It is so much fun to have a baby to knit for. In the past few month I knit a couple of things for my new granddaughter Briana.
Most recently I finished this sweater.
Before the sweater I knit a cape for her.
Yesterday was Duke's birthday. I made the traditional favorite meal - meat loaf, peas, and baked potatoes. I also baked a yummy cake - spice cake with gooey coconut, pecan frosting.
And for his birthday present I gave him these.
Even if you are totally uninterested in knitting you have to find the story of Jimmy Beans Wool in Reno an interesting one. The company was founded in 2002 by Laura and Doug Zander. Laura focused on the store and the yarn and Doug developed the web site.
Last Saturday I stopped at Jimmy Beans Wool to look at a knitting pattern that I had found from their web site. There were two cash registers open and a line waiting to check out. Jimmy Beans is Reno's best knitting store. A yarn distributor I know told me that Jimmy Beans doesn't buy from distributors because they sell so much yarn that the yarn companies want to sell to them directly. Business sure seems to be good.
According to an article about them in Fortune Small Business article in July of 2007 the on-line business at that time accounted for 70% of their business. They recently expanded their back room into the store front next door. Often when I am in the store I can hear people on the phone with customers taking orders.
The shopping experience on their website is wonderful. Browsing the web site just makes me want to buy yarn and knit. Right now they have cashmere sock yarn in delicious colors on the front page. They have hooked me on the possibilities. I am probably going to buy some.
Perhaps because I am a computer programmer at heart I find it inspiring that this website is their own, developed by them. I've always
thought that it would be fascinating to develop a web site and sell on line. But what a lot of
work. When you look at the complexities of the Jimmy Bean website and
store and yet how well it is designed for ease of use you really have
to admire the fact that the web site was created from scratch.
Bottom line is that Jimmy Beans Wool is a real Reno success story. If you want to create your own business, work really hard, be a bit lucky and I am sure put a lot of money and sweat equity into your effort Jimmy Beans is proof that it is really possible to succeed.
On our road trip I finished a couple of knitting projects that I have been working on forever. I started this sweater at least ten years ago and it is finally finished!!
I bought the kit for these mittens on October 13, 2002 in New Hampshire. I was visiting Allison while she was in college in Boston. The mittens are lined with fleece by knitting fleece with every sixth stitch. I am not very happy with the way they turned out. They look like oven mits!
The fun thing is that now I get to start on a new project. I told myself I couldn't buy any new projects until I finished these two.
My next project is a pair of socks. I've got about four inches of the cuff of the first one done. They are fun to knit so far.
I am a renaissance woman working full time to live, to love, to learn and to be interesting.
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