Signature Needle Arts

Of course we love all our customers and we have come to know many of them beyond just selling    them needles. One such person is Rebecca Bacchus from Ohio. We met at one of the Stitches shows. I could tell she knew something about manufacturing from the questions she had, and I was right. Her family business is also in the metal working business.

Some of you may know that I see each order and often email people to thank them or just ask a question if their order is out of the norm, or sometimes if their email or street address gets my attention. For example, an order from Tasmania got my attention, as did one from Blue Bird Lane in California a day we were having a blizzard, or one from a military base in Germany.

One day recently we had an order for a certain size, length needle from Rebecca which was not surprising, but then in a matter of minutes several more came in from Ohio for the very same needle. I contacted her (without giving any specific information since we are CRAZY to protect our customers’ privacy) just asking if she knew anything about a group of orders from her area. She answered right back and told me that the orders were all from knitter/friends about to go to a knitting get-together. She sent the following story and pictures:                                                                                                                                                        There are 14 ladies in our group and we get together at Lakeside 3 times a year. We are all knitters with the exception of 3 members (two are cross stitchers and one stamps cards).  It’s a wonderful opportunity to work on projects and we sometimes like to do a project together (such as the Memory Square Blanket).  At the last retreat we made double knit hats.

I established a chemo cap group 2 years ago and to-date we have donated over 4,000 hats to local hospitals, clinics and organizations.  We are called the Midwest Head Huggers (formerly Vintage Head Huggers).  The hats cannot have seams so I am thrilled to be using your double point needles but the ladies are most anxious for your circular needles.  We can knit hats on 2-circs, but will you have them available in a 16” length?  Attached is a recent article in one of our local papers.

The Lakeside Ladies

 BACK ROW:  Sally Ferguson, Tracey Maris, Pat Smith, Rebecca Backus, Nancy Russell, Peg Watts.  

FRONT ROW:  Jackie Drouillard, Paula Smith, LuAnn Kanitz.

I know that many of you have met us at various shows such as Stitches Midwest, West and the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival. Before Signature was born I went as a shopper/student and didn’t give a thought about what went on behind the scenes at a show. I guess I imagined that the booths filled with yarn, books, and needles just magically appeared for my shopping pleasure.

Now I know the truth: being a vendor is a huge project. First we have to decide: ship or drive product and booth equipment like tables, etc.  Then the real work begins. We have to try and get enough product built in an array we “think” will be what customers want, pack up all the zillions of things that we need in the booth from pens, to tape, to a dolly to move the product back and forth.

Each show we try and improve what we are doing. For example, at Stitches West we shipped everything because I was worried that Kent would not get over the snowy Rockies in February. What we didn’t think of was having material to do labeling on the return trip.  Luckily our booth neighbor was a wonderful man from Australia who loaned us duct tape so we could tape our info on the side of the wooden skids of material coming home.  Now we always have duct tape with us.

Our special challenge is that we empty the booth each night because of the fear of theft since our product is rather small and a lot could be tucked inside a coat.  After our first show I was more than shocked when we had a big box of pins stolen during the show from beneath the front table. I just assumed that knitters were wonderful and honest and they mostly are, but there are a few rotten apples so we have to set up to protect ourselves.

We are shipping everything to East and I have not done a thing. Daniella (who you will meet at East) did everything and it was an immense project—all the while doing all her regular Signature work. What a blessing for me to have someone like her at Signature. We always kid about her being our “adopted daughter” and I couldn’t be prouder if she were.  Her “real” dad who is an attorney did fax us Wisconsin adoption papers which shows his great sense of humor.

We leave Thursday at some awful early time. Daniella and Laura already know that I will not be that cheerful until we get to Baltimore—actually I will be comatose until later in the morning but then we will be off and running to get the booth set up for the Market Preview on Thursday night for students.

Actually this reminds us how ignorant we were: at our first show we thought the Market Preview was for school age knitters and so we didn’t even show up until Friday when the show started. Our booth neighbors thought something bad must have happened to us when we were not there. Now we know that Thursday is a great night for students of the classes to see all the booths and buy without the extra pressure of the public attendees.

All of us are looking forward to meeting up again in person with Jane Sowerby (the author of Victorian Lace Knitting Today—which many of you have—or should if you don’t. Signature is going to have a special set of “Jane Sowerby Lace Needles” ready in the near future. We have been working by email but face to face will be a wonderful way to get the last details in place.

OK, so I haven’t done any packing but I have been working on some patterns as a gift for our customers—some “ Any Needle, Any Yarn”  Scarves in 3 editions:  easy, intermediate, and darn hard.  We will have 2 of them available at the show. Please come by and see us if you are at Stitches East. We are in booth 519.

