A new shop for me!

Hi there!

Once again it has been a long time between posts, I don't know why, but I haven't really found my blogging rhythm this year, but there has been plenty happening behind the scenes!!  

I guess the biggest thing that has happened since I last posted is that I've moved Little Woollie Makes Yarn Store into a proper shop in Hastings, a town not far from my home.   I no longer run it from home and it feels much more legit!

It has been a big decision to move into a shop.  Would it be the right move? Could I cover my rent?  Plus all the other expenses that crop up with a lease?  Would I find more customers?  Would they buy from me?  Would I get bored being tied to a shop all week?   There were plenty of unknowns!!

In the end I just decided it was time to give it a go,  if it doesn't work at least I will have given it my best and will not die wondering!  So the last few months have been a whirl wind of leasing a shop, setting it up, moving everything from home to here, and getting open!  Luckily I have an awesome family that have given me a lot of help and been very encouraging and supportive, it would have been a lot harder without them!

So you know what?  I am now running a local wool shop!!  Yay!  I can hardly believe it myself!!

Little Woollie is no longer just an online shop,  people can come and give the yarns a squish and see all the beautiful colours in the flesh, much better!! :)

I have to say, I have had so much fun over the last few weeks, setting everything up, meeting lots of gorgeous yarn loving people who all get what I'm trying to do here, it is so good!!

I have a lot more space than I did at home, so I have been busy sourcing new stock and approaching suppliers on my wishlist, so many new things coming into the shop over the next few months, it's going to be great!

So here are a few pics I took of the shop this morning, it is looking nice and colourful at the moment, I really like coming here to work each day! 

......my green table and chairs is a nice place to work at, and I popped my 'little woollie' sign up too, it still gets lots of nice comments even though it's looking a bit the worst for wear these days! 

....there is pretty much yarn everywhere you look! :) .......

......I am trying to get  more patterns in store, I didn't really stock patterns when I was at home, so it has been fun seeing what I can find.

....My dad made me some great peg boards so I could hang up the skeins of Ultra Pima Cotton, I am so happy with how this looks, so good to see all the colours in one glance!  there are a few holes where I've sold out of some colours, but I have more stock coming so it should be refilled soon! :) 

The shop is at 1/99 High St, Hastings, Victoria, on the Western Port side of the pretty Mornington Peninsula, if you are ever down this way, pop in and say hello, I'd love to meet you! 

(One other good thing about working in the shop is that I don't get distracted by home things, so  I am trying a new thing where I write a blog post every few days, we will see how it goes!  I have lots of things to share with you! ) 

Have a great day everyone, signing off from Little Woollie headquarters in Hastings!

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Hello New Year!

Hello there!

Its already the 5th of the month, and I haven't even wished you all a Happy New Year! I hope you all had a lovely New Year and have enjoyed the holiday time, we have had a lovely break and I am now gearing up for a big 2016!

Yesterday I spent some time cleaning up the shop and rearranging things, trying to create a bit more space in there.  I can't believe this time last year I was dreaming about this studio/shop, it feels like it's been around for longer than10 months,  I have certainly filled the space very quickly!

It looks so nice now all tidy and inviting, I just had to take a few photos.  It is so much fun and I feel lucky to have a physical shop that people can come to and but their yarn.  Online is great, but I love being a shopkeeper and I think having both an online presence and a bricks and mortar shop means I can reach a lot of people and share some gorgeous yarns!

 

......my shelves of glorious MoYa and Vinnis colour yarns, it is hard to part with this lovely stuff.......

....there is actually room to move around without bumping into things now! Yay! ........

........I love my shelf of Misti Alpaca yarns, so colourful and touchable!!.......

.........I managed to find room to bring back my little couch, so happy with this, it's a great spot to crochet and a bit more comfy than the table and chairs..........

I feel quite energised by my tidy up, I can't wait to work in my shop this year.  

I have decided to open more often, I am thinking Monday to Thursday 10.30am -2.30pm, and other times by appointment still.  

I am also going to start advertising that I am here a lot more, I don't think many people know the shop exists as we are not on a main street and are a bit tucked away. 

 Hopefully the shop can get better known in 2016. :) 

I think a restructure of classes and crochet groups is also on the cards, something to work on later in the week! 

So are you all ready for a great new year?  

What plans are you making for 2016? 

I have lots, I love beginnings, I'm just not that great at following through on things, something I am very aware of and am trying to address this year! :) 

Talk soon! 

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Progress on the wool studio!

Hello!  How has your weekend been?  

We have had a lovely start to the school holidays, perfect weather today, and a nice week forecast ahead, I have lots of gardening planned and a lot of Little Woollie business to attend to while the boys relax and enjoy their break. 

I thought I would show you how my wool studio is progressing, I am hoping to get it finished this week and then paint over the Easter break, very exciting!! 

