A Sad Day

My LYS - the non-chain, locally-owned one with the finer (more expensive) yarns - is closing. Wah! I don't know the why's or wherefore's, but I am a little disgruntled that they did not notify those of us on their mailing list but instead relied on word of mouth (a co-worker left a note on my desk). I'm assuming the problem is money, so they may not have wanted to spend dwindling funds on a mailing. And the word-of-mouth thing seems to be working for them, as the inventory was rather picked over when I arrived this afternoon. I did manage to snatch up some Cascade 220 and some Colinette Cadenza, and I may return for the Rowan Classic Silk Wool DK and some Skacel Addi Turbo needles. After all, it's 25% off. For some reason the Koigu is not on sale, though.

I'm a little surprised the LYS would be in trouble financially, as I thought they had a good business plan: they didn't just sell yarn, but also their expertise in the form of classes. But it appeared they ran the business manually; for example, receipts were handwritten, which meant inventory data had to be updated by hand as well. Their presence on the web was virtually (HA!) non-existent, too. The quarterly newsletter with the class schedule arrived by snail-mail, and they did not sell online, which limited their customer base.

Some of the LYS customers are discussing starting their own yarn store, so maybe all is not lost. Hopefully, they won't rely on word-of-mouth to get the news out for their grand opening.

Meanwhile, a respite from the yardwork courtesy of a healthy thunderstorm is providing me with the opportunity to work on sock #2. I turned the heel tonight (without incident! maybe I am finally getting the hang of this knitting thing) and hope to finish the gusset so I can do some mindless knitting during a meeting tomorrow at work.