We were featured in the September/October 2007 issue of Handwoven magazine.

A Conversation with a Yarn Seller

Handwoven talked with Shel B. Small at the Florida Tropical Weavers Conference in March this year. Small has been traveling the weaver's circuit selling yarn since 1998; however, he has been in the yarn trade for over thirty years. Small started when his ten-year-old son wanted to start his own business selling yarn at the local flea market. At that time, Small was in the business of recycling empty yarn cones, picking them up from the knitting and weaving mills and eventually getting them back to the spinning mills for reuse. These gave him access to mill ends - yarn still on the cone that the mill wouldn't be able to use - at a great price. Small dropped his son off at the market with a table of yarn and his eight-year-old sister to help. When he came back at the end of the day, all the yarn was gone and his children's pockets couldn't hold all the cash they had collected! He knew they were onto something.

Handwoven: How did you get started recycling yarn cones?

In 1972, I returned to Queens County in New York after living in Israel for two years, and I was looking around for something to do. I bought a truck and started hauling for companies nearby so that I wouldn't be away overnight. I had four children at the time, and it didn't seem fair to be gone for long periods. One of my clients recycled yarn cones from nearby mills. When he moved to North Carolina, he asked me to continue to collect the cones for him. Then he landed on hard times and aksed if I would work for a bit without pay, and when he got back on his feet he would make it up to me. He was a good guy so I was happy to help him out. At the of a year he still couldn't pay me so he gave me the business.

What happened after your son's successful venture at the flea market?

The next day my children went back to the flea market and doubled their take for the day. My son said he couldn't handle all the business, so the next week my dad and I went and doubled the size of our booth. We did that all summer and when the flea market ended we rented a 10,000-square-foot warehouse in Sullivan County, New York, and went into business. We had parking for 200 cars and still customers would have to park in the nearby town and take a cab. All the yarn was laid out in boxes for customers to dig through. They would pick out their yarns, and we would wind off the amount they wanted. Some people would wait for two hours to get their yarn. I then opened up a few stores in Florida. Three of my kids put themselves through college by working in the yarn business.

Your initial business was primarily to knitters. When did you start selling to weavers?

In 1986, the knitting industry just died. I was living in Florida when hurricance Andrew hit in 1992, and that was the final blow to my business. I closed the shops, and I decided to retire. That didn't work out so well. I just couldn't stay away, so I started going to the wholesale fine craft shows to see if I might be able to hook up with production artists and sell directly to them instead of to individual knitters. Then I met Candiss Cole, and she suggested I go to Convergence. I had a booth at the 1998 Convergence in Atlanta. My daughter and grandson came to help me out. I had people five or six deep surrounding my booth. It was great!

I've got to tell you that I love yarn so that sometimes it's hard to let it go. The beauty of this business is the people, from the mill workers to the weavers. Today, I do a couple of consumer and trade shows every year as well as sell to production weavers because I just can't imagine doing anything else.

How have you seen the mill-end business change?

In 1993, it would take me two weeks to visit all the mills. Today I can them all in about three hours. The market has really changed since most of the mills have moved overseas. I'm not sure how much longer yarn folk will have access to this formerly abundant supply of yarn, but as long as it lasts I'll be making the rounds.

To learn more about Shel B. Small's current yarn offerings, checking out his website at www.iloveyarn.com

We were also mentioned in a recent "Fall Twilight" article in Handwoven magazine. Here is what they said about us;

Sherrie Miller of Whippany, NJ, wove her Fall Twilight jacket in monk's belt. For the trim and sleeve fabric, Sherrie wove a length of all-blue plain weave in of the palette colors. She used 8/2, 6/2, and 3/2 pearl cottons, all from I Love Yarn in Poughkeepsie, New York.