Dilemma!

I am an honest person. I have been known to collect money for charities, spend days counting change at my house and no one has ever questioned anything that I have done. I called the bank when I found some money in the bank machine, and then gave it to charity because they didn't know what to do with it either.

Last week, against my 'Shop rules', I took a return and gave the customer her money back. When I checked the balls of yarn for weight, one was significantly less than the other, 6 grams. That means that this ball is now about 8 metres short. I could just put it on the shelf and not say anything, but I can't do that.

So what to do. The customer will deny that she has shorted me, (but I am sure that since every other ball in this colour weighs over 100 grams that this one did as well.) Do I confront her, or just tell her next time she is not allowed any returns, (my store, my rules).



So hence the dilemma. So now every ball gets weighed, either during the return or after, and any one loosing my trust with not be able to return yarn under any circumstance. I know that 99.9% of my customers are honest kind and generous people...so bear with me.

It's taken over a week to write this up, but I wanted to let you know that I will make sure that every ball of yarn you purchase has been checked for weight, you won't have to worry about purchasing one that is 'short'






On to other things.

Some pretty knitting: Chevalier done with Creative Focus Superwash. Pattern says double the yarn, I did a single strand.





When my kids were little, I sold/ordered Avon products and for the past couple of years I was ordering stuff on line. (I really wasn't a very good rep but I liked their products and that way I could be sure of a good supply!) Yesterday I signed up again, so if you like their products and currently don't have access to a brochure..come and see me. Orders are every two weeks, and there's always something new.





When I told my husband what I did he said: How much more are you going to take on!

May 8th

Today would have been my Beppe's birthday. She would have been well over 100, she lived through quite a time! Born just before WW1 and being in her 40's with 6 children through WW2 in Holland. A lovely woman, who created many lovely things. Hardworking, not very much money, lots of family, outliving her husband by more than 30 years. I remember her sense of humour the most, we actually didn't spend much time together as I was very young when we moved to Canada. She visited us a couple of times. Her home was a townhouse with a tiny backyard. When she moved into a retirement complex I was chastised for sending her mail to the wrong address. They would call for her to come and pick up the letters I sent. It would mean that she would have to travel to another wing of the building, but she didn't like going there because that's where the 'old people' were, she was 86.




Today would also have been Mary's birthday. Mary was another Rickaby's staff member, Mary was an only child and looked after her parents through their senior years. When I worked in the yarn department in the store Mary would fill in during busy times. She would have been well into her later years by then. A beautiful knitter, she knit most of her wardrobe. Skirts, jackets, sweaters; the more complicated the pattern the more Mary liked it. She loved to do colour work. Needlepoint was another favorite craft, she recreated famous paintings and made needlework handbags.


One of Mary's passions were butterflies, if it had a butterfly on it, Mary loved it. The day a needlework canvas handbag with butterflies arrived was one of her best days.

A kind lady who lived a simple but lovely life, with many friends.

Two extraordinary women born on the same date, 2 very different lives!


On the Knitting front, I finished another shawl, (my new favorite thing!), still working on too many projects.

On sale this week, a few skeins of Northern Chunky, some lovely Filatura diCrosa yarns, and greatly reduced some leftover Needfull yarns!

See you soon!

It's been quite a week!

Sometimes when you think your world can't possibly get more 'full' one more thing gets added to the mix. On top of being here at the shop, we have had #1 child 'home' for a couple of days, (home being pick up from train, take to bus, pick up from bus and drop back on to the train) she did visit as much as she could considering she will be working all summer at really interesting job. Husband had been trying to get stuff ready to plant crops. #2 child is getting ready for his big adventure. For the past week we have been looking for a new vehicle, 12 year old 'tank' bit the dust 2 weeks ago. It took us a week to decide its future and we opted the new route. Last night we arrived at the dealership 20 minutes to closing and test drove a new vehicle and signed the paper less than an hour later. Pretty basic vehicle, nice bright visible colour, I couldn't believe how hard it was to find a 4 x 4 vehicle that wasn't 'pavement' gray or black. I hope I don't have to do that again for a while, 12 years would be good!

This past Saturday was the Downtown Bowmanville's Maplefest, the main street was closed to vehicle traffic, lots of fun. The shop was busy, and I had some things on sale...they are still on sale.

Otherwise not much new or interesting...just knitting and not much of that lately.

Next week things should be better......maybe.

30%

First thing: I re-read my last post and realized how funny the first line was "It's been a week since..my 'last confession', watch too much 'Ballykissangel'.