Remember the old Burger King ad song….”Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce. Special orders don’t upset us…Have it your way, have it your way.”  I thought you might be interested to know that we feel the same way at Signature. Although we have our standard items for our single and double point needles we can  respond to special requests.

Before I go any further you need to know that these “special” needles are the result of engineering review for feasibility, tear out of set-ups of machines, reprogramming the run of the machines, making the parts, checking the parts and cleaning the parts. I don’t want you to think this is cheap because it just can’t be.

Having said that we DO have customers who pay for special needles. We had the woman in Scotland who had found a very elderly knitter who was willing to teach her the “old way” of knitting with one end of the needle in a bag on the hip—which is the way shepherds knit while watching the flocks. She needed 20 inch needles and we made them for her.

Recently we had a request for some special Size 1 and 2 14” double points and we were able to make these for the customer.

On the other end of the size spectrum we had a customer who wanted TINY needles and we made them for her.  

Sometimes we do have to respectfully say, “Sorry we just can’t do that.” For example, we knew we had no chance to successfully make the 36” long small size needles that one customer wanted. Or the customer who wanted needles the size of sewing needles.

So, if you have a special request we would be glad to hear from you. We can’t guarantee that we can do everything, but we will let you know if  you can “have it your way”.

The Second Time Around

The song says, “Love is lovelier the second time around” and we know Stitches Midwest was just that—even better the second time around.  Last year at this time we were taking our first step at a big show as a new company when we went to Stitches Midwest. We had only been in business a few weeks so we went with some trepidation—at least on my part as the company pessimist. The response we had was just astonishing and wonderful. If I had a nickel for every customer who started out by saying, “I hate metal needles and I hate straight needles but I love your needles” I could be on a beach in Tahiti. Except, of course, I love being here.

Looking back, we really were novices at the “show” vendor experience. Luckily Chicago is just an hour away and we have been remembering the calls back to Kent and Paul and Brian here at the office to get us more product. They were literally making needles nights and bringing them down to us mornings so we would have enough stock to meet demand.

Since then we have become show veterans having gone to more Stitches shows and also by getting a coveted spot at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival (who knew that this was like getting a child into Harvard??). Each time we have learned a lot about how and what to pack and each time we have met wonderful customers. For example we just marveled at meeting Marie at Stitches West in California who had come all the way from the East Coast to go to the show and meet us.  Seeing the many, many knitting styles from our side of the demonstration table was an education on its own and meeting so many old and new customers has been a joy.

I think when knitters go to a show like Stitches they see the booths but really only see the things for sale which is exactly what the shopping experience should be. I bet everyone here would see things a little differently: What display equipment is there? How many tables? How are they processing orders? How do they get to have a bathroom break? The last is very important. Currently I have been told that drinking is not allowed because it only means a trip later. So, if you come look for the dehydrated people.

As I write this Laura and Daniella are making the first trip to Chicago with all the things that go into setting up a booth. Each show has taught us valuable lessons which is good since we now have lots more products.  For the first time we will be introducing kits for sale. We have some exciting designers and materials that we will offer as a kit with a pair of needles at a great price.

Tomorrow I will go with them and we will be staying for the duration.  Come see us in Booth 423.  Happy Knitting.

“Time flies” –a quote everyone has heard, but was brought to my mind this past week. I finished a baby pattern—one that I have used many times—for the first grandchild of wonderful friends of ours. The yarn is Cotton Tots which is available nearly everywhere (even places without a good LYS). One thing about living in the same place for a long time is the relationships that go back decades. Wow, that makes me sound ancient!

It seems like yesterday that our friends Sue and Chip were having their 4 daughters. There were plenty of jokes about poor Chip surviving in a household of women. Actually they all turned out wonderfully, and the first daughter just had her first baby, a darling red head named Jacob.

We have photos of the mom as a little girl at a fishing derby we had at our house and it brought to mind what fine people her parents were (and are). They are the most interesting people: Sue is the nearest thing to Martha Stewart you have ever seen. Every single holiday is unbelievable at their house. Full sized mannequins dressed for every holiday, huge Christmas trees, decorations in every nook and cranny.  The decorations take days and weeks to put up and are just astonishing. I have told their girls that they really should appreciate what a extraordinary upbringing they have had. . Dad Chip is a fantastic dentist but also a fantastic cook—which gives Sue time to do other things like work, help with her mother-in-law, school activities and making the individual needle cases for Signature.

We all know families like this—just going along busily helping their children to grow up into loving, responsible adults. By the way, the little girl who liked fishing is now a dentist too, except that she is in the military along with her doctor/soldier husband. So, little Jake has landed in another generation of a wonderful family.

I have lots of other projects going right now which I will tell you about soon, but we are getting ready for Stitches Midwest in Chicago. More about the “rest of the story” of having a booth in a big show that you might be interested in later this week.