i'm seriously thinking of opening a yarn shop. seriously.

[warthog]

but i need to work out my business plan and do the sums to see if it's at all possible.

the way i see it: in sw london there are NO comprehensive yarn shops. there are a couple with a small to below-reasonable range (ie. john lewis) but nothing that blows you away. i'm thinking of opening something that is BIG. basic brands (sirdar, wendy) with crappy acrylic as well as specialist yarns (noro, silks etc.) plus the middle of the road rowans and debbie bliss. but basically LOADS and LOADS. i'd sell needles (bamboo, metal, plastic, wooden and do-it-yourself range) as well as dyes and yarns for dyeing. I think if i open small shop with a view to expanding later it won't work, because there's too much competition. it's competitive edge is the very large range.

1. do you think i'm on the right track?
2. to get an idea of whether it's feasible, what is your average spend in a yarn shop?

Have never picked up a pair of needles since I threw them across the room in a teenage paddy with my mum, but after reading this<a class="break-all" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Divas-Dont-Knit-Gil-McNeil/dp/0747581649"?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-arts-and-crafts-332789-i-m-seriously-thinking-of-opening-a-yarn-shop-seriously" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.amazon.co.uk/Divas-Dont-Knit-Gil-McNeil/dp/0747581649" I think your idea sounds great. Am prone to very lightweight reading, but think you knitter may like it!

(Still can't do links even with new easy way!)

great ideas pruuuuni, re the cards, discontinued lines and clued-up shop assistants.

i worry about a play area - will i be encouraging jam-ensconced toddlers who wonder down all the rows fingering silks? and am i responsible for children if they're in my play area?

In all honesty, a knitting shop is a place not for small children, isn't it? i know sometimes it's unavoidable but I have totally given up going with ds, because I cannot think or plan.

i agree. although don't want to alienate a large customer base!

getknitted has a fabulous small play area. Its about 12 ft by 6 ft? I think? and it is bordered by shelves of toys, it is visible from anywhere in the shop.

As a result I travel an 80 mile round trip to go there, as opposed to my more local one where i have to keep eyes in the back of my head for the dcs.

a lot of women DO get interested in knitting/crochet after having kids, I'd be inclined to lean to that market tbh, at least during daylight hours.

so, esp if you have space, i'd seriously consider it. also workshops-parent/child say. even pissy stuff like french knitting/weaving. i'd love to do a workshop with ds on that.

I haven't read the whole thread, but it's a great idea, warty.

There aren't enough of them about. I've got one in my village, but it's seriously weird!

I would typically spend about £25/£30 on one visit - but that would only be about four times a year.

I would also be a bit sad if I felt my kids were unwelcome in a knitting shop, and wouldn't bother to go back, because there ARE knitting shops where they are made VERY welcome (GetKnitted...).

They are both interested in knitting and they are well behaved around yarn . oh god they HAVE to be....

but seriusly, this is something that utterly put me off Loop. When I went there were about 4 of us in there with babies in arms or in backpacks or whatever (ie not loose, nowhere near the wool, not pulling it down off the shelves or anything), and the woman running it was in paroxyms in case one of them touched the bloody yarn with their (clean) fingers. It was unfriendly and that struck me as a bit daft given that 80% of their customers that morning had kids under 2.

I am not saying you wouldn't be nice to kids or anything...just that its tricky shopping with preschoolers, esp if you have several, also though its a luxury for most mothers and so it needs to be somewhere they feel happy going. Remember most of us on here are quite hardcore. You need to be growing a market, to an extent, among the less hardcore locals.

Play area a good idea. FIllyjonk is right about the interest being sparked by young children.
I however cannot hear myself think when ds is around. He is a particularly constantly and generally unbiddable child who talks all the time. Perhaps a play area with soundproof glass?

constantly demanding, that should read.
Or constantly needy.
Constantly chattering
Constantly moving
take your pick

Warthog -

Your idea sounds fantastic. We have a couple of craft/sewing shops here & they stock some yarn but one's kinda off the beaten track & the other's so small & cluttered that getting in with a buggy is nigh on impossible & if dd's running around loose I can't take the time to have a good look.

A small play area sounds like a great idea & if you had a corner with a couple of comfy chairs & a tea/coffee vender that would be fab - there's a bit in stitch n bitch nation that says some yarn shops have sample balls so you can knit up a swatch of the newest yarns so you can see how they'll drape before forking out for a load of yarn you might wind up hating the feel of - that sounds good to me too.

btw I do most of my ordering on-line so if you do get a site set up let me know & I'll buy from you - especially if it's fast delivery

GOOD LUCK!

at pruuni

my children have been trained from a young age . they understand where they vs yarn come in the pecking order in this house...

I really am just being honest though. For me, visiting a yarn shop is an EXPERIENCE. Otherwise I'd just order online. Since SAHMs are a. more likely than, say, plumbers to be into knitting, b. more likely to be out shopping during the day and c. tend to have small kids with them.

