We’re open…and tired!

Our Grand Opening was two days ago, and Lynda & I are still recovering. It’s amazing what a 5-hour event can take out of you!

Looking back, we can see that we bit off more than we could chew. We thought we would “just” put some inventory in the store at low introductory prices, serve a bit of tea to anyone who had time to sit with us for a few minutes, and show people around the mill if they were interested. But then Lynda started getting offers of help from her knitting friends and her sister, so we expanded the plan a bit. Then the response on social media and around town gave us some clues that there might be more people than we had room for in our little store and there might not be much sitting around drinking tea, so we started making lists of jobs and matching them up with volunteers.

On the day of the event, we estimate that about 400 visitors came through the door (that’s a bit of guess, since not everyone put their name in a doorprize draw or signed up for a tour)! We had about 24 volunteers ranging from tour guide, parking attendant, and floor cleaner to sales associate, greeter, and refreshment server. Our volunteers basically ran the show while we met our guests and helped with the mill tours.

Shopping from our yarn wall at Austin Woollen Mill’s Grand Opening on April 20, 2024

Throughout the day we had a lot of moments where our worlds collided. We had uncles, aunts, and cousins come through; we saw other mill owners, and fibre producers; our friends from Saskatchewan made the 7-hour drive to help out; we had magazine and newspaper editors; our municipal reeve and our provincial MLA came to show support; Lynda’s co-workers and students from the elementary school showed up; and a lot of fibre crafters from across Manitoba came to see the mill and the store.

Overall, the community support was overwhelming. We thank everyone for your interest and support—especially those of you who showed up or sent messages.