RV Business Style: Yarn Byrds
Knitting Aficionado Robin Richey Takes Her Business To Her Customers With Her RV Occupied Yarn Shop
Knitters are always looking for great yarn to add to their stash. That’s what Ohio native Robin Richey was doing when she happened upon a mobile yarn store at a local fiber festival. The yarn truck selling colorful fibers was all the inspiration Robin needed. She was hooked.
“A yarn shop on wheels, how cool is that?” Robin excitedly told her husband. She had toyed with the idea of having a traditional brick and mortar yarn shop, but wasn’t thrilled about the overhead costs of maintaining it. “I wanted a food truck and I kept pitching the idea to my husband,” she explains, “but he kept coming back to an RV.” Robin’s husband was convinced she wouldn’t be comfortable driving around in a food truck. He further added that it would cost more and take longer to add in the air conditioning and generator, etc to a food truck. An RV already has all those components.
Robin found the perfect RV for her mobile business—a 2001 Class C Isata Dynamax. It was already partially gutted and ready for her to add her final touches. Armed with ideas from Pinterest, she renovated the RV into a luxurious yarn shop complete with a chandelier. Birdie, the mobile shop’s name, features state of the art CRI lighting throughout the truck that helps knitters see the true colors of the fiber. “It has wonderful lighting because my husband in an electrical engineer by trade,” says Robin.
Robin still works full time during the week at a corporate job and takes Birdie to local fiber events and festivals weekends. “I’ve done some farmers markets, but yarn venues are the best places,” says Robin. The mobile yarn shop features top of the line fibers from American businesses. She also carries indie yarns dyed exclusively for her shop. The RV stocks needles, unique stitch markers, project bags, shawl pins, yarn bowls, soaps, buttons, and other items knitters love.
According to Robin, the best part of owning a mobile business is the flexibility. “I roll in and I roll out,” she says, “there’s no stress and drama of a store.” Birdie has been in business for nearly a year now. Robin has already mapped out her summer fiber festival tours which will include all the festivals in Ohio and some in Indiana and Kentucky.
What does the future hold for Robin and her mobile yard shop? “For right now, I enjoy this. It works so well,” she says. She has no plans to open a brick and mortar shop, although she might expand her website. There’s also plans in the workings to renovate one of the areas above one of her barns on her eight-acre property for a gathering space for knitters. “In knitting, you never know a stranger,” says Robin. She hopes to have a space to let knitters create and shop the RV for fiber.
Robin is having a blast with her mobile part-time business. She’s not ready to retire for a while, but when she does, Birdie is ready to go full time.
Debbie Wolfe
A graduate of Northland College with degrees in Creative Writing and Earth Sciences, Debbie has written for HGTV, DIYNetwork, Sheknows and more. She enjoys gardening, reading and fostering dogs.
Make Sure To Stay At:
Poor Farmer's RV Campground has over 500 sites nestled in a 350 acre country setting. In addition, they are the largest Coachmen RV Dealer in the Miami county offering a full line of inventory.