open for three weeks and we’re having a great time!

• The website is up and working.
• Patrick should have a class list up by the end of the day on Monday.
• Our first class starts tomorrow (Monday) and is full!!
• Yesterday was a very busy day.  I think there were only about 15 minutes at a time that we didn’t have customers
• So far, we don’t have any one particular yarn that is selling better than the others.  Customers have been purchasing  a wide variety of items.
• I’m developing a better relationship with the cash register, although it did scream at me once yesterday and I had to get Patrick to help me out.  But, we’re making progress.
• We are getting more yarn next week!!  More info when it comes in.
• Don’t forget Thursday night’s Open Stitch Night from 7-9pm.

If you haven’t stopped by the shop yet, come on by to say Hi!!

The Window

One of my absolute favorite things about our shop location is that we are on Main Street and we have a huge display window. Not only does the window take up most of the front of the shop, but it’s got a very large windowsill, making it ideal to decorate. For people walking or driving by, it will catch the eye if it’s decorated well.

I’m not the most visually artistic person, so I was a little concerned about how we were going to make this huge window look good. Patrick and I were also hesitant to put real yarn in the window because it’s not UV protected.

Not to worry, though! Cathy Speigelberg from Premier Petals and Kasi Pagel from Focusing Life Photography, both Main Street businesses in Weyauwega, came to our rescue! I asked Cathy for help in doing the window and she was more than happy to oblige. Later that day, she came by with Kasi with lots of ideas. One of them was that Kasi would take some yarn to her studio and photograph it so that we would have pictures of yarn instead of actual yarn in the display.

The night before we opened, Cathy came over and made our window look just gorgeous. She used a Fall leaf garland, some wooden apple buckets, three pots of mums, the framed photos, and some magic to come up with this:

Is this amazing, or what?!! I am so excited that other Main Street businesses are supportive of our little shop. I am so grateful to Cathy and Kasi for putting together this beautiful display!

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.

And We Open Tomorrow!!

 

Tomorrow is the Big Day!!  At 10 am, The Knitting Nest opens it’s doors to the public!  So, what are we up to today?  You guessed it – we’re finalizing all the little details.

- Signs to remind people that we have baby yarn, buttons, and sock yarn in the back room.

- Cleaning the window and the front door.

- Last minutes organizing and straightening of yarn and notions.

- Knitting models

- Display window – Cathy (from Premier Petals – down the street) is coming over this evening to set up the window with some help from Lydia.  I’m so glad there are artistic people who can help make our wonderful display window beautiful!

- Social networking (that’s my job!)

We can’t wait to get started on this new adventure of entrepreneurship!!

Yummy Yarns!

 

I LOVE “yummy yarns”.  You know them – the yarns that feel so good to work with and make amazing hand-crafted items.  Alpaca, silk, llama, Seacell, Merino wool, cashmere – if it’s a “yummy yarn”, I want to work with it!  And I have the stash to prove it!

You may wonder, though, why The Knitting Nest only carries a few of these delicious wonders when I am so much in love with them.  Well, as Patrick (the business guy and math tutor) likes to say, “It’s a simple matter of doing the math.”

We were on a budget when starting The Knitting Nest, and we knew that the “workhorse” yarns are REQUIRED!!  When a knitter or crocheter comes into the shop to buy yarn for a project, they need to know that we have the basic fiber types (wool, cotton, acrylic, and blends) in a selection of colors.  So that’s where we spent our budget for initial inventory.

But, now, comes the real fun!!  And the role you can play!  As we get established, we will start carrying more of the “yummy yarns”.  But, there are zillions of kinds of yarns out there!  How do we decide which ones to carry?  That’s where you can help us!  What kinds of yarns (fibers or lines) do you want to see on the shelves?  Which amazing yarns do you have on your wish list?  Leave a comment here or stop by the shop August 23rd or later and let us know.  As we expand our inventory, we will use your input to prioritize our yarn purchases!

