After just over a week in the new shop I am still very busy but finding time to work on my current project, so I decided to give you all some behind the scenes insights to the trials and tribulations of 170 -172 London Road South and the full story of Over The Hooks move over the road.
I'm sure you are all aware if you visited me at my old shop we very quickly grew out of the space, so we were soon on the hunt for a new bigger shop. Last November we found our new location, it looked perfect, just down the road from our old shop, double fronted and about five times the size of our old shop, the current tenants were looking to move out in March of 2024 so this worked perfectly for us as our lease ran out in the April. Time flew by and we were soon taking the keys for the new premises, below are some pictures of the shop before we started to decorate, as you can see the shop hadn't seen a paint brush in a while so we soon got to work.
Paint the walls not the carpet!
We soon got our paint brushes out and with the help of our boys started the decorating. The shop had been an optician's for many years prior so our first job was to take out all the displays and strip out all the old data cabling. I felt we needed to stick to White to highlight the colours of the yarn, with a bit of my signature teal obviously. Here's one of our boys busy decorating the Chunky and Funky room, he may have got as much paint on himself and the carpet as he did on the walls but we couldn't have done it without him.
Yarn Tetris
And then the Yarn arrived. Every day after I had closed the old shop I came down to start stocking up the shelves with all the new lines, I had been trying to store as much as possible in the old shop so I would have the stock to start stocking up the shelves as soon as possible. I have some fantastic new suppliers and deliveries started rocking up at the new shop faster than I could get it on the shelves. while we are on the subject of shelves I NEVER want to see an Ikea Kalax unit again (in flatpack form obviously) unless its loaded with gorgeous yarns and has been put together by somebody else.
Why is stocking shelves like a game of Tetris?
Picture this: you're staring at a towering pile of yarn packs, trying to fit them all onto the shelves like a giant game of Tetris. It's all about finding the perfect spot for each ball, making sure everything fits just right. And just like in Tetris, one wrong move can send everything crashing down!
How can you make stocking shelves more exciting?
Turn up the tunes and make it a dance party! Who says stocking shelves has to be boring? Crank up your favorite playlist, Madonna all the way! bust out some killer dance moves, and turn that yarn shop into your own personal disco.
Two weeks and not a lot of sleep later we were ready to open. I have been overwhelmed by the help and support offered during the Big Move. If you have been into my new shop already you may have spotted some new lines and some new suppliers, we do have some more on the way so keep your eyes peeled. I am now back to fighting with socks, I bought some new needles at the East Anglian Yarn festival and they are getting the better of me! yes Helen I have given up, they have been thrown across the room and I am back to knitting on my trusted DPNs. I also have a shop full of new yarn and I need to contain myself, I'm desperate to use Emus Chunky Tweed but everyone keeps buying it! So below are the most recent pictures of the shop after all the hard work. Thank you everyone that helped or offered to help and a special thankyou to my boys, Jack, Tommy and James.
