Today Felicia welcomes another yarn shop owner to the show: Carmen Schmidt. Carmen is the owner of A Yarn Story, a knitting shop in Bath, England. She’s also begun a new venture called Walcot Yarns, with the goal of producing luxurious yarns and fabulous patterns for knitters and crocheters alike. A Yarn Story opened almost 3 years ago in 2014 and has become a destination shop for knitters and yarn lovers.
Please join us this week as Felicia and Carmen discuss creating a knitting community through colour!
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Carmen describes her vision for A Yarn Story: “I wanted it to be full of colour and inspiration and things that I loved and I thought other and I thought other people would love. The colour was so important to me I… think… a lot of us spend a lot of our days in offices that are rather boring and drab… And I… wanted to create a really beautiful, colourful, space that people could come and just really enjoy the yarn and really build a sense of community…. Because there’re not just customers that walk through our doors… they’re knitters. There’s a special relationship there.” — Carmen Schmidt
In this episode, we talk about:
- 1:38 The ladies chat about how they first met when Felicia was teaching at Unwind Brighton in the UK. Carmen also chats about how she started A Yarn Story.
- 5:00 Why is the shop called A Yarn Story?
- 6:28 Carmen shares some of her favourite “yarn stories” from customers
- 8:45 Felicia asks Carmen what her vision for A Yarn Story was when she first decided to open a yarn store and how she tries to foster a knitting community through her shop
- 11:14 How Carmen chooses which colours of yarn to stock in the limited space in her store and what colour trends Carmen has been observing lately
- 16:00 Felicia asks Carmen about the rise of popularity of knitting in Europe
- 17:52 Felicia asks Carmen how she made A Yarn Story the successful yarn store it is today in a tough economy
- 20:30 Carmen talks about her latest venture: producing her own line of yarns called Walcot Yarns
- 25:52 Felicia asks Carmen why she feels driven to start a yarn company now when so many new yarn companies are being created and there is so much competition
- 29:07 What is next for Walcot Yarns?
- 31:05 Discussing planning (or lack thereof!)
- 32:32 What is currently capturing Carmen’s imagination and attention knitting-wise
- 36:40 How you can find A Yarn Store and Walcot Yarns online
- 37:42 Felicia’s final notes and podcast giveaway!
Links and Things
Here’s where to find A Yarn Story and Walcot Yarns online:
- Website: www.ayarnstory.co.uk
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/ayarnstory/
- Twitter:www.twitter.com/ayarnstory
- Website: www.walcotyarns.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/walcotyarns/
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/walcotyarns
Podcast Giveaway!
Win a free hat pattern kit from A Yarn Story! Simply enter your info here and we’ll enter you in the giveaway and also subscribe you to our SweetGeorgia updates, so you won’t miss out on any of our updates!
Thanks for Listening!
Thank you so much for joining me this episode! If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with your fellow knitting friends. And if you like what I’m doing here, please leave a rating and review on iTunes for the show. I read each and every email and bit of feedback, whether it’s on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, so I welcome your comments.
Many thanks to Carmen for joining us on the show this week!
Music Credits:
The Young and Beautiful – by Ivory Hours
Fallin’ – by Jetty Rae (on Noise Trade)