... so here is the dividing wall going up to give us a smaller storage area at the back for all our junk and the studio at the front, that's Ed, our friend who is a great carpenter, and doing this reno for us. :)

.... looking towards the front with the garage doors gone and the new glass doors and windows in, starting to look like a room!  

............And here are the cubby hole shelves being installed to become part of the wall.....

......framing is all done, ready for plastering......

.......plaster is in place ready for finishing.......

....here is my wall of pigeon hole shelves with the plaster in place, you can get an idea of what this will look like when its finished now, there is not too much more to do!  

It is very exciting, almost time to start thinking about colours to paints this space!  

Next up Ed is going to finish the plastering and lay the floor, hopefully finished this week, before Easter.  I am going to paint it myself with the help of my dad, and then I can do the fun stuff like filling those shelves and decorating this crafty space!  I have been a bit impatient and already placed a new order for Cascade 220 Superwash in a heap of colours, 

I am sure I will fill up this extra space fairly quickly! 

Next time I show you it will be all finished and I can do a big tadah! 

It has been all about wooly things around here recently, I have got a few finishing touches to put on my first newsletter before I send it out on Wednesday, if you are interested in receiving a newsletter from my little wool shop, feel free to sign up, I will be having special offers and other interesting things, should be quite exciting as my little shop continues to grow bit by bit.

So that's about all I have today,  have you got anything interesting happening this week? 

Are you you going away for Easter, or having a few days at home? 

Talk soon! 

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weekly stills....

1. A new tapestry crochet washer I have started with the Cascade Ultra Pima, I am planning quite a few of these for Christmas pressies.

2+3+4. It is a very flowery time of year around here and I love it! My hyacinths are doing really well, and I am able to pick some to bring inside and still have lots out in the garden.  All these colourful beauties came from my garden.  Such a simple pleasure to pick a bunch of flowers for yourself, but one I look forward to all year!

5+6. These are a couple of shots of my stall at the NannaCool market on Saturday, I forgot to put my camera in, so these were taken on my phone, so they are a bit blurry, but I think you can get the idea.   We had a lovely day, it was great to chat to some crafty peeps and I was greatly encouraged by all the positive feedback for my stall set up and crochet stuff, everyone was so nice!  It was also lovely to meet some of the people who read this blog!  Hello everyone :)! Thanks for stopping by and having a chat, I still find it a bit strange to meet people in real life that read this, often it feels like I am just writing a little crafty diary to myself and I forget that real people in my community actually read it! Blogging is  kind of weird like that, it is produced in isolation but actually reaches across the world!  How fantastic!

7+8. Last week a lot of little crochet took place, I spent a fair amount of time on the couch surrounded by balls of wool and crochet flowers, I did manage to nearly fill my tin with flowers so I was happy with that! Also managed to sell a few at the market so it was all for a good cause.

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How was your week? 

What have you got planned for this one?  

I hope it is full of good stuff for you all! 

I have got some new yummy yarn in my shop to show you tomorrow, just got to take pictures and upload it.  And I think it is time for a giveaway this week, I have fallen behind in my monthly giveaways so time to catch up!

Talk soon! 

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Woollie news and a Great Giveaway!

Hello!

How has your week been?  Have you got something interesting planned for the weekend?

It has been a bit of a woolly week here with me getting everything organised for my little shop.  

I have finally got my shop open, I guess this is a grand opening post!

I have had lots of fun playing around with colour schemes and photographing all the yarn.

Do you want to see all the lovely colour? Well, here is a bit of a sneak peek....

These colours are the ones I am using for my star stitch blanket at the moment, it is the second one I have done in this colour scheme, I think they look lovely all together.  I am planning to offer these colours as a pack, but am waiting for an order of the light lime as it was out of stock for my first delivery, and the other problem is that the nice minty green is a discontinued colour and I only have a limited supply of it :(  So when it is gone, it's gone and I will have a hunt and see if I can find a good substitute for you all.

I am opening my shop on  Storenvy, I hope it all runs smoothly, there are bound to be teething problems but I hope I can sort out anything that comes up quickly.

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Anyhoo, to mark this occasion I thought it would be good to have a Yarny Giveaway. Yay!!  

All you lovely readers who pop in here and take the time to be so encouraging and generous in your comments are really appreciated, and I thought it was time for a thank you !

So here is what I am giving away: 

*1 pack of 7 balls of wool in the colours: pale pink, flamingo, ladybird, pale blue, light aqua, denim and cream. (photo second from bottom)

*1 pack of 6 balls of wool in the colours : mustard, peacock blue, sea green, sea blue, grass, and dark grey. (photo above)

These are really lovely yarns and I hope you will like them and make something fab with them!

One person will win one pack and another person will win the other.

Would you like to enter?

Just leave me a comment on this post and tell me which colours are more up your alley, and I will pick the winners in 2 weeks!  

It is open to all my lovely followers and anyone else who is of the yarny persuasion !!

