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.
