Packing up the Baby Ull

Today is Sunday I will go in for a few hours this afternoon and pack the Silver Forest Earrings Displays in boxes to return to Vermont. This little company has been good to me over the years. I want to get the boxes to the UPS on Monday. I will also start to take apart my office and get my computers ready to bring home. The time is running out and I have so much more to do to get the store empty by the 27th.


Yesterday I finished packing up the Baby Ull and the other Dale yarns that have not sold. I am sure some of the knitters that bought these Dale Yarns on sale have not used wool of this quality before and when they knit items out of the Baby Ull they will want more of this yarn. It is so soft and light and warm to wear. I love my socks knit from this yarn. Many knitters seem to feel that wool is not good for babies because they have some memory from there childhood of having to wear some scratchy wool thing. I too have had to endure hours of having scratchy wool scarf or hat on while sled riding or ice skating in the 1950s. I wish my mom would have had Baby Ull. I will take the unsold books and yarn with me to The Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival.

Knitters come to build their stashes in spite snowy weather.

The weather turned bad and kept many folks from driving to Mercer on Sunday. We had several brave knitters that came out to take advantage of our sale. Saturday business was really good. Just take a look at the emptt shelves. I will spend this week clearing out the rest of the inventory. I will wait till the end of the week to pack up the yarn just in case some customers stop by had help me clear more of the inventory. I really do not need to take all of this yarn home. I am way beyond SABLE. I can sell at the up coming shows where I will have a booth at but there too much for a booth. So if you are reading this and want some yarn at really good prices please call and come by and check out what is left.

Good morning knitting friends,
We had an unbelievable day yesterday at the store. Everything you see in this picture I took last week has been sold. These black shelves are empty. The big Golden Retriever puppet, ball winder, swift sold all gone to new homes. I had 34 sales slips to record, A lot of puppets and other gifts in addition to yarn. I was there till 6:30 recording the sales and closing down. This task usually only takes me 15-20 minutes instead on an hour and a half. The snow was almost 4 inches deep by the time I left the store. There was no snow when I arrived, With more snow moving in today, we may not see as many knitters driving 50 miles or more to come to our sale. I am hoping to have some local knitters show up to take away more yarn.

Some of the people that came yesterday are coming back to just sit and knit. They enjoyed the excitement of the knitters planning projects and everyone seemed to be helping each other plan projects. With so much creative juice flowing it was an exciting place to spend the afternoon. There is still so much yarn left. It seems to expand to fill in spaces that open up.

With all the blowing snow I was happy to only have to drive a few blocks to get home. I can see the courthouse dome from my house in the winter and hear the bell ring out the time. It is a good way to keep track of the time when I am working in the garden. I just read my knitu email this morning and found this letter about fixing holes in sweaters. It would be a great way for me to close a couple moth holes I have in a off my cream colored cashmere sweater that I just love. My only problem is that I do not own any felting needles. I sold them at the store but since I did not need them I did not bother to take any home for myself. I will place another order with notions Marketing on monday and get some felting needles for myself. If anyone reading this wants anything else needles, books, or whatever I would be happy to add your order to mine. This may be the last time Notions will let me order. The sales rep said they will not sell to me once my retail store closes. I have to build a web page with shopping cart and reapply for an internet account. Since I do not plan to be doing a big internet business I may not bother to get set up with a new account.


Hi Knitters:
I'm glad to hear that Colgate toothpaste is such
a good stain remover. It will be added to the arsenal.
I have used hairspray as a solvent for ink, and then
detergent to get rid of the hairspray.
At the last Knitting Guild meeting a knitter
brought her husband's favorite (storebought)
knitted hoodie which had a hole in the middle
of the front, by the zipper. Very visible.
The yarn store owner (and host of our knitting guild)
used a felting kit--centred the hole on the bristle
brush, right side up, and a piece of matching wool yarn,
and then pounded it with the sharp needle tool. She did
it a few times to make sure all the edges were tucked in,
trimmed the resulting fuzz from the inside, and VOILA!!
It was cured!! Invisible mending! She said it would probably
only work with wool. Possibly wouldn't be as invisible in
a light colour. We were amazed and delighted. We are all
searching through our collection of sweaters, looking for
holes to mend.
Marlyce in Windsor, Ontario

Two More Days

Thank you Monica for helping me get thru these last few days. Your Noro Silk Garden shawl is a so beautiful. Thank you also for leading the Jacket workshop. Everyone seemed to be pleased with the experiene and love their jackets.


