Could I possibly be any busier? I'd been knitting and working like crazy to get a lot of things ready for the vendor fair that I participated on Saturday. There were 135 vendors present (you can see the guy behind me who had tie dyed items and recycled glass items).
I brought a lot of yarn, met some great people, and made some connections. Turn out was low, but I got a lot of time in working on the Sock Madness Round 3 socks. In spite of how much time I'd spent on the fair, I made it on to Round 4!
The Round 3 socks were made in Ella Rae Lace Merino in the color Rose Pink.
After a long day at the vendor fair, my husband called to tell me that he'd spoken with the landlord of our retail space who'd agreed to let us get the keys a week and a half ahead of schedule! It's now three days later, we've got a lot of items moved in, including the yarn. Sunday, we move in the fixtures and furniture and from there I start setting up and decorating.
The official Grand Opening for our shop is June 5, 2012. Should everything be set up sooner than that, I will announce it here, on Ravelry and Facebook. The biggest challenge is changing the signage so that people don't think that we're the previous shop.
Tentative shop hours are as follows:
Tuesday: 10am - 6pm
Wednesday: 10am - 6pm
Thursday: 10am - 6pm
Friday: 10am - 6pm
Saturday: 10am - 4pm
Everything's happening so quickly, but I'm excited that we're on our way! Check back soon!
They don't tell you in business school that starting your own business is overwhelming on many levels. You worry about your own success, the success of the business, and definitely about the toll it will take if you don't immediately realize what you call success.
While I continue to do the basic parts of what I love - knitting, designing, and running a business - I'm also expanding other parts of my creativity as a way to keep my mind off of things while I wait for certain milestones to happen.
First, I'm counting down the days to a HUGE vendor expo, featuring 135 vendors, including a number of craft retailers that will be taking place in a little over a week. Midwest Yarn will have its own booth so that people can stop by, check out some of the stock, and meet me.
I've also made tons of stitch markers as something handmade to sell at the expo as well. Whatever stitch markers I don't sell there, I'll be listing in my Cherished Moments shop on Etsy. If I can find a few more vintage craft books, I'll be selling those as well (I've got a number of vintage and antique craft books that are pretty cool).
There's also only 10 days left on my Kickstarter campaign and we're only at 5% funding.
Finally, Sock Madness is on an optional round due to the holidays, so I took this time to give Peanut all the attention he can get for Easter. That meant seeing bunnies at The Elegant Farmer, a haircut, and Easter dinner with family (both Saturday and Sunday nights!). He and I are also visiting my parents at their bed and breakfast this week so he can get spoiled by his Mimi for a few days as well!
There's officially no turning back now. I get the keys to the retail space soon, which means our storage space will be emptied, our house will be rearranged (all of my personal yarn and craft stash will be heading to the shop), and I will be in full swing. I cannot wait until this new chapter begins. Not to mention that my 30th birthday will be happening during the first month that the shop will be opening, so I have all kinds of milestones happening.
Hi all!
I have to post this everywhere possible because I am getting a jump start on my spring cleaning and quickly realizing how big my yarn stash really is. Here's a hint: it will not fit in my hubby's CR-V, even with all the seats down! That means, as sad as I am to say this, I have to get rid of some of it. I'm going to be selling it on Ravelry.com in order to get some additional capital for a few of the projects I have to do before we open (like decorate, paint, buy a few additional fixtures, etc.). If you're a Ravelry member, click here.
All that I have listed has to go. In order to save costs after the store opens, I must get rid of our storage unit and my yarn stash is preventing additional items from getting back into our basement. Yup, I'm bordering on being a yarn hoarder. :) I'm currently only shipping the stash to the US and Canada because it's more expensive to ship International. Prices are about 50% of retail for each item and I have about two or three more boxes of yarn to take photos of (I'm hoping to cut my stash by at least 50% within the next week).
.JPG)
