One week after we open...
And we're ready to order more yarn! Thank you to everyone who stopped by this past week to wish us good luck, it was great to see friends old and new faces.
I'm trying to get together a listing of the yarns we carry, but it's not as easy as you would think. We carry a dozen brands of yarn, each with a good 5-6 to over 40 lines in it. But the listing is coming! Hopefully the old computer will be at the shop this week, so I can work on it as I get the chance. Having the computer there will also allow me to build the database for the Knitty Purl Girls.
Mom opens her antique shop this coming weekend, so she's been out straight there. She mentioned something about coming up to the yarn shop on Thursday. We'll see if that threat... er, promise holds up, the antiques shop has 11 rooms and they all need to be cleaned, so she's very busy. It will be nice though, being in the separate shops and only having to email each other :)
As for me, I'm planning on spending my day off today doing laundry and finishing up that stole/wrap I've been working on so I can start on some slippers for the shop. That's the down side to the yarn shop - while I'm feeling my most creative, surrounded by all the colors and textures and having the ideas flow into my mind without effort, I can't knit it all!
5/17/2005
Opening weekend
Here are the pictures from the opening weekend!
Bantray and Gwenny came up to visit. They're the ones in the playpen.
Look at all the Irish stuff!
Bantray and Gwen.
More Irish stuff, and yarn!
Mom "fluffing" - isn't she cute?
The front door... it was rarely closed all weekend!
Our sign out front. A little rain never hurts a sheep! It's a huge weathervane, and it spun everytime I snapped a picture :)
The HUGE Irishman's sweater leads the way into the second room.
Our window sign! I feel so official with a window sign!
The second room, with snacks and tea, even. That table will be replaced by the playarea soon.
We want to take a moment to thank everyone - you have all given us so much support, help, and love, thank you thank you THANK YOU!
5/13/2005
Bantray and Gwenny came up to visit. They're the ones in the playpen.
Look at all the Irish stuff!
Bantray and Gwen.
More Irish stuff, and yarn!
Mom "fluffing" - isn't she cute?
The front door... it was rarely closed all weekend!
Our sign out front. A little rain never hurts a sheep! It's a huge weathervane, and it spun everytime I snapped a picture :)
The HUGE Irishman's sweater leads the way into the second room.
Our window sign! I feel so official with a window sign!
The second room, with snacks and tea, even. That table will be replaced by the playarea soon.
We want to take a moment to thank everyone - you have all given us so much support, help, and love, thank you thank you THANK YOU!
Opening day!
Incredible. IN-FRIGGING-INCREDIBLE!! So many people showed up, I can't even begin to thank you all! It was amazing, and I'm so tired I didn't even get any pictures to show you, so all I can post is the pictures we took last night as we were trying to set up.
And a HUGE thank you to Ed & Sue, Hayes' parents, who sent in a beautiful plant this morning! It made my morning so much easier knowing you were thinking of us as we tried to keep up :)
Pictures...
Here's Bran, mom's hubby, putting up the signs. Mom got an antique clothes rack for the display in the second room.
The Ireland map. If you're from Ireland, come in and put up a pin on your hometown. In the mirror you can just see the stained glass chandelier we got last week.
The second room. Mom and Bran did a lot more after this, put up more pictures and set up a snack table where the play area will be.
Needles with experience, a great idea of mom's!
The front room with the jewelry case. Cathy came up and helped us set it us in exchange for (what else?) yarn! Can't wait until she can make it up again, we have loads more to do :)
And a HUGE thank you to Ed & Sue, Hayes' parents, who sent in a beautiful plant this morning! It made my morning so much easier knowing you were thinking of us as we tried to keep up :)
Pictures...
Here's Bran, mom's hubby, putting up the signs. Mom got an antique clothes rack for the display in the second room.
The Ireland map. If you're from Ireland, come in and put up a pin on your hometown. In the mirror you can just see the stained glass chandelier we got last week.
The second room. Mom and Bran did a lot more after this, put up more pictures and set up a snack table where the play area will be.
Needles with experience, a great idea of mom's!
