First off, to all of you talking about snow?  I hate you.  It’s still almost 80 degrees here.  I’m beginning to think my sweater boxes are going to stay under the bed all season.  Ugh.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, and a little research, on opening a yarn store.  See, used to be, my ultimate dream/goal/whatever was to open a combination book store/cafe/tea shop thing.  I’ve had it all planned out in my head for years…what the store will look like all the way down to the color scheme,  even the types of books I would carry.  But lately, i’m thinking that adding in an area for fiber arts would really be the perfect store.  This area needs a decent yarn shop desperately…like i’ve mentioned earlier, the closest shop sells crap you can get at any Hobby Lobby or Wal Mart, and the next closest (while an absolutely lovely shop) is way too far to drive to really consider it worthwhile.  The problem, however, is how to gauge interest.  Are there enough knitters/crocheters in the area to support a shop?  Or, more importantly, are those same knitters/crocheters actually interested in working with quality fiber, or are they happy getting a “deal” by buying Red Heart and other cheap acrylics?  I’ve checked around the web, and from what I can find there are no SnB meetups, or any knitting meetups whatsoever in this area, so feedback from a local group is pretty much impossible. On the plus side, considering how ridiculously busy Hobby Lobby always is, I know this area boasts a large community of crafters in general.  Add to that, this is a university town, with a good size population of the new target demographic for knitters.

Honestly, considering the type of community Nacogdoches is, you would expect it to throw out the red carpet, host a parade, etc., etc., when it comes to someone opening a yarn store.  It’s still a Main Street town where pretty much everybody knows everybody else.  They welcome, and prefer, the small business owner over larger corporations.  So really, you would think this would be the perfect place to set up shop.  But how are you supposed to know if you can succeed?

I’m well aware of the fact that opening a shop would not make me rich.  That’s not what i’m in this for.  I simply want a place where people can buy quality supplies, and be comfortable.  When I visit other yarn shops, I feel like i’m coming home.  The atmosphere (for the most part) is inviting and warm.  You feel an instant camaraderie with both the patrons and employees…these are people with (generally) the same interests and values as you.  You feel like you can sit down, introduce yourself, and instantly bond with your fellow crafters.  That is what I want, and that is what this town would benefit from.  Now, i’m not saying that every shop i’ve visited is the same way…some shops snub their noses at beginners, some automatically think you are beneath them because you dared to visit the sales bins before looking at the full priced fiber.  But a good shop, a shop that embraces and practices what it truly means to be a crafter, is a shop that you could easily come to think of as you home away from home.  That is what I want.

Feh.  It’s  hard to put into words how I really feel about all of this.  I just know this is what I want, even though I am well aware of the fact that the chance of me actually achieving this is slim to none.  Oh well, it never hurts to dream, right?

(On a funny note, Chris and I were discussing this same topic the other night over dinner.  He, getting the look on his face that says he’s just stumbled upon the answer to solving the latest global crisis, informed me that if I ever did open a shop, I should call it KnitWits.  I tried (really I did), not to laugh as I informed him that Knit Wits was, in fact, a very common name in the knitting world.  This didn’t phase him though…he just went on to ramble about how, instead of a book shop, I should combine a yarn shop with a laundromat.  A laundromat with clothes eating machinery, no less.  Sometimes he worries me.)