Guess what?? I have a new job, working for my amazing sister at her new yarn studio! My job description includes advising on yarn line purchases, planning and assembling kits, keeping tabs on the design world, and helping people with their knitting crises. I've moved to contract teaching, too, which is both EXCITING and WEIRD. (And I've had to learn Instagram which freaks me out.)
The shop is really fun and also scary, so far. We've been in business less than three months, but it's been a steep learning curve, and also so touching to hear people's very lovely feedback. The concept seems to resonate with people -- our tagline is "Carefully Curated Yarns"...it's a nice thought, but when you really mean it, as we do, you find it's awfully time-consuming to have high standards! One very important part of that is never, never violating copyright. It was one of the foundations of our business model --- we have seen yarn stores do this a lot, and we hate that designers everywhere get cheated of their profit and their creative rights this way. It's a little hard -- designers often don't respond to requests for permission to buy their patterns for inclusion in kits, for example, even if we are not asking for wholesale prices. But this aspect of the business matters to us and we're dedicated to keeping it up.
We're proud of what we've done. We've assembled a small but very pleasing collection of yarn, and we're slowly and carefully growing our collection. We're starting a knit group at a local Community Arts venue next week, and are looking forward to our first Christmas in business.
I think not many of my good old readers are still out there...the day of the blog is over, I know. But I wanted to share this with you, since I know you're all still knitting, and maybe you remember me as well as I remember you!
xo
S
5 comments:
Your new venture sounds delightful! I wish I was in your area ... although given my stash, I wouldn't be buying more yarns, but just soaking up the atmosphere. What sort of contract teaching are you doing? School, knitting, ?
Just checked in on my Feedly, which I only do every couple of weeks, to find this lovely post!
So proud of you for following your heart in this venture. And I saw the newsletter about the knitting night - I may venture down!
Oh, and think of instagram as a mini blog. I actually love it there. Visual stories.
~kate
Hooray! I also have been checking in every couple of weeks, despite my thoughts that you had simply moved on to other things.
What a wonderful store, and what a wonderful philosophy. I have gotten away from knitting, at least for a while, but you're tempting me back, oh yes, you're tempting me...
Good luck, and thank you for coming back and telling us about what you're doing!
Hi Carolyn! Nice to see you again!
I'm teaching via a local yarn store (inter to advanced technique workshops), the community centre (beginners), and a Vancouver Island fibre fest last year (technical sock). I also hire myself out to local folks who rustle a few friends together to learn knitting and have a few laughs. I started a few years ago and I really enjoy it, and have made quite a few friends too...it's nice.
Well hello stranger! I'm still blogging away as usual so I often pop along to see if you're around. Love the ethos of your sister's new shop and I know you'll make a very important contribution xxx
Post a Comment