A LYS, A LYS My kingdom for a LYS!

I want to start a LYS. I found one near me that stocks SOME stuff but not really a decent selection or even enough yarn to make a sweater. I had to have the owner scrabble around for about 30 minutes before she found some yarn to make Bombshell. Everything else she had 2 - 3 balls of and in not very interesting colours either.

She DOES have something I can't mention here because it is what I have sent my lovely swap pal (Debbie from KH.com) and don't want to give it away. She is the only UK stockist of it apparently.

What would I stock?

Plymouth Yarns - plain and simple I would stock the Bamboo and Encore for afghans. Lion Brand no doubt would be stocked and they have recently started selling in the UK too. South West Trading Bamboo, Corn and all the other ecologically friendly yarns - why? No not because I am an eco warrior or a vegetarian but because these yarns give a FABULOUS alternative to acrylic to those of us who have issues with natural yarns. I am currently using the Plymouth Bamboo I got on ebay for a snip - My God, this stuff is like heaven to knit with. It is stupidly slippy so it will not go well on the new Knitpicks Options needles, but it works like a dream on Denise needles which have that slight grab.

I would sell a selection of needles, including denise and the Plymouth little sister set. Man that thing is so suhweet! I snapped one up off ebay for a very VERY very good price, brand new unused and it arrived this morning. It is fabulous!

I am going to learn to spin next weekend, I HOPE that I can manage it fine and that with practice I could even produce enough decent spun hand spun yarn to sell. I would hand dye it too and I would sell that in my little shop.

I would have an area where people could sit, chat and knit. I would have a small library of books available, and for a deposit (to avoid damage) and small fee (and leaving CC details) people could borrow knitting books from me. If they didn't turn up with the books when they should, they would have a short period of grace (say one week) and then their CC would be charged the full cost of the book.

In my fantasy LYS I would also have a small coffee / tea / cold drinks / sandwich bar. I would hire teachers to come in and do knitting / crochet / sewing classes.

I would have all the yarns out on the needles for people to try out, and I would either list alternatives to each yarn and/or I would have a computer available that had access to Yarndex so people can compare yarns. Perhaps just two skeins of each yarn - one on the needles so you can see how it feels to knit with, and another one to just plain feel up. Then you bring your choice to the counter, with the requested number of balls required and I'd bag it up and sell it to you. That means the yarn you actually buy is fresh and free from being felt up by everyone who comes into the shop. New, untouched, un sticky fingered, fresh yarn.

I would have an ordering service. I would do mail order and have a web site too for the store. Oh yeah, I'd also open on Saturday AND Sunday - the two days of the week most 'normal' people don't work. What IS the trend with LYS's to open on Tuesday to Saturday from 10am or later to 5pm or earlier? How do you expect to have customers when you aren't open at convenient "off" hours - ie when most people are actually NOT working!

Anyone wanna fund me to do this? =P