Angela, Nicky, Sue, and Linda arrived (almost at the same time), 7 pm. Upon arrival, Angela stole the show with her fab felted bag - a Nicki Epstein pattern from last year's fall Vogue (if memory serves). It has really cute knitted roses.
Sue I had met a few weeks earlier when she stopped by my home to purchase some skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in Bittersweet for a scarf. Sue brought her scarf partially completed - beautiful and so soft! I love this yarn: a super-soft 100% wool, hand-dyed, and superwash to boot. The price is actually extremely reasonable when you factor all that in - $17 per 100g/225 yard skein. That's equivalent to a 50g skein for $8.50. Not bad for a hand-dyed superwash supersoft wool if you ask me. I'm seriously considering stocking a range of solid colors as well.
I enjoyed getting to know Nicky and Linda as well... everyone was actually super nice and excited to be here. Linda showed off her really cool curly-q fringe for a scarf and Nicky had a fabulous slubby cotton yarn made by Blue Heron.
I had fun showing off all my yarn, especially the Goddess Yarns, which very few people have seen in person. Up until now most bay area knitters could only see Goddess Yarns on their website. I will be stocking the full range when I open - I have most of the range in my living room as I type. Goddess makes an extensive range of basic, hard-working yarns in a wonderful, sophisticated color palette: merino wool, cotton, wool/cotton, wool/alpaca, 100% baby alpaca, etc.
Two people ended up buying this evening: Linda went home with a little bit of Lorna's Laces Lion & Lamb (50% wool/50% silk) in 'Irving park' to make knitty.com's clapotis, and three skeins of GGH's Savanna went home with Nicki. Savanna is a wonderful & unusual heathery wool & alpaca blend that looks a little odd in the ball but knits up beautifully. Fortunately I had a large swatch demonstrating how the yarn looks with various stitch patterns; this yarn needs to be knitted up to appreciate its beauty. I was VERY happy to sell some of this yarn (for a scarf). I'm anxious to knit myself something with it.
Everyone left by 9pm after much talk about yarn, how we all started knitting (Nicky just learned this past 4th of July!), and most importantly, we critiqued other local yarn shops. I truly want my shop to be a place where knitters _enjoy_ shopping; unfortunately, most local knit shops miss this point entirely. I learned quite a bit about how knitters (other than myself) feel about the existing Marin shops. I will do my best to learn from other's mistakes and by listening close to my clientele.
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