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September 21, 2004
does yarn have wings?
Boxes are on the way to Yarnivore from Mango Moon, Cascade Yarns, Jennifer Pudney needlepoint kits, and Dancing Cat tapestry bags.
I'm bringing my computer over to the space today, and my DSL has been installed, and Iko is busily creating my web pages, and in general I am speeding towards a soft opening in the next week or so, and a "Grand Opening" in the week or so after that!
I'm figuring out about t-shirts now -- I'd like to do preorders so that I have a sense of what to order in my first shipment, but I haven't done that sort of thing on a website yet, so it might be a day or two before I have that up. I could also just guess, I suppose!
UPDATE: Two huge boxes of yarn from Chester Farms arrived Tuesday night!
Posted by Rose at 05:45 PM | Comments (2)
September 13, 2004
The life of the mind vs. the life of living
I found myself thinking, as I pushed a huge dustmop around the floor of the store, "Look at me, I went to Yale and now I'm pushing around a dustmop." But as soon as I put the thought into words, I realized I didn't actually agree with it -- I was just being snarky, and denigrating physical labor as being somehow beneath me, with all my book-larnin'.
When I paused and let myself really feel, instead of hiding behind my big fat brain, I found that I felt intensely satisfied, cleaning the floor of My Store. Despite the incredible busyness of getting the store operational, nothing I've been doing feels like busywork. Everything I'm doing is for real, it's tangible and meaningful and explicable.
I think back on all the times I've done work because it was something my dumb boss handed me, because someone at Corporate asked for the files in a different format, or wanted the spreadsheets to display in landscape -- any of a million random tasks I performed over 10 years of administrative work. I think back on the years before that, back in the selva obscura of acadame, and again, it all just seems like busywork in retrospect.
I did read books then that I was passionate about, but that's not the point of the game; nothing in academia was about pure visceral enjoyment, the bouncing-up-and-down happiness of a New Idea or a Wonderful Discovery. It was all distanced and filtered and processed into MLA-compliant papers.
So, a few days ago, sweaty, disheveled, and grimy with sawdust, I had my epiphany. I am doing a Real Thing. I'm opening a store, and doing it is making me happy, and I fervently hope that running it will make lots of folks happy, and together we will all enjoy working with our hands and sharing ideas and living our lives right now, in the moment, and we'll know why we're doing it: to satisfy ourselves.
Posted by Rose at 02:05 PM | Comments (4)
September 09, 2004
Knitting is sexy
Rachael knows it; she's got t-shirts that say so! Knitty knows it; their summer issue was "Sex and the Knitty", full of dead sexy lingerie and other knitted lovelies.
Readers of BUST are up-to-date; in the fall issue Debbie Stoller wrote about Joan McGowan-Michael's fantastic creations -- and you can click through to see them at White Lies Designs.
Now the online porn audience knows exactly how sexy knitting (and knitters) can be; today an adorable Suicide Girl named Melly posted a photo set called "Dropped Stitch". I wish I could link to the pics -- the very first one is a close-up of a hand holding a skein of lime green Lion Brand Homespun, and throughout the shoot she is draped in a scarf she knitted. The photo set is really incredibly cute and hot.
Posted by Rose at 01:33 AM
September 06, 2004
Shelves! To put yarn on!
I know such excellent people. My friend Christian made and hung shelves in the store this weekend! I had no real idea how expensive wood was -- we spent a huge amount of money at Home Depot, even though we were specifically buying the very least expensive pine. I can't wait to post pictures -- the final effect is both very modern and very rock-and-roll -- no foofy oak or cherry for me! Just cheap pine and elbow grease and tons of sanding.
So all the major capital expenditures have been made, and the leaseholder improvements have been made, and the sawdust and masonry dust and bits of debris have been cleaned up -- it's time for some yarn. I'll be checking over my list in the next couple of days and ordering up some wool and cotton and silk to warm all those lovely board feet.
Posted by Rose at 11:22 PM | Comments (2)
September 02, 2004
MT-blacklist
I* installed MT-blacklist a couple of days ago, and I think that it might have rejected a couple of legitimate comments by being overvigilant. If you had a comment denied, could you try it again now? If you have any trouble, please let me know.
For the most part, the MT-blacklist installation has been an obvious win -- it has denied reams of spam comments in just a couple of days.
*Actually, the lovely and talented Iko installed MT-blacklist for me, while I watched from afar. She rocks.
Posted by Rose at 12:18 PM
Electricity is spiffy
We definitely hired the right electrician (a friend of a friend) to wire up our space -- he took down and reused a bunch of conduit that was already on the ceiling, thus saving us money on materials and also, you know, not generating random refuse. A total mensch, he worked for two days all alone and was just as cheerful at the end as he was at the beginning! I wish I could recommend him to lots of people, but he is in transit and moving to Vancouver. Still, it makes me happy to have employed such a great person!
The lights look terrific! The whole yarn-area-to-be is well-lit now, as is my semi-private office-y area. The Church of Craft guild space is similarly bright, in a way that apartments never are, so I'm hoping that will be one more factor helping our guild members make lots of fantastic stuff.
Speaking of the Church of Craft, I'm going to be teaching a class through them: Knitting with Non-Traditional Materials. Unfortunately, at the moment the date that appears there is incorrect: the class is actually in the afternoon on Sat., Sept. 18th.
We have tables and chairs and a first-aid kit for the guild, and lights all over, and things are really starting to shape up! I'll have to bring in a camera sometime soon, so I can document things while the place is still kind of bare. It'll be hard to believe later, when the space is full of yarn and books and stuff!
Posted by Rose at 12:07 AM