Celebrating Four Years in the Shop

This week is the anniversary of the opening of Venetia’s Yarn Shop. Four years! It has flown by – it does not seem that it is four years since my husband (always a staunch supporter of my business ventures) casually wondered whether signing up to lease of more than one year might be a mistake. Yet here we are. And this past year has been a very full one as we have moved the business forward.

The main thing that has changed over the last year is the amount the events that we offer. We have always put on workshops and our Social Stitchers groups are well attended whether on Tuesdays or Saturday afternoons. But this year we went to a whole new level with our luxury Retreat at Little Massingham Manor last April and September’s one day Seaside Sunday at the Cliftonville Hotel in Cromer. Both were fantastic gatherings, filled with knitting and chatter. We also had Stuart from the Woolpatch in Suffolk come in to tell us about his Lavenham Blue and to demonstrate dying yarn with woad. In addition we hosted really interesting talk from the mid Norfolk Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers about the history of spinning. We have had pop-up shops in the shop with Shannon from Blue Fern Yarns and Ellie from Crafthouse Magic. All these events went so well that we have several more planned for 2026. We have moved our 2026 Retreat from Little Massingham Manor (although it was lovely) to the Cliftonville Hotel which can accommodate more people. The Retreat will be in June and we hope we might get a chance to paddle in the sea or at the very least to walk on the beach in between knitting activities.

I also managed to escape the shop for a weekend in March and attend the huge H&H trade fair in Cologne. Apart from meeting my existing suppliers which is always nice (Lang’s stand is always amazing) I also found some new ones. Slightly less exotic, perhaps, was the UK trade fair in Harrogate in September, but it was just as enjoyable and again it was good to meet existing suppliers, find new ones and gossip with other Local Yarn Shop owners.

When I opened the shop four years ago, I had yarn from West Yorkshire Spinners, Stylecraft, Lang, Schoppelwolle and Hjertegarn in stock as well as some lovely walls of colour from independent dyers Fibreworkshop and Noodle Soup Yarns (who have since moved on). As well as adding several ranges in those brands over the years, we’ve also added new brands. Malabrigo came two years ago along with John Arbon Textiles and Opal sock yarn. In the last year we have added Knitting for Olive and the gorgeous, luxurious Qing Fibres. We’ve also expanded into leather accessories. The fabulous organisers from Thread & Maple have been extremely successful both in the shop and online and I recently bought in some beautiful project bags and other leather goods from the Danish company Muud. I am considering other brands for the website for next year.

Due to customer demand over the years, we have extended our basic haberdashery range so that in addition to sewing thread we now stock some elastics, pins, needles and more unusual things like patches and shoulder pads and bra extenders. And buttons – because every day, pretty much, someone will pop in to see if we have them. I always intended to have a decent range of embroidery supplies and we have stocked Appletons kits, crewel and tapestry wool almost from the the beginning and have been continually adding to our DMC embroidery threads and canvases. However, we have gone above and beyond this year, but adding some silk and metallic threads from the French company Au Ver a Soie, who I met in Cologne. They are gorgeous and make me want to take up embroidery in my spare time, whenever I can find some.

Most exciting of all, for me anyway, has been my venture in hand dying our own yarn. I started doing it with an eye to the East Anglia Yarn Festival where we had a stand for the last two years. This meant sourcing sock yarn (we use Blue Faced Leicester with some nylon – British wool spun in the UK) and then learning a whole new skill. I took lessons from Dyeing Made Easy who were next to me at the EAYF and then just launched myself into the process. I have had such a fantastic time doing it. I don’t think I’ve been this creative since I did O-level art (a long time ago and not very well). I have just added several new colours to my existing range of BFL Sock and I am considering expanding into different bases as well.

In the shop itself, following an excellent set of workshops provided by the Council as part of the government’s High Street Matters scheme, Mandy and I had a shake up and spent three days moving furniture around to create a better flow and more open and friendly space. We are pleased with it and hope that you have found it an improvement too. I feel that we can really do justice to our beautiful yarns and accessories with this more open display and at the same time we have made the space for our Social Stitchers and workshops a bit less cramped. In addition, a small grant from the High Street Matters Scheme gave me the chance to have some great photos taken by Tamsyn Morgans so that my website could be updated with a cleaner, more modern look.

None of this would have been possible without Mandy who is my absolute rock. She is always there, always smiling, always prepared to take on long consultations with customers and to lend her considerable expertise to beginners and people who are struggling with projects. She is endlessly patient as I hurl ideas around, and supportive of proposed schemes, bringing a much needed practicality to what otherwise might be castles in the air. I cannot imagine running the business without her.

More so, of course, none of the last four years would have been possible without you, my fabulous customers. Thank you so much for all your support. We love chatting with you, planning projects with you, admiring your wonderful work, listening to your ideas and your tales about your lives. Thank you, thank you. I hope you will help us celebrate and come to our all day party (including a pop up shop by Blue Fern Yarns) on Saturday 29 November.

I look forward to next year and what it may bring!