Today I am writing another love note to a fibre alum who has contributed so much to fibre space for the last two decades. Lesley has been around since the Knit-a-Gogo days (my first business). She was a big part of getting this shop opened, providing endless input, opinions and time, making sure the store would be the best it could possibly be for the community. As a skilled “pancraftual,” she brought her passion and expertise in crochet to the early development of the teaching program at fibre space, and continues to support our efforts to serve knit AND crochet.
When I finally opened the shop in 2009, Lesley was part of the initial team of yarnistas but then stayed on as an instructor and so much more after leaving that post to focus more on her full-time career. You’ve likely seen her on some of our busiest and most important days of the year, including Plaid Friday, where she was our cheerful bouncer in those first couple of hours. You might not have realized that she likely made her entire outfit.
Since she was part of the initial staff at the shop, Lesley has every single nightly note in her gmail somewhere. She can find nearly anything in her gmail. She IS the institutional memory of this company.
But one of the biggest ways that Lesley has contributed to fibre space, was the one hour or less she gave us every other Monday. Lesley clocked out of her full-time job and shifted her focus to our payroll, calculating instructor pay, entering other contractors that required payment that week and then entering our staff hours and pay. How did this come to be? Well early after opening the business, I found myself in the ER headed into surgery to have my appendix removed. When I explained to the surgeon that I had to be out of surgery and lucid enough to run payroll by 4 pm the next day, she pleaded “can you find anyone else to run your payroll?!” (She probably also rolled her eyes REALLY hard and I wouldn’t have blamed her one bit). Lesley became that person. Having this biweekly task handled with care and attention for the last …15 years perhaps… has been a game changer. Thank you so much for being part of this incredible journey with me Lesley!!
