Meeting Laura Menendez Prendes –Warm, positive, vital and in love with what she does and where she does it– it almost seems logical that she dedicates herself to working with something as loving as the wool, a product that always remembers the family. She opted to sell online, through her page Mimosa Café Lanar, balls and skeins of specific and unique yarns that you know better than anyone, as well as patterns of your own creation and other modern and necessary tools for weaving, adapting the practice to the 21st century.
However, to start the story of this rural entrepreneur at the present moment is to shorten too much personal experiences that must be known to appreciate that today she lives with her partner, her dogs, some adopted cat and her chickens, in the same town in the who was born, Carrió, in Asturias, and of which in his youth he went to Madrid, after finish your audiovisual communication studies in Pontevedra.
“I wanted to be a journalist, but in the end I had to choose to do this. I went to Madrid in search of work and ended up in a press department in a fashion company. At the age of five I left, that was not my world at all; I admit that I learned a lot but it goes, that was not life, “he explains. Remember also that, prior to work in Madrid, he did a master’s degree in Barcelona on cinema. “I always liked writing about cinema and I collaborated for a time with several specialized magazines about the topic”.
One fine day he decided to return to Asturias and “Take up what my güela taught me: knitting. As I came to take some time to see what I was doing with my life at that moment, this came up: wool. Sell it. I told myself that I had to find a job that would keep me here and that was when I opened Mimosa Café Lanar for a time in Gijón, which was very successful because people, in addition to buying wool and weaving, could take someor. It was in 2017 when I opened it and I also gave classes and workshops ”.
However, for her, like so many people, the closure of the premises due to the pandemic and the quarantine made a significant economic dent and led her to rethink her life and work, but already from her hometown, Carrió, where she lives. “I didn’t know when I could reopen and I said to myself, come on, we’re going with everything for the town and from there I open my online store. The pandemic happened to me like many people, I think, that gave us time to rethink what we wanted. It was the definitive push that led me to do what I do today, and I feel very happy with it ”, explains this young woman.
This rural entrepreneur explains that what she sells “are quite special yarns, not the usual ones from a haberdashery store: I bet on yarns with products that have very little processing, more sustainable; I import brands that are not sold here. I also sell knitting accessories such as circular needles in cases of all sizes, as well as patterns of my own creation ”.
Laura Menéndez is happy with her success and affirms that wool and knitting have a lot of acceptance today and many people are hooked on it.. “I sell a lot in Asturias, but I also sell a lot for clients from the Basque Country, Madrid and Barcelona “, qualifies this woman who also says that” the world of wool is fascinating. There are author’s yarns, Danish yarns, it’s crazy ”, he smiles.
She is a young woman who one day returned to town and feels very good in it. A short time ago, in addition, he started in the world of ceramics, which fascinates him. However, he clarifies that “Of course it can be undertaken in a town, but there are people who have this a bit idealized. You need some adaptation time, and I say that I lived here and that is why we know that this is not a panacea. It is not reaching out and kissing the saint. There are good things and others not so much. There are daily problems that you have to be willing to take on, weigh them up, and decide. I stayed”.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.