WoolWinders Holiday Party
Last night, WoolWinders: A Knitting Salon held its 2003 holiday party at L'Auberge Chez Francois in Great Falls, VA. Attending were Kate Anne Bell and her partner Bob; Lisa Twomey and Patrick; Adrian and Larry Fishman; and Jacqui and me. It was a cold night with the forecast of a winter storm. We had the late seating at 9PM. Everyone was decked out and looking great, including the restaurant itself.
Unfortunately, the battery in my camera chose that moment to run out of power so I was not able to take any pictures of our party. Still, thanks to fine company, great food and wine, and lots of holiday cheer, we had a terrific time.
Snapped on 12.13.03 || More WoolWinders:A Knitting Salon Photos || Comments
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One Year Later
Snapped on 12.08.03 || More WoolWinders:A Knitting Salon Photos || Comments
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TNNA Show in Columbus
Today, Jacqui and I flew to Columbus, OH to attend the annual show of the The Natiional Needlework Assn., which serves as the trade association for the manufacturers and suppliers of yarns, needlepoints, and accessories. At the June show, all of the suppliers feature the yarns for the following cold-weather season.
About two weeks earlier, Jay from Knitting Fever came to the store and we bought a lot of yarn from him, including Debbie Bliss, Noro, Sirdar, Kadifra, Flutter and others. He invited Jacqui and I to dinner with his company for tonight so that we could meet Debbie Bliss herself.
We walked around the show floor a few times to get acclimated and see everything that was new. Then we got to work buying new knitting bags from Lantern Moon, books from a variety of suppliers, and loading up with yarn to be delivered in August. We did the whole show in one day.
That night we had dinner with Debbie Bliss who was a real hoot.
We also sat down to eat outside at one of the many fine restaurants near the Columbus Convention Center and happened to join Sally Melville while she was being interview for KnitNet:
But for me, the highlight of the convention was getting to meet Zora, the sweetheart who was picked by Joe Millionaire. She is now a spokesmodel for Plymouth Yarns and was at their booth at TNNA.
Snapped on 06.21.03 || More WoolWinders:A Knitting Salon Photos || Comments
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Opening
It's been slightly over a week now that WoolWinders: A Knitting Salon has been open for business. I've waited until to now to make this post so that I could include a few photos and only had the opportunity to do it today.
On the first day, there were customers waiting for the doors to open at 10:00 am. And the store stayed busy all day long. There was only about a 40 minute period when the store was quiet; at the peak, Jacqui had a dozen customers at once. Since then, there has been a steady stream of customers. All have had nice things to say about the store and some really good suggestions. The knitting community has been really supportive and Jacqui and I are gratefu
Snapped on 08.16.02 || More WoolWinders:A Knitting Salon Photos || Comments
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Construction Begins At WoolWinders
A view through the framing towards the front of the store. Very quick to go up once the permits were approved.
Snapped on 07.07.02 || More WoolWinders:A Knitting Salon Photos || Comments
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Spring 2003 TNNA Show in Columbus
During the first weekend in June 2002, we attended our first TNNA convention in Columbus, Ohio. We drove there and back in the yarnmobile. Pretty easy trip.
When we arrived, we were scheduled to attend a few seminars. Jacqui attended a two hour session on finding a finisher and I attended a three hour session on accounting and business issues affecting knitting stores. My seminar was led by Peter Levin, husband of Susan Levin who is one of the two head honchos of K1C2 Yarns. Peter comes out of the retail mens clothing business, mostly for department stores. He had done a lot of preparation. The audience was comprised 90% of women shop owners, half of whom were knitting while listening. Although Peter had asked attendees to bring various financial forms for their businesses, it looked to me like only about 6 did (20%). Since Jacqui's business has not yet opened (so we have no forms) and I don't knit, I chose to check in on my email via my Blackberry while Peter spoke. It was quite a contrast - my Blackberry clicking as needles clicked throughout the room. Peter did a great job of going through fundamental retailing/accounting concepts. The seminar confirmed that Jacqui and I have done our homework, even though we've never been in retail. One of the most interesting points that came up was that almost no stores put their prices on the yarn, a few don't even post prices in their bins. Fascinating.
After the seminars, TNNA hosted a Fashion Show and Cocktail Party. Picture above.
The next morning we had 8 am seminars. Jacqui attended the final part of Peter Levin's seminar while I attended a seminar on Point of Sale systems. I was amazed a bit by the discussion at that seminar. The speaker emphasized that the system is highly efficient when products come bar coded but that because almost no products are bar coded, it was not clear to him whether the POS system increased his profitability. I mentioned that the TNNA show was a good time for everyone in the room to ask manufacturers to start bar coding. The speaker said I was wasting my time and but for one other guy on the other side of the room, there was no support for the notion. Fascinating.
At 10 am, the Exhibition Hall opened and we walked through. Smaller than I expected with about 275 exhibitors and 600 store owners. No real crowds. Easy to talk to all the manufacturer reps. I asked each one about their plans for bar coding. One rep, from a yarn accessories firm, told me that if I wanted to play on computers, I should go into a different business. Most other yarn companies said that they would bar code if demand would warrant it. Jacqui bought baskets for the store, knitting bags to sell, and books and magazines. She also bought some Heirloom yarn from Australia from a nice couple running Russi Distributors and some alpaca yarn from Blue Sky Alpaca.
After the show, Jacqui's cousin, Liz, who lives in Zanesville, Ohio came and had a few drinks with us and dinner. Lots of fun.
I attended another seminar on inventory management. Most of the time was spent on manually tracking inventory since so few knitting stores use POS systems or bar codes. Fascinating.
My take on the show: we may not make any money but we will have the most sophisticated systems in place of any kntting store around!! (And I think Jacqui will be a star!)
Snapped on 06.17.02 || More WoolWinders:A Knitting Salon Photos || Comments
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Maryland Sheep and Wool Show 2002
Jacqui and I went to the 2002 Maryland Wool and Sheep Festival at the Howard County Fairgrounds today. It was a lot of fun. We met this fellow there.
Snapped on 05.04.02 || More WoolWinders:A Knitting Salon Photos || Comments
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1st Ad
From this week's Gazette
Snapped on 03.05.02 || More WoolWinders:A Knitting Salon Photos || Comments
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WoolWinders: A Knitting Salon
Following up on last week's sojourn to look at shopping centers in Upper Montgomery County, Jacqui spoke and met with several real estate developers this week. After seeing what is available for our size, time frame, and budget, we are looking at King Farm in Rockville, Maryland. It is a planned development similar to Kentlands and is located near Route 270 off of Shady Grove Road and Rockville Pike. Most of the site is still under development and will be for some time in the future.
Jacqui met with the developer's sales agent and we are going to see if we can close a deal to lease the storefront in the corner closest to the camera in this picture.
Snapped on 03.01.02 || More WoolWinders:A Knitting Salon Photos || Comments
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