Progress–August 1, 2011

Only 22 more days till we open!!  We’ve got tons to do despite all that’s already done.  Here are our most recent accomplishments:

1. We have a logo!!  If you are reading this in a reader, come to the site so you can see the header with the logo.  We are thrilled with the results.

2. The Universal Yarn and Mango Moon Yarn is all priced and placed into wire display cubes.

3. The Cascade Yarn is about halfway priced and put into cubes.

4. The needles and notions are ordered!!

5. Patrick and I discussed the story layout last night, but it is subject to change.

6. I’ve finished one of my shop model projects – a hat with Mango Moon Recycled Silk and Bumble Bee.

7. I’m working on a shawl, a cardigan, and a baby blanket.  I’m glad the kids can help Patrick with the pricing and inventory!!

22 more days!!  Hope to see you then!

A Busy Day

This has been a very busy day for The Knitting Nest.  Every day brings us closer to our opening!

1. We got our Lavishea order this morning!  We got a display box and testers in each scent along with a complimentary “Man Bar”.  We’ve put the  box in our window so people can start to see some of our products.

2. Patrick and I ate breakfast this morning at the Pine Café, a little diner next door to the shop that is only open in the morning.  Not only did we get a yummy start to the day, but we met the owner and let her know about our shop.

3. The Knitting Nest joined the Chamber of Commerce today and Patrick went to the meeting at noon.  We’re becoming part of the community!

4. Patrick made a lot of good contacts at the Chamber meeting today, one of whom stopped by the shop to drop off information about his products and services.

5. Our order from Mango Moon arrived!!  We got Recycled Silk in worsted weight and DK weight as well as Bumble Bee in three colors.  They also sent me a sample of Pastiche, which I LOVE!!  (Maybe we’ll get some Pastiche the next time we order.)

6. A woman from another downtown business stopped in to say that her 8 and 10 year old daughters are learning to knit and are very excited about our opening.

7. Patrick signed us up to host the Chamber’s Business After 5 for the month of August.  We’ll have lots of community business folks through our shop that evening – more ways to get the word out about our little shop.

8. Patrick has the computer, cash register, and Square Up all set up.  We also got a price gun and labels.  It feels so official!

9. Patrick and I went to the Weyauwega Fiber Arts Circle meeting tonight and really had a great time.  Chris, the owner of the Coffee Klatsch was working on a beautiful glass mosaic tabletop.  (I realize that glass is not a fiber art, but we don’t discriminate, even based on craft!  Besides, we like Chris!)   Brandy, whom I had met online, but not in person, came for the first time tonight with her spinning wheel.

10. Brandy taught me and Patrick how to use our drop spindle!  We’ve had it for over a month but Patrick and our daughter couldn’t quite get the hang of it.  Brandy was good enough to show us how to spin the roving into yarn and to help us fix our mistakes.  By the end of the evening, Patrick and I had both made a respectable-looking section of  single-ply yarn!

Yep, it was a busy day.  And now, I’m going to relax for a while before bedtime.  And have happy dreams about beautiful yarn!

Who Am I?

My question is really, “Who am I in The Knitting Nest?” Patrick is the business owner and is going to be responsible for the day-to-day financial workings, getting items priced and on the shelves, etc. While we have been doing most things jointly, there are at least two or three days each week when I'm completely useless for a good bit of the day because of migraines and then another day or two when the headache isn't bad, but I'm just worn out. I don't think I can really count myself as a business manager.  I will be doing lots of knitting of models, helping to teach classes, and various and sundry other things.

I think we should have interesting titles, kind of like how Starbucks employees are “barristas”, Disney employees are “Imagineers”, and Apple sales employees are “Evangelists”. Patrick is the owner, so we can call him “Boss”, “Chief Yarn Dude”, or “Head Honcho”. I wanted to be the “Yarn Goddess”, but after the fiasco with my Fair Isle sweater, I don't think I can equate myself with a deity yet.

Here are some ideas I've come up with for a job “title” for myself:

1. Knitting Aficionado. According to Dictionary.com, aficionado means “an ardent devotee”. That seems to fit, although it's not very inclusive.

