Do you sell knitting needles?

Everyday I get asked questions about things I have no answers to, such as do we have this in a size 14 and will we get one in tomorrow? Where has it come from? And what does it do?

I have come to understand many people also don’t know the difference between ladies and mens clothes. Although I have to admit there is a fine line these days that sometimes myself do cross. Some people think it’s a delivery service or we must have one of everything. But eerily quite often when someone requests something it generally gets donated in a few days later but sadly not to the ones who asked in the first place.

I often get asked if we stock knitting needles, we do not, we don't sell them because they could potentially be used as a weapon  (Although many objects could be used as a weapon really!) Even a teddy bear if you launch it at someone’s head. I’ve been to a lot of concerts and always wanted to throw teddy bears at the artists but I’d be worried about hurting them and being thrown out. So I don’t.

Today a lady asked if we had indeed, some knitting needles we didn’t and I politely informed her of this and said we had some “knitting patterns” she replied quite snappily “I never asked for knitting patterns and without a knitting needle I can’t very well knit anything from them”

One thing that does annoy me is when people laugh at me when I dress the mannequins I think it’s because sometimes its fiddly and they are quite difficult to dress and dresses fall down and crotches split oh all sorts really, and I’m trying my best and then the hands fall off and someone shouts “haha bet you’ve done that a few times” I once put a bikini on upside down on the mannequin. That was a show stopper.

All joking aside though the windows are one of the most important features of any shop display it’s what draws customers in after they have stopped to look. You can also sell entire outfits that have been put together and it’s a job all the volunteers love to do and it increases their confidence and they get a little boost if they receive a nice comment or even a sale.

Alot of people who volunteer with us have been unemployed for a while or lack certain skills so encouragement and training is really vital for them and most go on to secure employment! So bonuses all around really.