Ready for the Market Season!

So what once was an ugly hole above the cab is now a great place for notes, calendars, timetables, etc.

Not to mention a great storage place for the extra stitch markers, pompom makers and other assorted accessories. The pegboard on the inside is a great help too! Not only does it give me a place to hang up random small products, but it also stabilizes the frames of the corkboard and chalkboard for the earthquake they will be enduring on a daily basis once May hits.

FYI - I actually had to visit my chiropractor to help put my shoulder back where it should be after drilling four holes into the metal frame of the bus just to hang one of the doors. That door ain't comin' off! The other door has anchors behind the plastic to hold it in place but it is not as stable as the one connected to the frame, so I have placed a small hook (see left edge of photo) that catches the lower lip of the hole to keep it level with the right door and then I put a small hasp on them to keep them closed during travel.

As you can see, the doors just peek out above the patterns and knitting looms. Maybe I should draw Kilroy on the black board or would that be showing my age (and yours if you catch the reference)?

All of this is finished just in time for the maiden highway voyage.

The first market outside of Lacombe will be at the Ponoka Community Market this Monday 3-6pm and, weather permitting, I will be there every week until the end of the market season (usually around Labour Day weekend) or longer if the weather holds out.

And don't forget the kickoff to market season in Lacombe will be April 30. See you at whichever market you get to first.

written by Lori, excited TCL owner, who is looking forward to what the new season will bring!

Baby Steps

So I skipped a week but I did say way at the beginning of taking over the blog that I wouldn’t guarantee consistency.

In the previous blog I hinted that I may be at the March 12 market at the LMC. While LorigamiVan managed to limp down there and back without incident, I can’t say the same for the trip down to the gas station a day earlier. That trip proved to me that even though the store was aesthetically ready it most definitely wasn’t highway ready.

I made one left turn, looked into my rear view mirror, and saw the shelving directly behind me (right side of the photo) leaning out at a 30 degree angle! I immediately pulled over, pulled out my bungees, and attached the top layer of shelves to the upper storage. I also bungeed the passenger side just in case. For the remainder of that trip, I know I frustrated at least a couple of drivers because I was driving just above a slow crawl around corners to minimize damage before I got back home. I couldn’t do anything until after the market so Saturday morning I left as early as possible and gingerly made my way down to the market.

The market was a roaring success! Even though I was the only outside vendor, I was rarely on my own and I often had 4-6 people in the store at one time :) Much as I loved the conveniences the motorhome offered, it feels great knowing that customers have access to ALL my yarn every week. I know you - my customers - appreciate as well.

After limping back home from the market, I set to work figuring out exactly how I could secure the display units to the wall without damaging the wall.  That is basically the reason you didn’t get a blog to read last week. We couldn’t start working until I had it figured out Monday morning. (And yes, we, because Mom loves to help with the tear down and setup of the store.)

Normally, for stability, I put backs on the lowest level of my black grid setup. That’s great for a brick and mortar setting where the store isn’t going though an earthquake every day (highway driving). So the first thing we had to do was dismantle the shelving units and put backs on every level of the cubes. I discovered that the window frames have a perfectly located metal lip that I could hook the back grid to. Great! But that created the gap you see at the base of that grid so I used one of my favourite building accessories - zip ties!

So. Many. Zip ties!

I didn’t take a picture of the zip tie placed directly below the securing hook but trust me, there is one below every hook. There is also one at every join. I took the picture to the left before securing the fifth join at the intersection.

Did I mention that I bought a package of 1000 Zip ties? Or that I used over half of them? Yep. Those display units are secure. In fact, the zip ties worked so well at securing the side displays that I was able to rework the back display so that it could hold even more product (!) so now there is space for all the colours and varieties of Sudz Cotton and the Macrame Braid and Macrame Twist have permanent homes too!

April 30 Lacombe Farmer's Market at the LMC (11-4), here I come!

written by Lori, the out-of-the-box-thinking TCL owner, who refuses to give up when faced with a challenge. I know that there will continue to be a lot of tweaking as the market season goes on but I'm hoping to have all the kinks worked out before the end of the season. Baby steps.

And Let There Be Light

Excuse all the clutter on the floor and focus on the positive. I finally have adequate lighting in the bus!

If you've been following the progress on the mobile store, you will know that I have been struggling to find the best way to mount my lighting without wrecking the ceiling. My first two options didn't work (the two-sided tape refused to stick to the freshly cleaned surface and the anchor - singular - spun like a top when I tried that mounting method) so I spent this past weekend mulling it over yet again.

In the photo to the left you can see the strip lighting underneath the upper storage. It does quite a nice job of lighting up the yarn and keeps the colours fairly true. And because nothing beats natural light, if in doubt, it's a short walk to check colours under the sunlight coming through the front door.

You will also notice that the yarn on the back wall looks a little dark. A quick trip to the dollar store fixed that. You can see in the right photo that two battery powered LED trouble lights, hung strategically, brighten up that space beautifully!

So now that the lighting is all finished, I can concentrate on the finishing touches, like emptying and removing all the boxes, setting up the till area, etc.

