…and it made me think about just how viable this little business of mine is. A woman I did not know walked into the shop, said “I have questions” and proceeded to pull out a book that she had bought elsewhere and yarn she had bought elsewhere. Would the yarn she had work for the pattern? I looked through the pattern and thought it would. How should she arrange the colors? I gave my opinion. But when she began to ask specifically how to proceed with the pattern she wanted to make, I said “I just want you to know that our help is not free, except for our customers.” Without another word she packed up her stuff and walked out.
We have many people stop in with projects they have bought elsewhere. They are usually very polite and ask if we could help them. My stock answer is, “Well, let’s see what you’ve got.” If it’s a quick fix, there’s no charge. If it looks like a big problem or if they need a lesson in something, I’ll explain that we charge a minimum of $10.00 for help with projects that are not bought at the shop. Most people are fine with it, or they already know because they’ve looked at our website. But some people can’t believe that we think our help is valuable and worth something. Maybe we are knitting missionaries, supported by donations from some knitting religion? Or perhaps we’re subsidized by tax dollars, from a mysteriously unknown government knitting agency? Or that our rent is free and we don’t need to buy groceries, maybe we survive on yarn fumes??
It disturbed me, this incident, and I’m not sure why. Surely I know how easy it is to buy yarn (or anything) online. I rarely buy books for the store anymore because you can buy them almost as cheaply from Amazon as I can from a book distributor. And I also know that a few people think of us as a yarn showroom – they come to the store to check out a certain yarn, and then go buy it online where they can maybe save a dollar or two. So the only unique thing I have to offer is hands-on help and instruction, a place where you can come and get some immediate help, not wallow around in YouTube videos for a couple of hours until you find what you need, not have a useless online chat about your problem, but have actual eyes on your project and a solution (even it’s the evil “you’ll have to rip”) when you leave. That, to me, is a personal commitment and one part of the business that I love and I suppose having someone, even a stranger, discount this help and not appreciate that it has value is what has made me question the store and its future. If knowledge, personal service, and knowing that, with time, help, and commitment on both our parts, you can make any project you desire is not worth paying the price for excellent yarn, why am I in this business that will never support me and just barely breaks even?
Anyway, I suppose that’s why the strange silence for the last few weeks, plus a cold that wouldn’t go away, and the gray weather and – well, every now and then, I suppose we all have to take stock and see if what we’re doing is what we should be doing. And I’m not completely sure yet, but I do know one thing: we have a winter class schedule in the works that will go online sometime between Christmas and New Year with some fun projects you’ll love. Oh, wait, I know another thing: I want to do a knit-along this winter, probably late on Sunday afternoons; I just don’t know which project to do so you’ll have to help me.
Here is Hawser, a big cable-y pullover from Brooklyn Tweed. I like it because its A-line shape and slimmer stockinette sleeves don’t make you look like a football player at the shoulders. Easy to wear, with flattened cables and interesting construction, it’s worsted weight and won’t take forever to knit. I’ll change the sleeves to be picked up around the armholes instead of sewn in. It’s fun, casual and on-trend. Here’s a link to projects on Ravelry.
This is Summerhill, an airy cardigan done in lace weight yarn on smallish needles. It has a pretty lace pattern that you can ignore if you want to and an interesting construction. It also is long enough to reach my knees and has sleeves that would hang down off my fingertips, but adjustments are easily made. It’s a really pretty design that could also be done in fingering-weight if you did not want it so light. Projects on Ravelry are here.
This is Woodfords from Brooklyn Tweed, another cardigan with interesting construction, but not as light. It’s knit in one piece with short rows and lots of picking up and beautiful braids to accent the sections and contribute structure to the design. Here is the project gallery on Ravelry.
You won’t see a lot of finished projects on Ravelry; these are complicated sweaters that are suitable for intermediate knitters, with some help. Which is available you-know-where! Let me know, either by email (info@yarngal.com) or leave a comment on Facebook, which project looks most interesting to you – I’ll start it over the holidays and include it in the class schedule.
Thanks for listening to my ruminations, by the way. Love you all – let’s have a fabulous 2015, shall we?
