Knitch Magazine

Local yarn shop owners appear to have the perfect job: they spend their days amidst the yarns they love while they help others participate in a craft they enjoy. Imagine the fun of working with yarn reps to select the ideal selection of colors and fibers for your customers, choosing which patterns you'll sell to your knitters, and planning classes to teach others this wonderful skill.

It must be sheer heaven!

What many of us don't realize is how difficult it is to run a well-stocked shop that meets the specific needs of its market -- while it makes a profit. It's far more complicated than you might imagine.

There are two specific fashion seasons requiring completely different products. Colors and fibers change dramatically from season to season. If you've under-bought, your customers will go elsewhere to find what they want. And if you're overbought, you've got a lot of inventory that isn't going anywhere…a lot of very expensive inventory!

That's why the publishers of the only industry trade publication, Yarn Market News, decided to create an event where local store owners could learn more about the business side of their profession. Sure, almost every yarn store in the country attends the TNNA (The National Needle Arts) shows where manufacturers present all their new yarns and patterns for the seasons. But that's the fun, creative side of the business--and the buying part. At the winter and spring TNNA shows, shop owners spend several days attending sessions to learn new skills, and visiting the booths of vendors from whom they'll purchase their inventory. Some business seminars are offered, but the focus is really on the more creative aspects of the industry – the yarns and patterns.

Photo right: Karin Strom, Editor of Yarn Market News, welcomes conference attendees.

Soho Publishing, which creates Vogue Knitting Magazine and Knit Simple for knitters, and Yarn Market News for shop owners, decided three years ago to offer a special event that was dedicated entirely to business topics. This year the event was held at the W Hotel, an elegant boutique hotel in Seattle. Over 100 retailers signed up for the event and trekked to Washington State to learn how to become a better yarn shop. Joining them were several manufacturers who hoped to network on a more intimate level with attendees, and who generously sponsored the event.

Among the sponsors were Bergere de France, Vogue Knitting, Namaste, Eucalan, Takhi Stacy Charles, Louet, TNNA and The Yarn Group, Buffalo Gold, Classic Elite Yarns, Yarndex.com, Cascade Yarns, Universal Yarns, Bryson Distributing, North Light Books and Krause Publications, Koigu Wool Designs, and Pear Tree Yarn. By offering their support, these organizations helped keep costs down for attendees who are making a tremendous investment of time and funds to help make their yarn shops better for themselves and their knitters.

The three full days of activities included receptions where we met the movers and shakers in the industry: people like Debbie Macomber, the author who is now introducing her own line of yarns through Universal Yarns, and the energetic Phyllis Howe who organizes yarn crawls throughout the country.

Photo left: Shop owners get practical business advice from professional consultants.

Classes and breakout sessions throughout each day introduced retailers to wonderful merchandising ideas from Debi Ward Kennedy, a fascinating retail design expert, and Linda Cahan, a design strategist who provided insights into color and how to use it to project the desired image. Now, when you walk into your local yarn store, check out the color scheme and layout. If your shop owner attended the Conference, you can expect some wonderful improvements that will enhance your shopping experience.

Tom Shay, a retail expert whose family has been in the retailing business for three generations, offered local yarn shop owners some excellent advice about inventory management, telling stores they should have on their shelves only what they plan to sell during the course of the next season. This is one of the greatest challenges for any store owner -- to have no more inventory than what is necessary but enough to keep things exciting-- so Mr. Shay's presentation and the tools he provided were very valuable to conference attendees.

Another topic presented is one that store owners might not have realized is critical to their success: negotiating. They learned from Jeanette Nyden how they can improve their negotiation skills to better handle leasing arrangements, vendor contracts, and other situations where a win-win result ensures greater effectiveness and more positive long term relationships.

Jeffery Smith, director of the American Branding Association, discussed the importance of a store's image and presented a campaign he developed for a hypothetical yarn shop in England. He spoke about the elements that can be used to reflect a brand -- such as signage, bags, decor, advertising, social media -- and helped shop owners understand that a good image is created by using similar graphic elements consistently. This one bit of information can help store owners bring clarity and strength to their store's image by constantly reinforcing exactly what it represents.

Those of you who are familiar with the 3/50 project will recognize the name Cinda Baxter. Ms. Baxter told LYS owners about her grassroots efforts to encourage people to support their local businesses. She has been featured in media throughout the US for her perspective on the importance of local businesses and her program to encourage shoppers to reject the big box stores in favor of the Mom-and-Pop shops that bring life and vigor to the communities they serve.

The Yarn Market News event closed with a Yarn Shop Crawl that took conference attendees on a guided tour of the close-knit Seattle yarn community. Knitters from throughout the country are always impressed when they visit the Seattle shops and feel the warmth and camaraderie of the people they meet. It's an enviable position that many yarn shop owners prefer -- as opposed to cut-throat competition you find in other industries. After the crawl, the inimitable Della Q treated many attendees to a little special pampering -- a paraffin wax treatment that keeps knitters hands soft and supple.

Photo left: Doreen Connors of Soho Publishing and Linda Pratt of Westminster Fibers enjoy the conference activities.

If you're a yarn shop owner, you'll want to consider setting aside some budget for next year's conference. And if you're a knitter, you might want to recommend the event to your LYS...because better yarn stores mean better selection and service for all of us who knit!