Well, it has been quite a week. I am beyond exhausted. I have been working 12 hour days since Thanksgiving. The store is looking good. Most of my fixtures are sold and will be picked up next week. Some are gone. Kindred Spirits Yarn Shop in Franklin got our antique magazine display stand and needle spinner. The new Natural Foods Store in Sandy Lake took one of our card displays and some shelving. The rocking chair and large antique Persian rug runner is gone. The store looks different but still looks good. I was surprised how fast the space fills in and in some ways it looks better. Less is more they say. We have a lot less yarn but we still have more to sell. I hope the snow holds off till Sunday night so the knitters can come and take away more yarn. It is a great opportunity to build up the stash for the coming winter of knitting. All prices are negotiable. Offering to buy all that is left of any yarn can really bring the price down. We have had several knitters discover this bargaining technique and walk out very happy with big bags of beautiful yarn to share with friends and family.

Folkmanis Puppets and Silver Forest Earrings and other gift items are still in good supply. The store will close at 5:00 on Sunday. This is the last official day we will be open. Next week our store hours are by chance and by appointment.

I will be packing and moving out inventory and fixtures all next week. Sorting out the UFO.s and throwing away the junk it will be a challenge. Any item not yet packed can still be sold. I will have the store open while I am there just in case someone wanders in. Most folks do not know we are closing. I did not advertise the closing anywhere other than email to my knitters list and this blog. I just felt that I did not want a whole bunch of people who did not support my store these past 20 years showing up and picking over all the beautiful yarn at bargain prices. I suppose I would have sold more but having to deal with crowds of bargain hunters did not appeal to me. It is hard enough to help my regular customer find what they need without dealing with people who are not familiar with good yarn coming in to take advantage of an advertised sale. Most of the local knitters did not support my store I could never compete with Pound of Love and Red Heart. Perhaps they would stop in to buy DP NDLS or some other odd notion but I could never convince them that they should knit with real wool. I would always try to convince them to try knitting wool mittens for a grandchild because they would keep their hands warmer. So often they would respond with, I am not paying that for yarn! The kid will just loose them mittens anyhow. I am happy to retire from fighting the Cheap Acrylic Yarn vs Natural Fiber Yarn battle.

Almost everyone that comes in looks around and says "WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH ALL THIS STUFF???? I know it look like a lot but I do not think there is all that much left to move. I have commercial spaces at two shows, one in Feb. and another one in April. I will be selling some on Ebay and if that does not work I can always donate stuff to a charity. Please stop by next week if you are in Mercer. If you are reading this you are someone who I would welcome.

Postcard Drawing Winners

Sleepless

I know it is the middle of the night. I could not sleep so I thought I would catch up on my email and some how I ended up finding this Handmade Pledge site. It is fascinating. Perhaps there is hope for the younger generation to make a better world,

Open House at the store was unreal. I think I am still full of the energy generated by so much excitement and that is why I am not sleeping. I am so glad Margaret, Monica and Robin came to help. I could not have survived with out help. We processed 44 sales one every 3-5 minutes for the first 4 hours without a break. It was truly amazing.
With Sunday sales added in I may be able to pay off the rest of the store debt. It would be wonderful to have everything paid off and not have to continue to hussle after the store is closed. My goal was to break even and walk away a free woman. It would mean that the cash that I earn at the show in Pittsburgh could be used to go on the Sock knitting cruise with the girls in May. It would be fun to get a whole group of Otter Creek Knitters going together. I will add a link to the Sea Socks site for you to check it out.

I need to get back to sleep now. Tomorrow will be another sale day and I am excited to see who comes and how well we do. The store is getting empty. The persian rug runner and rocking chair have been sold and are gone. Most of the big fixtures are sold and will be picked up next week.

I took the handmade pledge. I will make most of my gifts for the holidays. Will you be making yours?? You know I like it when you let me know you are reading this blog. I will post your comments. If you have suggestions for Handmade gifts for the holidays and pictures you can email them to me. Follow the link for the Handmade Pledge to see what other folks are making.

OUR LAST DAY DEC.22

NEWS Monday afternoon we got a call from Lucy, our agent, the sale of the building is still on but the closing date has been changed from Dec. 20. to the original date of Dec.28. I do not know why this happened but I was happy to have the extra days to clear our inventory. So it looks like we will stay open till the Saturday before Christmas.

My stress levels are really peaking. This deal has changed so many times. I sent out email last week to everyone saying the last day will be Sunday Dec.16 and now I am not sure what to do. I suppose I should email everyone again to let them know that we will be open a week longer.

It has been wonderful to see so many old friends coming by to help me clear out the store. Most of the big fixtures are sold. I still have a lot of wood crates that I will need to sell.

We still have a lot of gift items. Folkmanis puppets for the little guys and Silver Forest earring for the young ladies.
All our samples are for sale. Alpaca sweaters, scarves and hats, shawls and scarves. Some items are priced at whatever you want to offer. Most of our yarn is on sale at prices that are a savings of 20% to 50% or more unless it is inventory I am planning to take to Pgh Knit and Crochet Festival. Our books are 20% off and single sheet patterns are $2.00 older ones are free with yarn purchase.