| ‘Knitting enabler’ celebrates fifth anniversary |
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By: ERIN EDGEMON, eedgemon@murfreesboropost.com
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Posted: Sunday, November 14, 2010 6:19 am
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Meredith Kermichle has oned and operated her unique yarn store, The Knaughty Knitter, for five years. She said she couldn’t be happier doing what she loves.
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Meredith Kermicle likes to say life is too short to knit with ugly yarn. Life is also too short to do a job that you don’t like.
So five years ago, Kermicle, whose knitting cohorts call the knitting enabler, changed her life and opened The Knaughty Knitter.
Filled with yarns of all types and colors, The Knaughty Knitter caters to all of the needs of knitters, crocheters, weavers and yarn spinners. Kermicle even personally dyes some of the yarns she sells in the store using commercial dyes and natural dyes such as onions and lichens.
The shop has even become a haven for knitters where many come in and spend part of their day knitting and talking. A knitting group meets Friday nights at 6 p.m.
Kermicle said she feels grateful to be able to do what she loves for a living. She previously worked as a licensed clinical social worker.
She had taken a week off from her job to take a weaving workshop. After that she realized she couldn’t go back to social work. Three months later The Knaughty Knitter was open for business.
Her husband, Doyle, came up with the name. It kind of popped into his head one night after Meredith had come home that day and had spent too much at a Nashville yarn store.
“I could not be happier,” Kermicle said of what she is doing know. In fact people tell me that I am a much happier person that I was before.”
But what has made The Knaughty Knitter survive when most small business fail within the first five years?
Kermicle said it is the friendly, customer service that the shop always tries to offer. There is always someone to help out and give advice on a project.
And, nothing beats a wide selection of yarn that is available for knitters to feel before they buy.
“I think the bottom line is I love what I do and I think it shows,” Kermicle said.
Kermicle said the shop has survived in this economy because when the economy is down people stay home and they need something to do.
Small business owners should always be flexible when operating their business, she advised.
“You don’t always know what direction” the business is going to lead you in. It may take you into new directions, she said.
Kermicle also said business owners should have a little faith that if they are doing what they love then it will work out but maybe not in the way they may have expected.
Knitting was all the rage when Kermicle opened the store.
“It has always come and gone in 10-year cycles, but it is staying around because of the internet.”
There are online communities, such as Ravelry, that keep people engaged and talking about the craft.
Lisa Cruse is a regular visitor to The Knaughty Knitter. When she has time to kill she likes to spend it knitting in the small shop.
“It is addictive,” she said of knitting. “It is an addiction.”
Cruse said knitting is a big creative outlet for her and a relaxing activity. She loves to come and knit at The Knaughty Knitter where she is often inspired by the environment.
Cruse learned how to knit about four years ago after taking a class from Kermicle. Kermicle still is an encouragement to Cruse always telling her she can finish a complex project even when she thinks she can’t.
The Knaughty Knitter is not your average knitting store, she said.
“There are yarns here you are not going to find in the average store.”
Kermicle has been knitting since she was a child. Now she also crochets, weaves, and spins and dyes yarn.
“I am obsessed.”
Kermicle’s mother taught her how to knit and her passion for it never waned.
“It is really what sustains me,” she said of her many crafts. It always allowed her to express her creativity when she was working at a mundane job.
“I love being able to take a piece of string and make it pretty,” Kermicle said, adding that there is always something to be inspired by.
Kermicle even creates her own patterns, inspired bywhat she see others wearing, the colors in the sky or an art exhibit.
She recently self-published a booklet of cowl patterns “A Knaughty Dozen Little Cowls” that she sells in her shop.
Now Kermicle hopes to begin selling some of her patterns and some of the many sweaters, cowls, scarves, shawls and mittens that she stays busy making on Etsy and Ravlery. The items should be up within a month.
More info ...
Knaughty Knitter
423 N. Walnut St.
217-4966
Hours of operation
Monday-Tuesday 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Wednesday closed
Thursday 10-5 p.m.
Friday 11 a.m.-6 p.m.
Saturday 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
Sunday 1-4 p.m.
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