The front room with the jewelry case. Cathy came up and helped us set it us in exchange for (what else?) yarn! Can't wait until she can make it up again, we have loads more to do :)
Today's the day!
We open in just 3 short hours... I'm still not ready! But boy what a ride so far this has been. I'm off to the shop to finish up any lagging details, pictures coming tonight.
Wish us luck!
5/10/2005
Wish us luck!
Almost there
5/8/2005
Ok, it's Tuesday. We open Friday. Not counting tonight (which is packed with about 6 more hours of work) and Friday morning, I have TWO FULL DAYS to get ready. Not enough time!
Yesterday and today I spent hours tagging and stocking. And tagging. And moving yarn. And unpacking yarn. And stocking the yarn into cubbies. And rearranging yarn when I realized that I really shouldn't put the very nice mohair on the bottom near the door where it will get wet!
I had my first "official" sale today though! (Official as in it wasn't a friend buying something) A young man and his sister looking for a kit to take home to his mom to announce a new baby's pending arrival. They picked out a wicked cute Dawn Berroco jacket with flowers and some sheep buttons, and I helped them choose some Lopi and Kraemer yarn. And they bought some Irish chocolate. And they were super sweat, as when they arrived I was covered with dirt from working at the shipper this morning, and I had been tagging yarn for a good 3 hours... I was pretty frazzled by then!
Mom's heading up tonight to drop off chairs, Irish goodies, and one of the racks for the hanging skeins. I have two huge bags of Irish knit sweaters in my van to take up tomorrow. Here's our to do lists...
Me -
Finish stuffing patterns into sheet protectors
Label yarn on shelves
Make labels for handspun and angora
Call Kraemer yarns for more yarn (we LOVE their yarn!)
Mom -
Print out labels (seriously, she has hours of inventory and printing to do! I feel bad, but not bad enough to offer to help lol)
Whoever gets to it first -
Get baskets for bottom of bookcases for bargain yarns, fiber, and other bulky goodies
Find a shelf for pattern books to go on
Get dowels and chains or hooks for hanging sweaters on walls or off ceilings
Find a cd display rack
Get bags from mom's shop for opening day
Get punch bowl, cups, electric kettle, tea set... all the food stuff for opening day
Oh, I forgot that the musical girl is coming up on Saturday to play at the shop! I have to ask if she has a website so I can link to it, until then you'll have to come up Saturday to hear her play!
This week...
We open this week. I'm not ready. I'm SO ready! There's no way in heck I'll be done in time! No matter what I get done it doesn't feel like it made a dent at this point, so even though I know we'll pull it together, I'm still frustrated at the seemingly lack of progress when I leave the shop at the end of each day.
We got our picture in the paper again, that's a total of three articles so far! A very cute piece about mothers and daughters in business -
"Compromises
Deb Woolley, 52, and her daughter Dagny Lilley, 32, are as colorful as the skeins of yarn stacked in every nook and cranny of The Irish Ewe, a yarn and Irish goods shop that will open Friday.
"We can't be in the same room," Woolley said matter-of-factly as she unloaded a suitcase packed with fresh Irish chocolates on Thursday. She wasn't kidding.
"We went on a trip to Pennsylvania, and we made it in two-and-a-half hours," she said. "And that 's because I took a nap."
Lilley has kids, so the shop will both give her a chance to escape and also to bring her children to work when need be.
Like Bean and Balkir, the pair has divvied up the shop responsibilities.
"She's going to do the day-to-day running of the shop," Woolley said. "I'm going to do the buying."
There are more minor compromises the two will be making as well. Woolley wants Irish music to be played in the shop at all times.
"Oh, the music," Lilley began.
Woolley happily confessed the issue had resulted in a knock-down, drag-out fight. "The bottom line is," she concluded, "she sees me coming - she's going to flick on the (Irish) CDs."
Fortunately, Woolley is serious about her responsibilities as a buyer. As of Thursday, she hadn't seen her daughter in weeks because she been on a purchasing trip in Ireland.
Woolley had plans to leave town again Thursday night for the next purchasing excursion."
Here's the picture they took of us, no laughing!
