Her layoff proved an inspiration

Denise Perreault

04/13/2009

KEEPING IT FRESH: Karen Holmes, owner of knitting store Fresh Purls on Hope Street in Providence, managed to turn her hobby into a business, serving customers aged 8 to 93. /

It was around Christmas 2006 when Karen Holmes was laid off from her corporate job. She had her updated resume ready and was all set to mail copies, when her husband, Frank Holmes, asked her a few fateful questions.
“What if you don’t do that?” he asked. “What if you opened your own yarn shop?”
Her eyes welling with tears at just the recollection of her husband’s sensitivity, Karen Holmes said recently she always had dreamed of operating her own yarn shop. An avid knitter since childhood, she would make a point of visiting yarn shops in different cities across the country and in Canada when she traveled as a corporate representative.
After taking classes at the Center for Women & Enterprise in Providence, and determining that Providence is where she wanted her shop to be, Holmes chose a site near Rochambeau Avenue, along the northern strip of Hope Street. “I love this location,” said the Swansea resident. “The other merchants have been so friendly and helpful.”
Holmes is the proprietor of Fresh Purls at 769A Hope St. The bright, clean and airy shop caters to women and men who knit by hand, offers classes and special events, and has in stock – when hand-counted over three days at inventory time – almost 13,000 skeins and balls of yarn in a variety of colors and make.
Yarn isn’t just made from wool. In Holmes’ store, there is yarn made of sugar cane, soy, milk, hemp, corn, bamboo, silk and even yarn made with jade, all in stunning colors that run the rainbow gamut. The shop offers several unusual yarns, such as the Noro line designed and dyed by a Japanese artist, and Shibui, in different colors and weights hand-dyed by two Oregon women.
“People say only old ladies knit,” Holmes said, but that is patently untrue. Her customers range in age from 8 to 93 years old, with the average age at around 35, she said. Most are women, but there are a “few men” who frequent her store and “men are just exquisite knitters, they do great work,” Holmes said.
“With the downturn in the economy, people are staying at home more and need things to do, like knitting or sewing,” Holmes said of a trend that she thinks is leading to a renaissance of the entire crafts industry. “These are arts you don’t want to die out.” A knitter since she was 10 years old, Holmes called the hobby “a great relaxer” and “a way to create. What is nice is that, in the end, you have something wearable,” she added.
During a recent interview, Holmes wore a sweater sporting a spectrum of bright colors, from tangerine orange to forest green, which she hand-knitted over about three weeks. How long it takes to complete a knitting project can vary greatly, but Holmes noted that even a beginner can knit a scarf in a night or two, or a cap in just a few hours.
Other female employees at Fresh Purls also wear hand-knitted garments they made themselves. It’s a regular practice there, and not just a ploy to impress a visitor. Holmes and her assistants, including store manager Helen Bingham, explain that what they wear in the store can spur sales because knitters in general are inspired by what they can see and touch.
Samples of knitted apparel are sprinkled throughout the shop. In the front window, there’s a baby blue organic-cotton coat for an infant, with scalloped edging along the hem, cuffs and collar. A trim, rose-colored vest for a woman hangs nearby. A hat rack holds about a dozen knit caps, and sweaters of various colors and sizes are on prominent display.
The samples are rarely sold, if ever, according to Holmes. She refused a $200 offer from a customer for a sweater because she said she had already made $2,000 in sales from that sweater and expected to make more by selling yarn to customers who wanted to knit a similar piece themselves. “Samples sell more yarn that anything else,” Holmes said.
Her shop regularly offers special events, such as the Wednesday night “knit therapy” session where for $10 knitters can get together for two hours to help each other, “have a good time and laugh a lot,” she said.
The shop offers classes, lunchtime knitting hours on Fridays, a charity knitting group on Tuesdays and, if it’s not too busy, employees will help any knitter who stops by, customer or not. People who come to her shop, Holmes said, “are not just customers, they are friends.” •

COMPANY PROFILE
Fresh Purls
OWNER: Karen Holmes
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Yarn shop
LOCATION: 769A Hope St., Providence
EMPLOYEES: 5
YEAR ESTABLISHED: 2007
ANNUAL SALES: WND