A good yarn shop is a welcoming place where every customer is greeted with a smile, or even better, “You’ve got to touch this!” (Yarn, that is.) At Woolcott and Company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Sean Riley is that face—and it happened almost by accident.
Name: Sean Riley
Occupation: Owner, Woolcott and Company
Where: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Age: 44
First job: McDonalds
Best job: Owner/manager of Woolcott and Company.
Salary during 20s: 25-28K
Greatest professional challenge: Owning and managing a small yarn shop, Woolcott.
Hi, Sean Riley. How did you get that f&%*ing awesome job? Part work, part luck. I managed the store for some time while the former owner, Niki Bronstein, was sick. When she passed, away the family helped me to buy the shop. Before coming to Woolcott, I was working at an ad agency, in creative.
How did you become a professional in the yarn world? I was a longtime customer [at Woolcott], and Niki asked me to help out on Saturdays every now and then. It became more and more steady. Then I was teaching classes, then managing the shop…then owning it.
When and from whom did you learn how to knit? My Babcia (Polish grandmother) taught me in February of 1978 during the famous Northeast Blizzard of ‘78
What is your typical day like? I get to the shop, do the trash, vacuum, clean up here and there. Check the voice mail, check the email and reply as needed. Do some receiving paperwork or other paperwork—entering bills, inventory, and things like that. then I open the shop and wait on and help customers. At the end of the day I do closing paperwork and banking and head home.
What is Woolcott all about? Our mantra is that “We are the shop with heart in the Heart of Harvard Square.” We try to eschew the idea that yarn shops are unfriendly. Everyone that comes here is greeted warmly and we offer help and advice to any who seek it. We carry natural fibers (no acrylic) both because we believe that natural fibers are best, and also because of some room limitations.
What are your favorite yarns in the shop right now? I am all about a good old-fashioned yarn lately. I love rustic wools. Lately I’ve been working with Cascade’s “Eco Wool” and “Rustic.”
What are the best and worst parts of your job? Customers. Best and worst. I get the most satisfaction from engaged, reasonable customers, and the worst from the horrible combination of arrogant and ignorant customers.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to open a yarn shop? Make sure you have enough operating capital. Do not try to do everything on your own—you need a good staff. Take at least a day, preferably two, off each week. You will get burned out without doing so.
Did you have any role models along the way? Elizabeth Zimmermann (a British knitter who did an instructional TV series on PBS and wrote must-haves including Knitter’s Almanac and Knitting Without Tears) is my knitting idol. She operates with such great confidence and is so reasonable.
What’s the greatest lesson you’ve learned from a customer or student? To breathe and realize that the worst thing you can do in knitting can be fixed. This isn’t nuclear physics or rocket science. It’s just knitting—something you have immense control over, unlike most other things you’ll be doing in your day. And, as Niki used to say, “When you’ve got your knitting with you, no one can waste your time. You’ve always got something to do.”
[Woolcott & Co. image by SingleWorkingMama]
I love this! I also own a small yarn store in Northern California. My shop is called Yarn and it’s in Eureka. It’s the best job I’ve ever had.
Great post!
I visited Sean’s store in August and was inspired, as well as really impressed by the obvious knowledge and friendliness of his staff.
Also, I love that his Babcia taught him to knit. My (almost) five year-old son has already expressed an interest in learning, and I am anxious for him to have the attention span to do so!