A Week To Go


Its bank holiday today here, so the kids and Eric are home. We took a trip to Kingston today, and I was able to get a few things for the shop. I found some nice glass bowls to display some of the yarns, a table cloth for upstairs, and some things from Muji for the desk to display notions. The window guys are coming on Thursday, as are the display boxes for the windows. Hopefully the rest of the furniture will arrive on Friday so people will have a place to sit.
I had some unfortunate news from Nathalie today though. It seems that her little boy has the chicken pox, and they have to come home early from their trip. I'm sure they are quite disappointed. I feel really bad, they were really looking forward to this holiday. I hope the skys will brighten up here so they won't be too depressed!
I hope to have a good photo of the finished shop this week, its pretty much there and ready to go.

Stocking up

Its getting down to the wire. There are was so much to do, and we were in a bit of a panic. Then the troops arrived! The knitting group showed up and spent the afternoon sticking bar codes on balls of yarn and stocking the shelves. We were so thankful to them. Now I think that we will be able to get most everything else done tomorrow, with a day to finish some of the last bits before Nathalie leaves on holidays. Next week there are a few things to finish up, and the furniture has to be delivered, hopefully. Here are a few photos of the gang in action.

















Here is Ingrid, aka Tales of the Knitty putting labels on Artyarns.

















Here is another view of everyone hard at work. Sorry it is not the best view of anyone, but you can get the idea of what the wall will look like.
I'm hoping for a finished view tomorrow. We'll see about that!

Home Stretch

I cannot believe I still have no photos to post. I did bring my camera to the shop today, took pictures, and when I got home, there was no memory card in the camera. I promise tomorrow. This week is being spent printing out bar coded stickers, and sticking them on hundreds and hundreds of balls of yarn! We are basically going crazy! The highlight of the day was when we realized that Debbie Bliss, Lana Grossa, Rooster, and some of the Bergere de France already have bar codes, so we don't have to print those out. I will probably have to buy some sort of price gun to tag them though. The place is such a mess. Thank goodness our knitting group friend, Mary Butterworth volunteered some time to help out. I was able to get rid of some of the huge pile of boxes that we have acquired. We really have to finish this by the end of the week since Nathalie is going to Portugal next week, lucky girl. I'll be here though, awaiting the BT man and furniture deliveries. Tomorrow, more tagging. Some of our excellent knitting group friends are coming over tomorrow to help out. I can't believe there are only two weeks to go. Photos to come...

Crazy Days

Today might have been the busiest day so far! First the woman from the till company arrived at 9, then the security installer, then the streamline engineer. Of course everyone needed to get into the same space, behind the desk. I had to run home countless times to get something that I had left there. Needless to say, it is all done, the broadband, the streamline so we can accept credit/debit cards. The security system is in place. We had a training session on the till, which is quite complicated since it keeps track of all the stock and accounting as well. Then to top it all off, it is my 9 year old daughters sleepover party tonight, so I have 7 girls downstairs watching a movie. Will there be any sleep in this house tonight? The best thing that happened today though was that our husbands brought all of the boxes over, so we are ready to start bar coding on Monday. I promise to have photos next time. I keep forgetting to bring the camera when I go over. It is quite a mess now, but hopefully by this time next week, we will be nearly ready to go.

Up and Running

I've been working on the website for about a week straight, and it is finally ready. I had a little trouble posting, but it seems to be working now. Check it out. The fitting is mostly finished, the carpet comes tomorrow for the upstairs, and the furniture arrives next week. I think we will be moving the boxes this weekend, then next week we can start putting everything in place. There are so many small thing to figure out, but I guess that will be for next week. Nic came over yesterday and showed us her lovely scarf kits, which we are definately going to stock. She is going to be running some classes for us, a beginner one, and a really fun one called "Adventures in Knitting", knitting with wire and fun things like that. Anyway, until next time...