Mom's due back from MS&W tomorrow, which is good cause she as a ton of stuff to help me with. Here's the list of things left to do -
5/7/2005
We got our picture in the paper again, that's a total of three articles so far! A very cute piece about mothers and daughters in business -
"Compromises
Deb Woolley, 52, and her daughter Dagny Lilley, 32, are as colorful as the skeins of yarn stacked in every nook and cranny of The Irish Ewe, a yarn and Irish goods shop that will open Friday.
"We can't be in the same room," Woolley said matter-of-factly as she unloaded a suitcase packed with fresh Irish chocolates on Thursday. She wasn't kidding.
"We went on a trip to Pennsylvania, and we made it in two-and-a-half hours," she said. "And that 's because I took a nap."
Lilley has kids, so the shop will both give her a chance to escape and also to bring her children to work when need be.
Like Bean and Balkir, the pair has divvied up the shop responsibilities.
"She's going to do the day-to-day running of the shop," Woolley said. "I'm going to do the buying."
There are more minor compromises the two will be making as well. Woolley wants Irish music to be played in the shop at all times.
"Oh, the music," Lilley began.
Woolley happily confessed the issue had resulted in a knock-down, drag-out fight. "The bottom line is," she concluded, "she sees me coming - she's going to flick on the (Irish) CDs."
Fortunately, Woolley is serious about her responsibilities as a buyer. As of Thursday, she hadn't seen her daughter in weeks because she been on a purchasing trip in Ireland.
Woolley had plans to leave town again Thursday night for the next purchasing excursion."
Here's the picture they took of us, no laughing!
Mom's due back from MS&W tomorrow, which is good cause she as a ton of stuff to help me with. Here's the list of things left to do -
- Print out rest of price labels
- Print out rest of ball labels
- Inventory rest of yarn and patterns
- Get two more bookcases for pattern books
- Get baskets for bases of bookcases for sale yarns
- Put up hanger bars in a support rack for hanging skeins
- Get metal rings for hanging skeins
- Bring up all the yarn sample books to the shop (so people doing special orders can see the options)
- Bring computer, printer up to the shop
- Call cable company to set up install for shop
- Get copies of flyer made
- Get more labels for mom to print out more price tags
- Finish painting counter
- Move antique spinning wheel up top of cotton cubbies
- Buy food for me to eat while there, or figure out how to bring stuff from home
- Set up the inventory, price lists, and the rest of the files in the shop computer
- Find some chairs for the shop, and get a piece of Plexiglas to cover the glass-topped table
- Build the playarea, fence, and gate
- Get some cute frames for the Mitten Fence and Knitty Purl Girls papers
- Get a hot glue gun for the Knitty Purl Girls buckets
- Get some cute vases or water pitchers for the point protectors, and write up a sign for the costs
- Get some 8x10 pictures printed of the sheep available for adoption
I know there's more, but I can think of anything else right now, my brain hurts!
FIVE DAYS!!!
Ok, I am BEYOND PANICKING! Mom is home from Ireland. Or rather, she came home and was here for a whole 4 hours and then she left for the Maryland Sheep & Wool Fest. She did buy 4-5 baby sheep, so I may still forgive her.
Scratch that, Andrew (my 12 year old son) and I just spent 5 hours at the shop, and it hardly looks like we got anything done.
These are the Irish chocolates mom brought home from Ireland. Handmade by a little old man there, and SO good! Not super-sweet like American chocolate, but very rich and creamy and smooth and oh-so-good!
And there they are in all their chocolate glorious-ness!
The wall of Lopi is shaping up. We still are missing quite a few colors, and I wasn't at all sure about Lopi to begin with, but you can see the hat I made the other night, and after wearing the hat for a few hours I can say I'm happy with it. Now we just need a sweater done in Lopi. The smaller skeins in the front set of bookcases are the newer Lite Lopi, worsted instead of chunky weight. Neat colors too. The empty corner in the back is where the playarea will go next week when mom gets back.
And Cascade 220, Eco and Eco+, some acrylic and handspun and so forth. Our project/class table is under all the pattern books at the moment...