If the weather cooperates, the mobile store takes its maiden voyage on March 12 to the Lacombe Farmer's Market Spring Market at the LMC (11am-4pm) and I have to have it presentable by then.

 written by Lori, excited TCL owner, who can't wait to get out on the road again and, more importantly, share my updated route with you - as soon as the market managers confirm my spaces.

New Yarns!

Book available by special order only

First - Happy Valentines Day everyone ❤️

Second - sorry about the ‘lack of blog’ last week. 

Third (and most important I think) - I’ve been receiving new yarns!

I spent most of 2021 apologizing to customers who were looking for macrame cords and braids because my suppliers were unable to get their stock from the manufacturers. Well, as of this past week my only apology will be for the one colour I couldn’t get. Other than that one, the store is fully stocked! Click the links for more information about each one.

Macrame Braid

Macrame Twist

While I do have stock of all but one colour, supply is limited and I have no control over availability of a second shipment, so get your orders in now. First come, first serve.

For those of you who don’t care about macrame but do like to keep your kitchen stocked with brightly coloured dishcloths, I now have all available colours of Sudz in stock!

   

written by Lori, TCL owner who is busy looking for space in the bus for the new yarns!

Hands Up If You Miss Petting The Yarn!

 The lighting update (promised from last week) is currently on hold but in the meantime, I have been busy with customers who miss petting the yarn. That means it is time to remind you all how you can continue to pet the yarn even though part of the year I am an online store only. This means you need to share this blog with all your yarnie friends!

I haven't solidified my entire route yet, but there are a couple of markets from last year's roster that are year-round markets that I will be returning to - Ponoka's Monday afternoon market and Wetaskiwin's Wednesday afternoon market - as soon as the weather is conducive to keeping the bus door open while parked outside.

I've told many market customers who had visited the mobile store last season that I really didn't care if they bought at the market. I still stand by that. I made it very clear that yarn is a tactile purchase. It is hard to purchase a yarn that you can't touch. Every customer that didn't purchase at the market was given a business card so that they could purchase (online when the wind blew colder and the days grew shorter) the yarn that spoke loudest to them when they petted it. You see, I know when most of you work with yarn. There are a significantly smaller number of us that knit year-round but even we need to pet the yarn when the opportunity arises.

So - I will update you on my full market schedule as soon as I have confirmed with the market managers but, until then, just remember that the majority of them run from May long weekend to Labour Day weekend, with a number of them extending the season if the weather permits.

written by Lori, TCL owner, who is eagerly awaiting my first yarn shipment of 2022!

This January Has Turned Out To Be Quite Balmy!

 Loving the temperatures coming this week!

I don't mind the forecast of snow for Monday because I need to practice up on the techniques I will be teaching on the next few Tuesdays. (see the blog from two weeks ago)

By Thursday, I should have all the puzzle pieces of the lighting collected. I'm a good blend of my parents, but one trait I am so grateful to have inherited from my Dad is to keep everything 'because I might just need it someday'. You'll see what I mean when I do the show and tell next week soon.

Part of my electrical system will also be arriving soon. Fingers crossed that it will arrive before next Sunday so that the lights will actually be on in the pictures.

I'm afraid that's all I have for this week - classes and easy electrical in LorigamiVan so get out and enjoy this weather. You can see what next week has in store for us.

written by Lori, happy TCL owner who can't wait to see the finished products - classes AND bus!

A Long Goodbye / A New Beginning

Yesterday marked the first day in a long farewell between me and my original mobile store.

Obviously I’ve been anticipating her being gone since I made the decision to sell her back in September but Sunday was the day the new (soon to be) owner had a cheque placed in my hand. Only the usual paperwork and the handoff of the keys and she-who-was-never-named gets to ride off into the sunset with her new owner leaving me to concentrate solely on her replacement, who shall be known as LorigamiVan.

God saw fit to give me (and Mom) a beautiful week to get the majority of the store work done in LorigamiVan and now I will have time to get the physical bus upgrades done. I know. Most people would have done it the other way around but the added electrical will run off of solar and at least one portable battery - none of which will affect the store area of the build. 

I say build but it’s really more of a no-build build. At this particular point in time, I could remove the store and replace the seats and seat belts and no one would ever know a yarn store had been there. That will change when I add the solar and lights. 

Enough preamble. Let’s see some before and after photos! Remember - the lights aren’t installed yet so the after pictures are darker than the finished store will be.

Photo 1: all the seats and seatbelts still intact.

Photo 2: seats and seatbelts removed. Floor covered with our favourite soft flooring and the second of three incarnations of display designs partially completed.

Photo 3: final top to bottom yarn display with the bus’ original lights (which only work when the motor is running). LED strip lighting will either run down the center of the ceiling or under the front edge of the overhead storage. Still working on that.

I’m also trying to decide if I’m going to leave her as a plain white bus and just hang my signs from her windows like I did with the rv or put some decal signage on her. Any helpful suggestion - pros and cons - are welcome so please comment. 👍

Written by Lori, happy TCL owner, who can’t wait to get LorigamiVan out on the road this spring!