If you would like to spread the word about my give away that would be lovely, but you don't have to, and it's open to the whole world!

Here is a link to my shop Little Woollie Makes Yarn Store, I'd love it if you had a look and tell me what you think.

Ok, I think that's about all for the moment, I'm off to have nice cool drink in the sun, it is still really warm here, talk soon!

My creative space...more pretty things...

 

Hellooooo.

..............oops, a whole week since my last post, and in Blogtober as well, shame on me!

I have to declare a fail in the 'blog every day of October ' department, humble apologies!!

This week has been a bit crazy for us, hence the lack of blogging.

It's 'my creative space time' again already!

Firstly I'd like to give you all a big thank you for the amazing comments you left on my last post, I loved getting your opinions, and all the thought you lovely ladies put into them, I really appreciate your views!  Thanks for your encouragement, excitement, and practical thoughts, it seems I am not the only one who has thought about opening a wool shop!

It gave me lots to think about, it seems some of the concerns I have about my wool shop, ie the location, would worry you too.

So, to cut a long story short, I have decided to knock back this particular shop, and look for one in a better location with more foot traffic and people around, and in the mean time I am going to start an online wool shop and sell some of the beautiful wool that I use here that may be hard to source overseas. My emphasis will be on gorgeous colour as that is a passion of mine.  Hopefully by the time I find a suitable place, the online bit will be doing well and will give me more money to put into an ace shop!  I should also have a good supply of wool ready to stock it straight away, as this was another concern I had, not having enough money to fully stock a great range of yarn at the start.  So by starting out smaller with less overheads, I should have more money for the good stuff, the yarn!

So stay tuned, I don't know how long these things take to set up, but some time soon there should be a 'Little Woollie Makes' wool shop, in one form or another!! 

Anyway, on to other things, I have spent 3 days this week away from home, sitting in a hospital ward with my middle son who had a bout of appendicitis, they ended up taking out his appendix, so now he has the rest of the week off school.  He has recovered very quickly, and only has a tiny scar to show for it!  

It is amazing how being in a hospital makes you feel cut off from the rest of the world, sort of in your own little time bubble, it is like a self contained little universe in there, you look out the window at the rest of the world going along normally, and you are just not part of it for a while.  I have never had to spend time in a hospital before ( other than having babies), and I have to say the nurses and doctors were so fantastic with their care and cheerful attitude.  Luckily our family is generally really healthy and we don't visit the doctor much, I really felt for families in there who obviously spend a lot of time in hospital and are very familiar with the system.

By the second day I was looking for something to pass the time ( we spent lots of time waiting for things), so got my crochet  out and hooked some more flowery bits for my 'summer tablecloth'.

There was an art therapist at the hospital who was interested in what I was making, and said she might just have to persevere with learning crochet to make beautiful things like this. I was chuffed. The universal language of craftiness!!  Good for the healing process I think.

I have 9 finished flowers now, I think I should weave in ends as I go so it won't be a huge task at the end. Must start doing that now!

Anyway, I wil try to be a good girl and finish Blogtober off proper like, with daily posts for the rest of the week. 

Joining in over here today with very creative people.

See ya !

Crocheting cute.....

Blogtober 27th

These are some little baby bibs I'm making, these are my first few tries, I did some boy colour and some girly colour, cause I don't know what my sister is having. They are lovely and soft made from pure cotton so they should wash up fine too.
I'm thinking of making some more to put in my 'things that are finished for a future Madeit shop' stockpile. I really like making things for little ones, and I have lots of ideas for some cute little mobiles and cot blankies. Have to get on to it!!


Thought they might look cute with a sweet flower, but I think it needs to be slightly bigger than this one, what do you reckon?

Have a great day!

Blogtober 17th...

Sooooo....... Haven't got much to say tonight. We had Gary's extended family over for a big reunion lunch today, which was a fun day, so I haven't gotten around to taking any photos of anything for the blog. We are all cleaned up again and just about to sit down for a bit of hooky time I think. My sister in law bought her knitting with her today, and was making hats, something I haven't made before. It looked pretty easy so I might have a go on some little baby or kids hats and then decorate them with some crochet edging or flowers, I have a few colour schemes in mind already.

Thanks for the feedback regarding setting up a little shop on Madeit or Etsy, I am busy making some things and hope to have enough to open a shop in the not too distant future! It is a bit daunting getting out there and putting your stuff up there for sale, what if no one is interested in what I make? It could be a very short lived venture! Also how do you decide on a price for your creations, I find this really hard, a lot of stuff on Madeit and Etsy seems really cheap for the work and time that has gone into it, how do you balance this and still try and be competitive?
There is a lot to think about!

Hope you had a great weekend! Back to the normal routines tomorrow, the weekends just fly by! My last day of working at the bakery tomorrow, and then a few weeks break (Yay!) before I start a new part time job, so lots of time to go into a hooky frenzy and produce lots of gorgeous things!