So personally, if I opened a yarn shop, and like every knitter i do intend to do so one day, I'd be veering toward that target market.

and fgs LATE NIGHT OPENING!

my local yarn store (k1yarns in glasgow) has lots of knitters groups - a snB in a coffee shop a few doors down once a week and a free lesson with ever £x spend. They'll also have a meet up half day or so where people can book a place to all knit the same thing together, with experienced knitters on hand to help out any problems. she's been there for a couple of years. very small shop, but very community based i think that makes people very loyal towards it.

you're quite right fillyjonk. the shop SHOULD be child-friendly. i think one expects a certain amount of damage anyway - balls becoming unwound, whites getting dirty. i can always throw them in the bargain bucket.

i really like the idea of teaching children to knit too.

i was thinking about showing evening movies where you can knit and watch a movie. but i don't know about licensing laws. i'll have to check that out. and of course, coffee evenings are a must!

To be child friendly you need to distract them - I like the idea of a fenced-off corner. I bought half an hour in my friend's shop last week by feeding them continously and keeping one in pushchair.

My favourite yarn shops

• have parking
• keep all their old stock so I can find obscure discontinued things
• have all the Rowan and Debbie Bliss stuff
• have decent books / American ones
• have the US magazines
• Sell decent needles.
• Sell online and have everything listed.
• Sell sock yarn
• Have lots of stuff to try on

I do a lot of colour knitting and am always hunting around for obscure balls of this and that. Probably a LYS owner's nightmare.

Mind, my friend with the shop says several people come in every day asking for cheap baby yarn. She has had to start stocking some, they will not accept that any yarn can be used for baby clothes!

Perhaps you need an angle of "Fed up your knitting relations giving you unwearable pastel baby clothes? Bring them here and get some thing you really like. or even better, learn to knit it yourself"

I think you are on the right track, I'm tired of going into little yarn shops that never have what I want but just the same old displays of cashmerino. But then I am very fussy.

Good luck! If I still lived in London I'd be applying for a job.

warthog, what a fantastic idea! yes you'd need a license but dunno if thats a huuuuge deal or not.

will ask dp for you when he gets up, he is a specialist in such matters (kind of-this is copyright not patent law but...he'd prob know)

oh and you need a license to play muzak also!

viticella - i am absolutely the same! i also like obscure colours and they never have quite the right shade. that's actually what's brought this on. i'm sick of the same wool all over the place, and it drives me mad that they have seasons so you can't get what a pattern suggests. WHY????

all the things you list are on my list, except the parking. it'll be in london so i don't think i will be able to sort that out. i was planning on being as near as poss to a tube.

filly, that would be great to find out. i vaguely was aware of the music thing...

i think in london, the tube is more important, surely?

here, parking WOULD be important

I do think its all the more arguement for letting them relax a bit (coffee, BISCUITS like getknitted, etc) once they are there

seriously, getknitted is a really good shop

amazing range- most exotic stuff in stock, all the basics (db, rowan etc) and a bit of patons etc too

free tea/coffee

child friendly

parking

you name it really

getknitted sounds spot on. pity they're about 200 miles away! i'm going to watch with interest to see how they get on. if they can do well in their location, surely i'll have a big enough customer base in london?

i will definitely have to do a recce there. are they your lys? if so,

if they were in london, i wouldn't have to worry with all this!

Ah, I used to live in Peckham where there's no tube anyway.

Hearing how far people drive to Get knitted, I think it's coming onto my radar. I'm already a mail order customer...

Did you ever go to Maple Textiles in Penge? Closed a couple of years ago, but it was perfect - big, a bit untidy, STUFFED with yarn and fabric, going back for 15 years of Rowan and Jaeger. You never knew what you might find there.

do you know why it closed? sounds like the perfect place...

I think they went to concentrate on patchwork fabrics business which was being run from a warehouse. I suppose it fell foul of the downturn in traditional knitting before the "resurgence" - things like that take a little while to filter out to the suburbs.

Went to a knitting group yesterday and quite a lot of the group were knitting with what looked like large balls of no-name acrylic or cheap DK. So I'm not sure what that says about your potential market in London as I'm not sure where the margins would be! Knitting animals were popular, also baby stuff. Only one lace knitter and no sock knitters (although knitting lace and talking perhaps not compatible).

What about having generic patterns for different gauges - basic hat, mittens, scarves, booties - available for free or as kits?
BTW has anyone been to Bunty wool in Ealing? bunty

no! i'll go and have a look.

re free generic patterns, the web is good for that. i wonder if i'm allowed to print them off. not charge anything of course...

just stumbled across this community whilst googl-ing knit+ st albans

Mh, interesting...I have been having similar thoughts on opening a craft-friendly tea room in St Albans or Bedfordshire area...

Maybe get in touch for some brainstorming?