2. Yarn Connoisseur. Hmmmmmm. Maybe.

3. Knitting Nest Accomplice. That makes me sound like a criminal. I think not.

4. Yarn and Social Media Maven. Getting closer.

5. Girl Friday. Umm, no.

6. Knitting Nest Gofer and Yarn and Social Media Artiste. Too long.

7. The Mom (my son’s contribution). Rather limited – I'm only “Mom” to two people.

I'm not so thrilled with any of these. What do you think? Maybe I should just be “Catherine” and let people try to figure it out from there?

So, When Are You Going To Open?

We finally have an answer to this very popular question! The Knitting Nest will be open for business starting on August 23^rd. Our hours of operation will be Tuesday – Friday, 10am-6pm and Saturday, 10am-3pm. We will be closed on Sunday and Monday.

We still have a to-do list about a mile and a half long!! It's good to have a deadline, though. We have our primary yarn orders already placed. We will be getting our fixtures (and some yarn, needles, and notions) in the next week or so. We are finalizing things with our website and art designer.

Patrick and I went to Sam's Club today and converted our membership to a business membership (that was pretty exciting!). We also purchased a cash register that we need to learn to use along with a printer, ink, and other less exciting items like toilet paper and trash cans.

For credit card transactions, we are going to be using Square Up. We've already received the little “square” that we swipe the cards through. At Sam's Club today, we bought an ipod for the “square” to hook into. Square Up is a credit card processing company that uses the “square” plugged into an ipod, ipad, or smart phone, hence the ipod purchase. So, another electronic device to learn to use.

It's going to be a very busy 39 days around here!!

Hitting The Ground Running . . .

We are home from Family Camp 2011.  It was a wonderful week of relaxing up in the Northwoods – probably my favorite week of the year!  We were without computers and the internet for the week (well, except for Patrick being able to connect on his Blackberry, but I’m not bitter or anything) so we couldn’t do “real” work.  That didn’t keep us from dreaming and brainstorming while we were there.  We came home with lots and lots of ideas – some of them even good!

Tomorrow morning, Patrick and I will be taking the wool that we skirted to the mill for processing and spinning.  We would like to have that yarn and roving available when the store opens, but that may be stretching it.  But, we will have the yarn from local sheep within a month or so of opening.

Before camp, we met with our first yarn rep.  Next week, we are scheduled to meet with another rep.  We will also be contacting the other vendors whose products we’d like to carry.

And, then, there are all those ideas . . . We came up with some interesting ways to display yarn.  We also talked a lot about shop layout and can’t wait to start experimenting with the furniture.  It’s going to be a busy, but fun, couple of weeks!

Coming up: Blue Hills Alpaca and Mill, Project updates

Choosing Yarn!

Patrick and I met with the Cascade rep today!!  This was our first yarn rep meeting, and it went really well.  Unfortunately, it was a little like trying to drink water from a fire hose!!  So many yarns!  So many colors!

Here are some of the things I learned today:

1. There are about a zillion colors of Cascade 220.
2. I have expensive taste and would order ten times more yarn than we can afford if I didn’t have such a strict budget.
3. Cascade has some really high-end amazing yarns, but they also have some good quality affordable yarns.
4. I still don’t like the color orange.  (Although I did choose some orange because, apparently, there are more people in the world than just me.)
5. It is absolutely necessary for both me and Patrick to meet with the reps. 
   1. We can help each other as we choose yarns and colors. 
   2. As much as we try to communicate all of our thoughts about yarn to each other, there is invariably something one of us has thought about and hasn’t mentioned to the other.
   3. He keeps me grounded in terms of money.  We really can’t have every color of Cascade 220 and all the fancy silk blends.
   4. I have a migraine tonight and it was starting while we were in the meeting.  It’s important to have Patrick there to keep me from getting too overwhelmed, which is most likely to happen when I’ve got (or am getting) a migraine.
6. A $3000 budget goes away very, very quickly!!

