KNIT NOTTINGHAM
Eleanor Burke’s shop is hugely important to the knitting community in Nottingham
Meet shop owner Eleanor
KNIT NOTTINGHAM is a vibrant yarn shop at the heart of Nottingham’s thriving knitting and craft community. We chatted with its founder, Eleanor Burke, about her experiences of running a local yarn store.
How did you come to run a yarn store?
“I’m a lawyer by training. I had planned to carry on and become a barrister, but after a mental breakdown in the last year of my degree I decided to take a year out. In that year I accidentally opened the shop - and nine years later I’m still here!
“I had been covering holidays for a stall on the Victoria Market in Nottingham which was owned by a friend, but when she shut up shop, some of us from the Knit in Notts knitting group thought we’d have a go at running it. After a couple of years I was able to buy the other business partners out. We’ve won a ton of awards, successfully crowdfunded a move to the much bigger shop that we call home now, and we’ve grown a beautiful crafty community around Nottingham.”
What can visitors expect when they pop into your shop?
“Honestly, a bit of a mess! We’re a super busy shop and I’m much more engaged in speaking to customers than I am tidying the shop… We had a makeover last summer for a BBC programme, and they put an island in the middle of the shop to display our fanciest products. In reality, it’s where our customers perch with the pattern folders and try out different colour combinations. I always enjoy seeing our customers’ creativity so vibrantly displayed across my table.”
What brands do you stock?
“Our main brand is King Cole, but we also stock Sirdar, Opal, Addi, Clover, and a Portuguese brand called Rosarios 4 - our customers have gone wild for the unusual colours and summery fibres. There are plenty of cheaper and more expensive places to buy yarn, but we specialise in everyday, hard-wearing, beautiful things at achievable prices.”
Tell us about your workshop programme.
“The big hit this year has been our yarn dyeing class. My colleague Emma has been running workshops about craft and mental health, which have been popular, while a local crochet designer, April Towriess, is here to teach amigurumi. And we have beginner’s classes on knitting, crochet, socks, Fair Isle, intarsia, brioche, lace, beading… it never stops!”
What would you say are the highlights and challenges of running a yarn shop?
“Really, the highlights are our customers. I love it when they make friends with each other, when they’re excited about learning something or teaching something, when they come in wearing what they’ve made, and when they join in with crazy plans like our Yarndale Uniform (we all make our own versions of the same thing to wear on our Yarndale coach trip).
“I think the worst bit for me is the non-customer humans who come in the shop, like sales people, or phone engineers. These people take precious time away from doing the stuff we want to be doing.”
What is the knitting scene like in your area?
“Brilliant actually. There are three great knitting groups in the town, and a few good craft shops, and between us all we’ve managed to cultivate a community where people want to shop independently and locally. We’re certainly under threat from the internet giants, but I’m happy to be vocal, even a bit gobby, if it helps the high street and the craft community at large.”
Are you a knitter yourself?
“Of course! I always have at least three or four projects on the go, and I work on them during journeys to work, and sometimes in bed in the morning if I wake up before the alarm. That’s heavenly.”
www.knitnottingham.co.uk 0115 947 4239