A Peek Inside

I went over to survey the progress today. I think they will be done building all of the shelves this week. Then they have to sand and varnish the floors, and hopefully the carpet for upstairs will arrive. Then we wait for furniture. So many things to think about! Here is a photo of what it looks like so far, its hard to tell from this, and some of it is not quite in place yet.



















The latest arrival was a 70lb box from Lornas Laces that arrived yesterday. It was so heavy that Nathalie had to help the delivery man carry it up her steps! The colors are gorgeous. An annoying thing that happened the other day was that we recieved our shipment from Malabrigo, but only one box arrived, I think the other is lost. I am hoping that they find it somewhere, I was looking forward to that one. I suppose it will arrive eventually, even if they have to reship.
In other news, my spinning wheel arrived, and I spent some much needed down time spinning some lovely blue yarn. I'll hopefully have something finished in the coming days and post a photo.
Anyway, I have to get back to work on the website. I am hoping to have more pages up in the next day or so instead of a marker page.
More to come...

Yet More Yarn















It's official, we have a "Coming Soon" sign in the window. Now if I could only find out if we have approval to paint the sign on the top of the building. That is a bit frustrating. If they don't come back to us in time, we'll just have to have something made for inside the window, and do that soon after. There was a bit of progress today, the phone was turned on, and BT called me to say that we are in the directory, how cool is that! The guys worked on more of the shelving today, I didn't get over there to look, but I think it should be done in a week, I hope. Then the fun begins moving everything in. On the other side, a bunch more boxes arrived today. Here is a photo of one of the Artyarns. They are so beautiful. I think we are only waiting for one more company to ship, so I think aside from a few boxes in transit, most of the stock is in.

More yarn has arrived!

Well, the Koigu shipment arrived today. They usually take 9 months to ship their order. We were told that we would have ours in time for the opening, and they did it! I can't wait to go over to Nathalies house tomorrow to see it. She said that the colors don't look like what we ordered, but that they are beautiful. I will have to take some photos of all the yarn, she has a room full of it. I think that our husbands are both getting a bit annoyed, my house is full of sample skeins and books, and hers with boxes of yarn. Hopefully only a few more weeks to go. I arranged to have a sign made today to put in the shop window with "Coming Soon" and the logo, that should be up sometime Wednesday or Thursday. Next comes the website. I hope to have it up and running in a week or two. I used to do websites in my other life before children, so doing a simple one shouldn't be a problem.
Here is my latest flower, made with the Brown Sheep Lambs Pride worsted. They are really fun to make, this one was easier than the daffodil. Next I have to make the leaves. Anyway, hope to have more photos tomorrow.

Stash Yarns

Well I can finally let my secret out. Nathalie and myself are opening a yarn shop. We were sitting in my house knitting one day, and she said "You should open a yarn shop". This has always been my dream, but I was really not prepared to do it myself. After a bit of thought, Nathalie decided to join me, and Stash Yarns was born. We were tired of having to get our yarn over the internet, where you can't see and touch the yarn. Whenever I ordered something, the color was never what I expected, and if I was ready to begin a project, I had to wait for the package to arrive. So it began, calling tons of yarn companies all over the U.S, Canada, and the UK. My house is filled with sample books, it is crazy. Then we had to find a location, luckily there was a place to let right around the corner from my house that was perfect, located right at a bus stop, and very close to the Putney train station. The District line is also not that far away, and it is easy to drive to as well. The lease took quite a while to finalize, but now it is done, and decorating has begun. I don't have any photos of the shop yet, but I'll have to take some so that the progress can be recorded. There is still alot to do, but we are hoping to open around 7 June. Downstairs will be tons of yarn, books, bags, etc, and two seating areas. Upstairs will be the classroom for lessons, and knitting groups. We are hoping it will become a place for people to knit, learn, and hang out. I'm working on the website, so there is not much there yet, the address is www.stashyarns.co.uk
More to come!
P.S. To those of you interested in the daffodil pattern, it will be available at the shop, as well as several others that I am in the process of making.