Purlescence

Off To TNNA

Late last night we three intrepid travellers loaded up Nathania's minivan and headed south. We drove through the night and arrived in San Diego as the sun was rising. We're here for TNNA, the yarn and needlework industry tradeshow. It's an opportunity to network with other LYS owners, meet designers and authors, and see what's new for spring and summer.

A reminder: we'll be closed Saturday-Tuesday and will reopen Wednesday, Jan. 17. We'll celebrate our return with a little bit of a sale, selected items at a 10% discount, preparing to make room for new spring yarns arriving soon. The sale will run through Friday, Jan. 18.

See you when we get home!

Final Sunday Work Party

Sunday proved a day of much progress. We got a bit of a late start, Sandi and Ghost ran a half marathon in the morning and we all toodled in around noon, moving a little slow after last night's birthday celebrations at Nathania's. Before long help arrived. Eddie's mom, dad and sister came to help stick price tags on yarn. Sasha, Diane and Karen came a bit later (they're pictured at left). Kathy came too, in the late afternoon and stayed late into the evening.

Meanwhile, Tony and Ghost finished the crown moulding in the main room and moved on to measuring and cutting masonite for the yarn cubbies. After he was finished labeling, Eddie jumped in to lend a hand. With many hands the work picked up speed and now we're nearly ready to put yarn on the shelves!

The final bit of paint in the main room is for the crown moulding. Kevin got right to it and it's amazing how that little bit of paint finishes the whole room. It was great to have so many wonderful friends come to help. Some stopped in just to say hello. It's amazing the amount of support and encouragement we've gotten from our friends and family. We really can't thank you enough for all you've done to help. And tomorrow we'll finally have yarn on the shelves.  How far we've come in 6 short weeks. Hold on to your hats, folks. It only gets better from here.

Finishing Touches

The painting is done (well, except for a tiny bit in the back room) and we've moved on to finishing the main room of the shop. Tony and Kevin have been busy putting up the crown moulding. We'll be cutting the rest of the masonite for the shelves today and stocking can commence! Cookie and Kristi came in yesterday to help us sticker the mountain of Cascade 220 and we'll be doing more stickering today.

The majority of our yarn has come in, though we're still waiting for the Rowan order (which should arrive by Tuesday or Wednesday), Lorna's Laces and a few other surprises.

What's here? Classic Elite, for one. We have Bazic Wool (in Nathania's clutches), a superwash merino in delectable colors, Waterlily and Miracle, alpaca and tencel to die for! Alpaca with a Twist, gorgeous colors in two weights. Over 100 colors in Cascade 220, new fall yarns and purse handles from Crystal Palace, laceweight delights from Yarn Place, Art Yarns Supermerino, Malabrigo, Claudia Hand Painted Yarn, Louet and more.

Don't miss the Grand Opening. Ribbon Cutting Ceremony at 10am, Saturday, October 14.

More Painting

We're getting close to the end now! All the walls in the main room are complete, minus the crown moulding. Most of the shelf units that are to be painted for the main room are complete. The back room is mostly done. Kathy made sure of that yesterday. She's darned good with a paint roller! There are a few more shelves for the back room that need to be painted, but we're getting close. It's starting to feel like a store!

Chloe's been hard at work developing the new website. We love the new logo that Leslie designed for us. Now that we're almost done painting (and our arms are all sore) we're poised to start freeing the yarn from its boxes and finding homes for them on the shelves. Hopefully by the end of the week we'll be stocking in preparation for the opening!

Oct. 14 is less than 2 weeks away!

Paint A Little, Paint A Lot

The final painting preparation happened this weekend. All the drywall was taped, mudded and sanded - here Sandi tries her hand at it. Yesterday the long wall got textured and primered, so did the rest of the back room. Kathy in San Jose came to lend a hand and it turns out that she is remarkably handy with a paint roller. Thank you, Kathy!

We got the family into the act too. We had several bare bookcases that needed some attention. Tony, Ruth and Karin tackled this one and with many hands over the weekend, got this and two others completely finished.

Today the painting continues (as it will for most of the week) with finishing treatments going up on one wall and color going up on the drywall wall. We also assembled a slightly more workable office area. It seems like the progress is slow and we're really looking forward to things finding their permanent home, but each and every day we get closer to a finished store. Hopefully by the end of the week you'll be able to see a shadow of what it will look like.

Yarn Arrives!

The big box of Claudia Hand Painted Yarn arrived. Chloe dove right in.

She was a little enthusiastic about it.

Nathania just wants to give it love.

So far we've received Claudia, Louet (mmmm, laceweight linen!),
Yarn Place, Della Q & Crystal Palace. Can't wait for the rest to arrive!

