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!!

Our First Order!!

Today, we placed our first orders for yarn!! This is so exciting – and rather nerve-wracking!!

We are purchasing most of our yarn from Cascade and Universal. We will have a variety of fibers available – wool, wool blends, cotton, cotton blends, acrylic, silk, etc. And we've got an array of yarn weights coming, from cotton thread to bulky yarn.

And, don't forget the raw wool that we took to the mill last weekend. The local wool will be available in DK and worsted weights. We aren't having it dyed, so we'll have natural white, gray heather, and dark gray.

We've ordered a few books and patterns and will be sorting out needles and notions next week.

Consider this just a taste of things to come! As the yarn arrives and we start setting up displays, I'm sure I'll have much more to say on this topic!!

Lessons For Knitting . . . and Life

I've been working on a Fair Isle sweater since February. It has been challenging and very educational. Unfortunately, I made a fatal error this week. To wash it before blocking, I decided to put it in our front-load washer on gentle cycle and cold water. It felted in the washer. I knew better than to do this. I should have washed it by hand, but, I tried to take a short-cut. Patrick helped me to stretch it as much as I dared when I blocked it. Nonetheless, it has shrunk from a size XL to a size S.

This isn't the only lesson that I've learned in the midst of doing this project. As upset as I am about felting the sweater after so much work, I can look back on the last six months and see lots of opportunities for me to become more educated about knitting – and life.

• Make a gauge swatch (which I almost always do) in the round if that's the pattern (which I rarely do) and block it (which I rarely do). I had gauge problems with both sleeves and even the body of the sweater because I wasn't serious about my swatching.

  • Life Lesson: Prepare as much as possible before starting a new project.

• Check gauge while knitting. I didn't realize how much my gauge changed when I was actually working on the sweater compared to the swatch. (Of course, doing my gauge swatch in the round would have also helped.)

  • Life Lesson: Monitor your progress as you continue your project.

• Modify the pattern to knit the sleeves in one big tube with steeks in between. I followed the pattern as it was written, which worked pretty well, but I saw that someone on Ravelry did the sleeves together with steeks separating them. This technique looks like it will be faster and mean less fiddling with the ends of the yarn.

  • Life Lesson: Learn from other people.

• Use a regular cast-on instead of a provisional cast-on at the beginning. I used a provisional cast-on for the body because I read on another blog that this allows flexibility in adding length after the rest of the sweater is done. In this case, though, the chances that I would want to increase the size of my ribbing was very small and the annoyance of dealing with the provisional cast-on at the end was significant.

• Life Lesson: Apply new techniques with discretion – just because something is new and different doesn't mean that it's better.

• Use the sewing machine to secure the steek before cutting.  The pattern called for making a crocheted line of duplicate stitches on each end of the steek to secure it before cutting.  This worked, but it took a long time, was rather fiddly, and was hard to ensure that I had gotten each row included. I had read about how to use the sewing machine to do this procedure, but I chose to use the crochet method just because I didn’t want to deal with taking out the sewing machine and because I’m not as comfortable sewing on the machine.

• Life Lesson: Take the time to learn to use the machines and techniques that will give the best result.

• Hand wash wool items in cold water. Do NOT use the washing machine, even with cold water.

  • Life Lesson: Do not take shortcuts; they rarely get you where you are going any sooner and often send you to the wrong place completely.

I hope that the sweater will fit my mom or someone else suitably small. I can always hang it up in the shop with the note: “Abandon all hope, ye who take shortcuts!”

I have enough yarn left that I can probably knit another sweater of this same pattern with only having to replenish one or two colors.  I think I’ll try again, starting with a proper gauge swatch.  This time I’ll learn from my mistakes and, hopefully, end up with a really amazing sweater.

So, what lessons have you learned from knitting or crocheting? Any other stories to share?

 

Note: No pictures this time.  I was too depressed to take any pictures when I blocked it.

Next time: Ordering Yarn!

Road Trip!!

On Saturday, Patrick and I took a road trip to take our wool to Blue Hills Alpacas and Fiber Mill in Bruce, WI. Like any good road trip, this one was full of good music and fast food. Unlike previous road trips (at least that I've been on), the van smelled like sheep because of all the wool; thankfully, we had air conditioning to keep the smell from getting too bad on the way there and to get rid of it on the way home. We spent a total of eight hours driving, so we had lots of time to talk about ideas for selling yarn among other topics.

Nancy, the owner of the mill, was more than happy to show us around the mill and explain the different steps in the process.

1. The wool has to be washed to remove debris and grease. (I don't have any pictures of this step, but she does it in a couple of large sinks – each washing requires a couple of hours.

2. The wool is then carded to get the fibers to line up. She showed us some hand cards that were used for manual carding of wool, a very long and tiring process.  Then she put some wool through the machine carder and showed us how it works.  There are lots of gears and pulleys and cylinders.

3. The carded wool is then fed into a pin drafter which further aligns the fibers to get them ready for spinning.

4. The last machine takes the wool and actually spins the yarn. The same machine will also ply the yarn, but it's a separate process than the spinning of the fiber.

We also got to see Nancy's sock knitting machines, her loom, and some rugs that she has made using Tunisian crochet techniques.

Patrick and I learned sooooo much while we were there. I am still just fascinated by the process and how the fleeces that we skirted a couple of weeks ago are going to become yarn in the next several weeks. And, it will end up for sale in our shop!

I’ll post when the yarn is finished and ready for sale in the shop so you can come see for yourself how it turns out!

 

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

Projects Update July 1, 2011

I’m finished with the knitting portion of the Fair Isle sweater!!  I think I’d be a little happier if it wasn’t so small.  I knew the gauge on the sleeves was off, so I used a larger needle on the body section and checked gauge several times.  I really hope that blocking it adds a little more room.  Ah well, if I can’t wear it, I guess my daughter can.

I also blocked a shawl that I made from an amazing silk/SeaCell blend yarn and it turned out beautifully.  However, I blocked it up at the shop to protect it from cat hair and took pictures of it with my phone, but I can’t get the pictures from my phone to my computer.  I’ll take my camera to the shop later and get some photos.

Patrick and I are planning to do a mini-knit-a-long and both make 2 socks on 1 long circular needle.  We’re off to Family Camp this week, so it will be fun to do a project together.  I’m also taking some fun yarns to make some bookmarks – it’s a chance to learn some new lace patterns.

What are you working on these days?!

 

 

Note: I won’t be posting for the next week.  Look for new material July 8th or 9th!