We didn’t actually put in the order today – we’ll do it in a couple of weeks.  In the meantime, we’ll be meeting with some other reps and figuring out what other yarns we want and finalizing what we want from Cascade.

Patrick and I also did some talking about the structure of the shop this afternoon.  We haven’t purchased any of our fixtures yet, and we’re trying to get as much as we can used.  For example, we are putting the sofa from my mother-in-law’s house next door (that she rented for the last year – she’s giving up that place and will just stay with us or friends when she visits and she’ll keep her primary residence in Florida) in the front room instead of the back room as we’d originally planned.  We want to have a place where people can feel free to sit and knit and chat.  It’s also a good place where someone can knit up a bit of yarn to decide if they want to buy it.

We’ve got lots of other great ideas for the building.  I’m looking forward to it looking like a “real” yarn shop!

Next time: Fair Isle sweater progress!

More Wool!!

This afternoon/evening, the whole family went out to Lamb's Quarters to finish skirting wool. To be honest, the kids were just going because they didn't have anything else to do. Neither one was at all interested in working with raw wool. And, to be honest, the fleeces do smell like sheep, and a big part of skirting wool is removing the fecal matter that gets caught in the fleece. So, I guess I understand their perspective.


Today, we finished the last of the fleeces - 100 pounds total! And, here are the pictures that I promised in the last post:





We plan to take the wool to the mill in 2 weeks or so. After that, it will be about three months before we get the yarn. We are going to have a section of our wall with pictures and explanations showing the sheep whose wool we used along with the skeins of yarn. I'll definitely give you progress updates as we go!




Addendum: The shop now has phone and internet!! And we meet with our first rep tomorrow!!

Next time: Project updates

Skirting Wool

I love, love, LOVE wool yarn.  But, being something of a suburban/town girl, I don't know much about what happens before the yarn gets to the yarn store.  So, Patrick and I are rectifying that situation and getting some great local yarn for The Knitting Nest.

Today, we went to Lamb's Quarters where Jane Haase taught us how to skirt fleeces.  Skirting a fleece means taking out the really soiled sections of the wool as well as areas of excessive vegetable and fecal material.  The mill will wash the wool, but skirting needs to be done before it goes to the mill.  We chose our 11 fleeces that we're going to buy and then Jane showed us how to do the skirting.  I was a little afraid that I might be grossed out by the process, but it really wasn't bad.  (It probably helps that I can't smell really well and that I worked as a physician for 10 years which has it's moments of grossness!)  We got two fleeces skirted before it started raining.  We hope to finish the skirting this week so we can take the wool to the mill in a couple of weeks.

(I wanted to put some pictures right here, but I'm having trouble with this blog editing program.  Pictures will be coming soon!)

Patrick and I really enjoyed our time skirting the wool.  The work isn't hard, but it is important to do a good job so that the mill doesn't have to do extra work (which would cost us more).  We also learned an awful lot about wool and sheep.  I'd read about "staple length", but I got to actually see how it's determined.  Jane showed us the sheep, which were pretty skittish around us.  Eventually, I want to have pictures of the individual sheep whose fleeces are made into yarn.

Eventually, I'd like to teach the kids in the knitting/crochet club from the elementary school or the library about how wool comes from the sheep and gets made into yarn.  I also want to teach them about different types of fibers and why they are used for different purposes.

A serious advantage to working with raw wool is that the lanolin makes our hands nice and soft!

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Progress–June 17, 2011

We signed the lease today!!  Our shop is at 131 East Main Street in Weyauwega.

 

We have a retail space, now we need to get fixtures, computer, phone, email, and, of course, YARN!!!!

Our landlord said that our mailbox was across Pine Street (crosses Main Street) and pointed in that direction.  I didn’t really understand what she meant, so when I drove up there later today, I looked again for the mail box, but couldn’t find it.  When I went home, I looked again and found that it’s actually on Alfred Street, which is parallel to Main Street and a block behind our store.   The Post Office is actually closer to the shop than the mailbox!!

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)