This morning the nice guys from Rianda Painting
came in to paint the ceiling. Here they're masking the lights.

They're firing up the compressor to spray the ceiling.
Now we can finish painting the walls!

Lots more progress pictures to come this week.

More Than We Know What To Do With

When we took over the space here at 586 S. Murphy we had no idea how much stuff came with the place. We purchased Carolea's fixtures, making it easier for all involved. We've now done a good deal of deconstruction and are in the process of rebuilding and finding places for everything. Some things we simply can't use. Plus, a lot of the shelves were much bigger than we wanted. Look at how these bookshelves dwarf our Chloe! We've very happily donated some to the new charter school that Sandi's daughter attends, some to Kevin's school and we donated a bunch of wood to Cupterino High School's wood shop class.

Meanwhile, we're painting, patching and in the case of the south wall, drywalling. Ghost and Tony, our resident drywall elves, have done a marvelous job. They're even embedding words of love and affection in the walls - when they're not lying around on the job!

Yesterday was Sandi's birthday. She took the day off and we all gathered at Lisa's Tea Treasures for a lovely birthday afternoon. Then Chloe and Nathania returned to the shop to get a few more hours work done. Still later, after the worker bees had gone home, the drywall elves appeared again to finish the job. They left us photographic evidence. Now we just have to wait for the yarn fairies to arrive....

We Weren't Kidding

If you show up, we will put you to work. Just ask Alison. The first day she showed up we put her on demolition duty in the bathroom. She was a trooper and pulled a whole shelf unit out. She's an ace vacuumer too. Thank you for all your help, Alison!

On Sunday our families all arrived to help us demo the shelves in the back room. Kevin (aka Ghost, to differentiate between him and Nathania's Kevin) and Chloe discuss strategies here. All four walls were covered in makeshift shelving and we had to unpuzzle the construction before we could really get into it.

Chloe's mom and pop jumped right in and started tearing things up. Before we knew it they had that wall cleared. Within a couple of hours the room was empty of shelves and we were amazed at how much more space we have than we initially thought. We'll be moving certain shelves back in to handle backstock and storage and to divide the teaching space from the office space.

While we worked on the shelves, Tony tackled the wiring for the telephone and the DSL. Despite a wasp sting on his hand (the nasty things had a nest in the wiring box outside and Tony inadvertently put his hand right in it), he got new cable strung and our wireless internet up and running, so we now really can use the shop as our base of operations.

Eddie discovered that the bathroom door was a little bit too narrow. We really want the bathroom to be accessible to all our customers. Ultimately we want to be able to fit a wheelchair through the door, so we'll reposition it to the adjacent wall and make a wider doorway. That project begins this weekend.

We were also pleased to get a helping hand from our friend Kathy (those who read Nathania's blog will recognize her from the comments as Kathy in San Jose). She helped us sift through the wreckage and tidy up at the end of the day.

There's always plenty to do, so if you have some time and want to come help, just give us a call beforehand. Meanwhile, every Sunday between now and opening we'll be having work parties from noon to whenever. We're still in the messy stages now, so dress appropriately. Next update.... paint!

With a Little Help From Our Friends

We're making progress. Little by little, inch by inch, we're making the space our own. Now that the shingles are all down, we're turning our attention to the big stuff. Sunday the walls literally come tumbling down - much of the shelving, at least. Many of you have offered to help and this is your big chance. We'll be starting at 1pm. Bring tools if you have them (labeling them with your name is a good idea) and a pair of work gloves and we'll dive right in. There will be less physical tasks like cleaning and vacuuming too, for those who are less sure of their demolition ability. Join us if you can!

Demolition Party
Sunday, Sept. 10
1pm - whenever

Deconstruction

Today was our first real day in the new store. Sandi is knitting to her deadline for Big Girl Knits 2, so she duplicate stitched like mad while Chloe and I began the process of transforming the shop from Carolea's Knitche to Purlescence Yarns. We fired up our brand new Dyson vacuum (it's pink!) and got out the Swiffers for dusting. I was dying to get at the shingles that lined the top of two walls in the main room. Armed with a ladder, a hammer and my own brute strength, I prodded and pulled most of them down myself (with a breather provided by Chloe).

Meanwhile, Chloe tackled the carpeting that lined the top of the third wall. Mid-morning we realized that the dust was going to make us all miserable, so we detoured to the drug store to get dust masks. When we finally toddled home this evening, all the shingles and carpet were off the walls and we were all tired and well satisfied with the day's work. Already we're starting to feel at home in the space, as we begin to tailor it to our vision of a yarn shop.

Though there's lots still to do, the three of us are taking some time off to spa tomorrow. We'll rest our weary muscles and just enjoy each other's company. More news on Thursday!

~Nathania