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August 31, 2004
Heart of Darkness
My day job is on 31st Street, between 6th and 7th Avenues. This means I am right in the *&$#@ middle of the mess from the RNC. Yesterday was bad enough: I had to show ID to walk onto 31st from 6th Avenue. There were cops and National Guardsmen everywhere (nothing makes me feel safer than seeing eleventy-million guns all over the place).
Today was complete idiocy. I wasn't allowed to cross 31st street to get to the south side, where my office is. I (along with about 15 others) was made to cross east over 6th Avenue, south over 31st, west over 6th Avenue, and only then was I allowed to show my ID to a cop so I could get to my office. Freakin' nightmare, I tell you!
On the plus side, the trains are practically empty. And our building owners provided free coffee and bagels to apologize for the inconvenience of the RNC. On the negative side, I am near the epicenter of evil -- free coffee doesn't really make up for this!
Posted by Rose at 11:54 AM | Comments (1)
August 30, 2004
Let there be light!
Because I am the chick in charge of Yarnivore, it turns out that I can simply say, "Let there be light," and there will be light -- at least, there will be after Matt the electrician gets done installing lights today. Later this week I will pronounce, "Let there be shelves!" and my carpenter will perform a similar miracle.
Telling other people what to do rocks.
Paying them, well, that's not so fun. But it just wouldn't be a yarn store without lights and shelving.
Posted by Rose at 04:07 PM
August 22, 2004
Progress Report
Sorry I've been so quiet over here! Life in the yarn mines proceeds apace -- I've been knitting store samples in just about every spare moment. A couple of days ago I got to play Yarn Mogul (tm) -- I sat on the couch making calls, and I had all these papers spread out, and I had both my cellphone and my cordless landline phone, and I thought, "This is just like Hollywood! But with yarn!"
The store still looks very far from being ready to open, unfortunately. I have to have faith that I can whip it into shape pretty quickly. The lovely guys at ThreadBear turned 6000 sq. ft. of empty space into a yarn store in just a couple of weeks, so I imagine that 500 sq. ft. can be managed.... At least, I hope it can be!
With my top-notch volunteer army of swatch knitters and jacks/janes-of-all-trades, anything should be possible. Just after Labor Day for opening? How does that sound to y'all?
Posted by Rose at 05:20 PM
August 16, 2004
Things are coming right along
Wow, I've been super extra busy the last couple of weeks! I've mostly vanquished the evil bronchitis bugs, which is great, because I've needed all my energy to knit samples and stay excited about developments over at Yarnivore Central, 325 Gold Street.
Anyone who would like to be on a mailing list for announcements of Yarnivore-related happiness should send me a note at shop@yarnivore.com. I'll be letting folks know my official opening date. Right now it looks like just after Labor Day will be right; but it's hard to say. I still have to have carpentry work done, and some more lighting installed, and of course I have to take delivery of all the lovely yarn!
If anyone would like a t-shirt depicting the fantabulous Yarnivore creature himself, please drop me a line -- I'll be taking pre-orders for t-shirts, and then I'll have the t-shirt printer guy make us up a batch. The mascot was drawn by Adrian Ramos (Adis!) who draws Count Your Sheep, a beautiful little webcomic I love. He was an absolute delight to work with, so anyone who needs illustration work done should check him out!
My new business cards (with full info about the location of the shop, and the phone number there and whatnot) came in -- they are so gorgeous! I'm really still not over admiring them and being thrilled that they exist, and that the store is really finally happening!
Posted by Rose at 11:47 PM | Comments (1)
August 05, 2004
Taking lots of deep breaths is important!
Excuse for absence from blogging: bronchitis. What a bad couple of weeks for my body! Last week I had a cold, and I tried really hard to be a brave little trooper, insisting that it would be better in a day or two, until the point where it was hard to lie down (I'd start coughing) or walk around (I'd start coughing) or really, do anything beyond sitting very still (I'd start -- you guessed it! -- coughing). The doc said this was going around Brooklyn and he'd seen quite a few cases of it; the meds he prescribed (antibiotic + albuterol inhaler) seem to be knocking out the bronchitis, to my great relief.
I was made especially miserable this past weekend, since I had so much yarn store-related stuff I wanted to do, and was able to do none of it. To say that this put me in a bad mood is a massive understatement. Fortunately, Francis did his usual fantastic job of soothing me and boosting my confidence, and I'm feeling much better.
Official Yarnivore news: I have a million dollars in liability insurance, the lease (which required said insurance) is signed, and I picked up the keys last Friday! This Sunday we'll have the first Church of Craft meeting in the new space, which will be its official debut. A phone line has been installed, and professional movers are bringing over some cabinets that the New Museum of Contemporary Art donated.
I wonder when it will stop seeming unreal? Francis says that at some point, owning a yarn store will just be the thing that I do, since brains are good at getting used to things. But I don't know -- right now I can't imagine this ever seeming like anything less than a dream come true!
Posted by Rose at 04:46 AM | Comments (1)