what would your ideal wool shop be like?

[lydiathetattooedlady]

me and my sister are just in the process of sorting out the possibility of opening a wool shop. i thought id ask the mumsnet knitters jury what their ideal one would be like sell?

we were thinking old mismatched armchairs with coffee table to look at patterns white distressed looking furniture/fittings.

Yarn wise we'd love to stock debbie bliss/noro ets but my mum had a wools hop and the clientele wastn there for a full rnage of designer yarns so was thinking of doing a compromise of debbie bliss for those who can afford it, sirdar as the middle range and stylecraft for the lower end as we would have pepole coming in for charity knitting wool!

can anyone offer any other ideas?? or what you'd like to see in a yarn shop?

sorry for awful typos have baby bouncing on my knee!

I am very lucky as I have my ideal yarn shop locally! Things I particularly like about are the comfy chairs area like you suggest, with lots of the latest books and magazines to browse through. I love that they are so helpful and friendly when I get stuck with something. And they run knitting classes focussing on various techniques which have proved really popular, and organised a knitting group that now meets twice a month, through which I've met some lovely ladies and inevitably bought lots of extra yarn as i have been inspired by their projects.

By the way, my local shop's real bread and butter comes from their online sales, especially with designer yarns. Might be something you should look at too?

Staff who know what they're talking about, and know how to crochet as well as knit and can therefore give advice. Being completely welcome to yarn newbies who have no idea what they want or need! Or LYS has a very rude old woman running it which makes you not want to ask any questions.

Sounds lovely though, where will you be?

just like my current one but 6" wider so I can get the pram round it

and possibly with a coffee maker

and a better website

here it is

Your idea sounds wonderful.

The nearest yarn store to us is this place - magical shop that sells a huge range of yarn, raw wool for felt/spinners, needles, buttons etc.
The staff are very helpful and will take time to show you knitting techniques or alternative ways of tackling a problem.
The only drawback is that the shop is tiny and if several customers are in at the same time then it can feel like it is packed.

Another favourite is Shilasdair in Skye

It sounds great. I'd really like my LYS to stock a good range of reasonable machine washable DK to make children's clothes with as well as all the expensive lovelies to make grown up things, so I think sirdar a very good idea.

wow thank you for all your responses!
we are looking at doing a web site, so it maybe an idea to sell more fancy stuff via the website.

Classes is a yes as my mum used to do those too, newbies definately welcome!! im only a basic crochet-er(SP!) but was going to rope my mum in as she's fantastic!i used to work in my mums shop so often helped out when people got stuck on patterns...and i like to think im friendly!

the premises we're looking at used to be a cafe so there is room for making tea and coffee for people!

we had ideas of putting together little kits for people who're just starting out with knitting. for example, ive met lots of mums who wished they knew how to knit and attempted knitting in pregnancy, so though about easy baby cardi/blanket kits or baby comforter kits?? hat and scarf kits in chunky yarns for beginners??

knitting groups-we were thinking evening maybe better as people who work may not be able to make it if they only ran during the day? or we could run day and evening ones maybe?

we'll be in melton mowbray.