Moving Out of Alaska

We are packing our yarns, our ovens, our dyes, our kids and our dog and moving out of our hometown of North Pole, Alaska! (*Gasp!*)

Alex and I have lived in Alaska our entire lives, never moving further than across town. This is such a huge step for our business and our family that is both exciting and terrifying.

Alex and I with our three daughters, Isla, Summer, and Galilee

WHY THE MOVE?
The last 4 years at BSY have felt like a whirlwind. We made a decision in 2019 to really start growing Bad Sheep as a brand and a business. We made a big jump to move the business out of our home and start hiring employees. In the last 18 months we went from having one oven and one employee in our shop to having 4 ovens and 9 employees on payroll. The growth has been amazing and exciting to watch. We’ve hit some huge goals as a company over a short period of time and it’s inspired us to keep pushing forward. We’ve got big plans for the future and moving out of Alaska will open up new opportunities for us as a company.

Although we will no longer be an Alaskan company, our Alaska sets will remain in stock and available to purchase. Alaska is such a massive part of our story and it will always feel like home to us.

WHERE ARE WE MOVING?
We’ve leased a 6700 sqft warehouse in Pensacola, Florida which is over six times the size of our current studio space!! On a personal level, we’ve always loved the East Coast and beaches. We visited Pensacola with our family in January after deciding to move and really loved it. We have a great network of family and friends in the Pensacola area, so it’s become an easy landing spot for us.

I am blown away that some of our staff is making the move with us! Our group of people are solid gold individuals and we’re so so grateful for them. With them by our side, we feel like we can do anything!

Part of our new shop space in Pensacola, Florida

WHAT WILL CHANGE?
We’re hoping this move will make us more accessible as a company. We love interacting with our customers and fellow yarnies but with our small studio space and semi-remote location, doing things like trunk shows and festivals and meet and greets have not been an option for us. We have dreams of opening up our new studio for tours, visiting some yarn shops that carry BSY, and attending festivals/events/yarn crawls. We're excited for this next step as a company.

WILL YOU STAY OPEN DURING THE MOVE?
On May 12th we are putting all of our products on numbered stock while we move and relocate our studio out of state. Orders can still be made but we will be dying in smaller quantity batches and may have longer shipping times while we relocate. We plan on being back to operating at our usual standards by Monday, June 5th. We know that sometimes life has other plans but this date will give us a little wiggle room.

STILL HAVE QUESTIONS?
Yeah, so do we. We will be hosting our weekly BSY Live video on Facebook and Instagram this Thursday at 5pm AKST. Alex will be joining me to answer questions and talk a little bit more about the move.

MOST OF ALL, THANK YOU!!!
Bad Sheep Yarn started back in 2015 with $300 and a dream. To the family, friends, employees, vendors, landlords, local yarn shops, and everyone that has helped us along the way, we are so incredibly grateful for you. It’s been a lot of work to get to this point and it wouldn’t have been possible without the amazing support we’ve received.

Some of Marcie Bourne's first posts on social media back in 2015

And to our customers, whether you have been here since the beginning or have joined us along the way, thank you so much!!! You continue to inspire us with your creativity and kindness. Getting to meet people through our community group on Facebook, through emails, and through our weekly live videos has helped us push through some of the hard growing pains we’ve experienced over the last couple of years. Seeing the support and creative ways people use our yarn has inspired us in ways that we didn’t expect.

Thank you ♥️
Marcie & Alex Bourne