My mom and I own a small yarn store in eastern Washington state. Until my parents moved here from the DC Metro area, it was known to me as the other Washington. The story of how we came to be yarn shop owners is still a bit muddled to me. We both had full time professional jobs. I was wanting to start a small business-on-the-side centered around infant and children's design goods that I couldn't find in the city we live in. The LYS that my mom frequented became available as the former owner planned to retire. While it wasn't my first choice of a business, my mom had talked about having a yarn or textile-centered shop since I was little. And as many diehard knitterati can relate, she dragged me through every yarn shop we passed on family vacations or when she visited me in school and everything in between. So a chance for her to own her shop arose out of the blue. And we decided to take it.
That was a year and a half ago. There has been a huge learning curve taking over an existing business. Especially one you know nothing about. When I say that I barely knit until a year and a half ago I mean that before owning the shop I took a four-week beginning class and missed one week. I completed the assigned hat but couldn't finish a scarf because, well, I couldn't pay attention to what was a knit row and what was a purl row and let's just say the scarf was more like a worm, listing to one direction at the beginning and back and forth multiple times by the end. At least with the hat all I had to do was knit.
My mom is a self-taught knitter having knit (by her own admission) for over 50 years. She's the expert. And I'm the rookie. I have picked up all sorts of projects to gain different experiences and learned from every project snafu that has walked through the door. I have quickly figured out how to help customers tackle their variety of problems. At the same time, my mom and I have slogged through brand research, met with reps and worked our way through the former owner's inventory. Now in our second year, we are starting to hit our stride.
There is still, however, much to be learned in my education as a knitter. And so, I have decided to embark on a formal training program. I am calling it knit.ed. I am going to work my way through (in a year) a classic text--Elizabeth Zimmerman's The Opinionated Knitter. This is not a unique or honestly even clever idea, right? As famously chronicled in Julie and Julia, there are dozens, maybe even hundreds of blogs following seminal texts. I am choosing this book because, well, it's Elizabeth Zimmerman. And she has vast knowledge plus spunk. And her collection of newsletters is beautifully edited by the incomparable Meg Swanson and therefore it's really like I am getting two teachers in one. So, here goes. First project? Leaflet #1, Fair Isle Yoke Sweater.
