Employment situation

[Laynne]

I hope you have good suspension on that little pick up.

[arkie]

Thomas, sorry to hear about the job situation, hopefully there will be brighter horizons further north!

Now, don't you wish you had taken up knitting??  Yarn is a lot lighter to move than blacksmith stuff!!!!!!!

[JHCC]

Bulkier, though. 

[ThomasPowers]

I have moved my wife's spinning stuff way too many times. I much prefer my equipment where I can toss it in the bed of the truck, load it in buckets and move it in a timely way rather than having the pull of the fiber make a 1 hour load into a 3 hour load...

[Steve Shimanek]

I hope the job situation improves for all those looking; supposedly the unemployment rates are the lowest in history, so something will turn up.

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

Indeed is where I found my latest job. Also looked on Monster. Both were sending me a ton of jobs via email which made it easy as well as being able to upload a resume. I just got an email from a shop down South looking for a machinist that saw my resume on Indeed.

[George N. M.]

Dear JHCC,

I post this based on the experiences of a good friend who recently closed her yarn shop.  The two key things contributing to success of a craft store like that is how much competition is in the area and how many knitters are there.  My friend saw her business decline over the years and attributed most of it to competition from the internet.  I suggest that if Lisa wants to go in that direction she needs more than yarn, raw fiber and spinning wheels for spinners, looms, etc. for weavers, yarn for knitters and crocheters, lessons for everyone.

Also, my friend had good success at fiber events such as alpaca/llama/sheep/stock shows.  There is also an event called the Wool Market in Estes Park, CO every June at which she had good business.

My late wife was a fiber person and I have made a quite a number of fiber tools over the years.  If Lisa goes in that direction message me and I may be able to provide her with some unique tools.

It may be a case of craft being attracted to craft but I have noticed that an uncommon number of blacksmith spouses are fiber folks.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[JHCC]

Thank you very much. Lisa is already thinking very much along those lines, I’m happy to say. There are good yarn shops in the area, but nothing close; this would fill a gap in the map. She’s also thinking about this as a place for fiber people of all sorts, very much as you describe. This is a college town, and she would like to have this be a meeting place for both the college community and the townsfolk. There’s even a possibility of offering a class in basic knitting that students could take for credit through the “Experimental College”.

What sorts of fiber tools were these, if I may ask?

As for blacksmiths and fiber folk, I think it was ThomasPowers who introduced me to the expression “steel wool couple”!

[George N. M.]

JHCC:  Fancy drop spindles, roller looms, orifice hooks, and a few other things.

I used to ask my late wife if I bought her 200 pounds of steel wool whether she'd knit me an anvil.  She never got around to it though.

By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Explanation:  The roller looms are for card weaving.

[ThomasPowers]

Yes my wife has been teaching spinning for 45 years now; I've only been forging for around 38.

We always used to try to go to the "Wool Gathering" in Yellow Springs OH when we would go out to Quad-State, generally they were on adjacent weekends.