Signature Needle Arts

I don’t have to tell any of you that we have been asked literally thousands of times: “When will you have circulars?” At shows, online, on the phone, in person, “When will you have circulars?” Day in, day out, “When will you have circulars?”

FINALLY… we can answer: 12:01 am Saturday Dec. 19, 2009—the birthday of Signature circulars!

Everyone here knows that the new big question will be: “Why not interchangeables?” Honestly, we have considered this but to get the long lasting tool that our customers are used to we felt our best bet was the “fixed” route.

We know you will like the cable. We had literally hundreds of different cords that we considered from nylon fishing line (which is what many of the lower cost needles on the market now use) to custom blends of polymers. I know that you will understand how hard it is to sit across from a panel of chemists and try to tell them what we wanted: very slick, not “kinkable”, not too soft, not too hard. After one such session I wanted to just say: “go read Goldilocks and follow that model—we need something ‘just right’ and we can’t settle for less.”

The other issue we are considering is the education that needs to take place since we are offering an option that has never been seen before: you can choose a LENGTH for the hard needle part. We know that hands come in lots of sizes and that one length does not fit all!

4” needles  – If you have small hands or other circs with that length stalk that you just plain like or you are working on a small diameter piece.

5”  needles - If you have medium hands or like that length from other needles.

6”  needles  – If you have larger hands or are always being hurt at the side of your palm with your current needles. In addition a lace knitter told me that having a little longer stalk to hold the stitches rigid to see if there is a problem with the lace pattern before it leaves the needle and gets scrunched on the cord.

Of course since Daniella put the news on the site and at Ravelry we have had lots of calls and emails. We decided to put out a few sizes rather than wait for all the sizes to be done. I know this is a disappointment for those who want a whole set but we wanted to be able to keep our word that we would have some sizes by the end of 2009.

We have had a lot of anxiety here in anticipation of midnight. Laura brought up the point that when we first started the biggest paper in our state (“Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel” )did multipage article that started the phones ringing about 2 months before we THOUGHT we would be starting. We were thrown into the fire with no time for worry.

This time there has been months and years of prep work with people here like Bob, and Paul, and Brian, and the other Brian, and the other Paul, and Luis, and Bruce, and Kent who have worked tirelessly to make me happy. And that was NOT easy.

Time after time new versions of things would be brought in—things they thought were wonderful that were categorically rejected. This time it is different. We have so many customers who know our single and double points that we want to love our circulars. I had a call this morning from a repeat delightful customer named Margery. I told her about the anxiety and said that, for me, it must be based on some childhood disappointment at not being invited to a birthday party. She just laughed and told me that she and her daughters Stephanie, Jennifer and Elizabeth were ALL coming to the party tonight at midnight. She couldn’t have said anything that could have made me feel better.

Of course I did email others that they don’t need to stay up but can order any time after midnight. But count on it, I will be awake for the party!

This entry was posted on Friday, December 18th, 2009 at 4:49 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.