One week ago today I was on a red eye from San Francisco heading back home. I had been away since November with the national tour of Jersey Boys and I was coming back to start my first training week as the new manager of The Point Knitting Cafe. I spent the rest of Monday unpacking my suitcases (by unpacking I mean piling up stuff everywhere). Later that day my giant trunk arrived. Oy. It was way to heavy to haul up two flights of stairs, so I unpacked it . . . on tiny arms full at a time. I collapsed in bed around 11:00 pm.
The next day the fun begins. Training at the Point made me feel like an intern again. It’s an odd sensation to start learning a brand new business at my age. There is so much to learn. For the first few days the only time I felt happy or comfortable was when I was helping customers. Finding the right yarn for a project, matching the perfect pattern for the beginner knitter, fixing the unraveling blanket a customer brought in, helping a customer who was stuck on a pattern . . . these are things I know. Inputing invoices, paying bills, creating purchase orders, inputting special orders . . . not so much.
There were moments of great fun (helping a new knitter, who had just moved into the apartment above our store, find the perfect first sweater project), and moments of great terror (living in fear of someone ordering a Cappuccino before I learned how to make it).
In the world of knitting, I got very little done this week. I did manage to cast off a sweater that was almost finished when I got home. A had two skeins of Rowan Polar left over from another project, so I knocked off this little Bolero.
I have a feeling I won’t be doing much knitting, except on the subway, for a month or so. There are so many special events coming up in the store this month, and the new fall line being released, and the new alternative fibers coming out, and on and on. It’s SO much to learn.
Here were some of my favorite and least favorite moments of the week:
favorite: meeting the knitting groups that come to The Point, listening to them gab and knit
least favorite: screwing up at the cafe register and needing Rebecca to void out my sale
favorite: finding the wonderful Dave, a visitor from North Carolina, waiting for the shop to open (I let him in early. He had come so far)
least favorite: inputting invoices
The best thing about working at The Point?
The smell of coffee, and the sound of laughter against the clicking of needles.
Eat, Knit and be Happy