Anyway, my biggest dilemma about the shop is when to have a 'sale'. I would like to surprise customers who come into the store with great yarn at a great price. Sometimes when I buy stuff I pass on the savings to you without making a big fuss. You will find on my shelves yarn that should be $11.95 a ball and I have it listed for $5.95. But I am running out of room, so its time to move some stuff. The computer program I use will tell me what is the bottom 30% of my sales. (It also tells me who my best customers are, and I will use that information to someday offer special thank-you's to those of you that are helping me in this adventure! :)


Today I looked at the list and found some interesting information. Starting next week I will be putting some of the stock at 30% off. It will only be bits and pieces but some very nice yarn. (and when its gone, its gone!)

This is the list for next week:

Mirasol Miski and Qina. (Reg $8.95 reduced to $6.25)

Miski is 100% Baby Llama,
Qina is 80% Baby Alpaca and 20% Bamboo.


Plus a few other surprises!
See you soon

Time flies!

Its been over a week since my last post and I don't know where the time went. Every day has its challenges and moments. I have great plans for the week, finish this, clean that, work on everything and then the week is almost over and nothing is done!

Tomorrow is my son's birthday and now I also wonder where the time has gone, 19 years ago on a day much like today he arrived, 4 days late (like his sister). We can all tell you exactly what crop my husband was planting and how we caused a complete community comotion because of the event. Husband had to leave planting peas, only in extreme circustances are you allowed to leave the field on a perfect day for any kind of field work. So now at 19 he will spend the summer on a great adventure and we won't see him until November!

He leaves on Mother's Day. (I will use that one a lot)

Happy Birthday Kid!

What I did on my vacation!

We took a short holiday,my husband and I, our last vacation was 2 years ago. (We went to Stratford to pick up a piece of equipment.) Darling Daughter is staying in Ottawa to work for the summer, so we moved her back to the apartment she lived in last year! Of course she is downsizing dramatically, this was the load of stuff that came home with us. She was smart enough to hire movers to move the couch up 5 flights of stairs.


The whole thing was fairly smooth and the trip to Ottawa was a quite uneventful. I managed to finish some knitting. Baby Surprise Jacket made from Briggs and Little Regal.












On Monday we went to Ikea and Lee Valley Tools then travelled a leisurely pace home.(We drove by a couple of yarn shops and visited the Wool Grower's Co-op in Carleton Place.) My husband (dairy farmer hardworking guy) doesn't always come on these excursions. It was a nice treat to have him along for the ride, and share the long drive home.

I have been this route many times in the past 4 years and know exactly how much fuel I need to purchase to get us home. We stopped and I put in $20.00, plenty I told my husband, who was rather sceptical, however we decided to take the scenic route, without a map. We kind of knew where we were and I was driving thinking we are out in the middle of nowhere and the cell phone is dying. I kept watching the fuel gauge. Sure enough it plummeted and I was sure we were going to be left stranded. I was never so happy to see highway 45 in my life. Fill up with a bit more fuel in Baltimore and head home.

Looking at a map later..the drive with its twists and turns was actually a fairly direct route.

Vacation over its now back to work. This weekend 6 yarn shops are treating knitters and crocheters to a 'Yarn Crawl'. Find a willing driver and tour the central Ontario region and visit 6 lovely hardworking entrepreneurs who are as passionate about yarn as you. I managed to wrangle some lovely yarn from Filatua Di Crosa which will be up to 50% off!





The weather looks like it will be great, and your garden will wait another week. Come and visit:


ON THE LAMB
53 Toronto St. N.
Uxbridge, ON
905 852 1944
purl@onthelamb.ca
http://www.onthelamb.ca/

LOG CABIN
YARNS
12 Peterson Road,
Northbrook, ON
613 336 3385
logcabinyarns@aol.com

KNITERARY
229 Brock St. N.
Whitby, ON
905 668 8368
reachus@kniterary.com
http://www.kniterary.com/

NEVER
ENOUGH WOOL
16 Water St.
Port Perry, On
905 985 0030

SOPER CREEK
YARN
80 King St. W.
Bowmanville, On
905 623 2336
http://www.sopercreekyarn.ca/

MYRTLE STATION


WOOL &
FERGUSONS
KNITTING
9585 Baldwin St.
Ashburn, On
905 655 4858

Is it Spring?

What a weird couple of days! The weather has certainly kept us all on our toes, or at least in our boots. We raked the leaves off our lawn on Sunday. It was warm and lovely and the past 2 days have been, wet, windy and nasty.


All of the gardeners and farmers are getting ready to get out there and do a bit of work. I will miss not working in the Greenhouse at Price's this year. It was a great way to get warmed up for spring.


Spring and summer knitting has arrived in the store. I chose only a few yarns for the summer, because our season is so short. The sample of the Daylily sweater finally arrived. (The camera is not in the store.)

I will entertain you with a few more of the entries to the Yarn Challenge: Gwen's 'lite brite' leg warmers and Cindy's crochet sunhat.



It's Easter weekend and the shop is closed on Friday, open on Saturday 10 - 5 and then closed on Sunday and Monday.

Have a safe and happy celebration this weekend!