The wall of cotton and chocolate (hey, I dare anyone to say chocolate and yarn don't mix!)
And the Flashy Wall, mostly done now. Notice the bags and boxes in both these pictures, still full of yarn. The bucket up top are all overflows of Jo Sharp yarns that won't all fit in the cubbies.
Our counter is under all that stuff. I swear it is. I hope it is.
I forgot to show these off the other day - these are Incomparable Buttons, handmade in Africa in washable ceramic! Awesome story behind them (we have it at the shop, come see!)
And a close up of some of the buttons - how cute is that?!
5/3/2005
Scratch that, Andrew (my 12 year old son) and I just spent 5 hours at the shop, and it hardly looks like we got anything done.
These are the Irish chocolates mom brought home from Ireland. Handmade by a little old man there, and SO good! Not super-sweet like American chocolate, but very rich and creamy and smooth and oh-so-good!
And there they are in all their chocolate glorious-ness!
The wall of Lopi is shaping up. We still are missing quite a few colors, and I wasn't at all sure about Lopi to begin with, but you can see the hat I made the other night, and after wearing the hat for a few hours I can say I'm happy with it. Now we just need a sweater done in Lopi. The smaller skeins in the front set of bookcases are the newer Lite Lopi, worsted instead of chunky weight. Neat colors too. The empty corner in the back is where the playarea will go next week when mom gets back.
And Cascade 220, Eco and Eco+, some acrylic and handspun and so forth. Our project/class table is under all the pattern books at the moment...
The wall of cotton and chocolate (hey, I dare anyone to say chocolate and yarn don't mix!)
And the Flashy Wall, mostly done now. Notice the bags and boxes in both these pictures, still full of yarn. The bucket up top are all overflows of Jo Sharp yarns that won't all fit in the cubbies.
Our counter is under all that stuff. I swear it is. I hope it is.
I forgot to show these off the other day - these are Incomparable Buttons, handmade in Africa in washable ceramic! Awesome story behind them (we have it at the shop, come see!)
And a close up of some of the buttons - how cute is that?!
10 days left!
Just over a week to go... not sure if it will be done. Of course it will be done. It HAS to be done. Just not sure if I can do it all myself. But I will, and I know I can. Won't stop me from complaining about it the whole way though.
Pictures coming tomorrow, forgot the camera today. Hayes got the bookcases put together and into the second room, and I spent most of the day Saturday and today loading yarn into them. 6 bookcases, and it's still not enough room! We're going to have to buy baskets for the bottom shelves of the bookcases, as I don't want yarn just sitting there so close to the floor. And rugs, we need rugs.
Finally got to met with the newspaper lady today, we've missed each other for two weeks now! Got an ad going in for opening week, and then weekly, as well as knitting groups ads. I have to make up the basic ad tonight so mom can approve and add to it tomorrow when she gets back from Ireland (of course, she's gone again on Thursday to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Fest. Thanks mom... grumble, grumble!)
I still have to figure out how to hand the long skeins that I have all over the place in bags. And I have to get sheet protectors tomorrow. And paint for the counter. And the signs for the windows won't be done until the day before we open, and I have to go get a flag at some point... tired just thinking of my to do list!
Pictures coming tomorrow, forgot the camera today. Hayes got the bookcases put together and into the second room, and I spent most of the day Saturday and today loading yarn into them. 6 bookcases, and it's still not enough room! We're going to have to buy baskets for the bottom shelves of the bookcases, as I don't want yarn just sitting there so close to the floor. And rugs, we need rugs.
Finally got to met with the newspaper lady today, we've missed each other for two weeks now! Got an ad going in for opening week, and then weekly, as well as knitting groups ads. I have to make up the basic ad tonight so mom can approve and add to it tomorrow when she gets back from Ireland (of course, she's gone again on Thursday to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Fest. Thanks mom... grumble, grumble!)
I still have to figure out how to hand the long skeins that I have all over the place in bags. And I have to get sheet protectors tomorrow. And paint for the counter. And the signs for the windows won't be done until the day before we open, and I have to go get a flag at some point... tired just thinking of my to do list!
