Signature Needle Arts

Today is Signature’s 3^rd birthday. We use June 18, 2007 as our “birth” day  because this is the date that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel printed an article about us even though our website wasn’t ready, and so many other things were undone. And then the orders started and we have been blessed to have them continue as we made more and more different products.

 Everyone has heard of the Terrible Twos and since our 2^nd birthday that has been true—our struggles getting the circs to be as lovable as our single point straights and double points have been well known to you and about killed folks here. For the first time I had times when I wanted to throw in the towel, and I know there were others here who wanted to strangle me with that same towel if I said the words “Not good enough” one more time.

Now we move forward to getting all the sizes to you. We are working on the next batch which will be the US 3 and US 4 circulars.  Then comes the big fight—and we will be asking you to weigh in:  do we go to the US 1 and 2 OR to the US 8, 9, 10 in circs? In my mind I see a big jello pit with combatants from each camp wrestling for their choice. OK, maybe instead we will just ask you all to vote.

Many of you are parents but even if you aren’t you know the joy of having an “outsider” say your child is cute or smart. In this past month we have had two stars in the world of knitting say great things about the circs.

First, Clara Parkes from Knitter’s Review said  “If Montblanc were to stop manufacturing fountain pens and turn its attention to knitting needles, I imagine the results would be similar to a set of Signature needles.”    in her most recent review of the new circs.  If you ever get a chance to meet Clara you will find that she is the most humble and kind person, but if you know her work you know she is an expert in all things knitting. Her books are part of my own reference collection and even if she had never reviewed our needles I would take her recommendations without reservation.

Then, to top off a really great month Wendy Johnson from Wendy Knits and all her terrific sock books also tried and reviewed the circs. Turns out Wendy and our family have only 2 degrees of separation—she and Laura’s sister-in-law have mutual friends who helped us get in touch with her.   We were honored she reviewed our needles in her blog  Seriously Simple Shawl and Seriously Fabulous Needles.

I know most companies say “blah blah blah we love our customers”. Of course we do—without customers we wouldn’t have a business. BUT I have learned that Signature customers and the bonds we have go beyond the buying and selling. There are those of you who offered us a kind word during our troubles and you will never know what that has meant. We had people saying they would pray for us from their convent, people volunteering to help and give up huge amounts of time to test, and just plain kind people.

There are more than one of us who has done some personal growth in realizing that companies are made up of people who want to do the best they can and don’t want to make customers mad. We have learned the value of a quick, supportive email after a day of troubles.

 So with friends like Clara and Wendy , and more importantly, customers like you how can we not have a great birthday?

And a small present for all of you: we will have Free Standard Shipping on all orders over $50 through Monday June 21, 2010 CST with the free  shipping code HBDAY3.   Click Here for the full details of this promotion.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 18th, 2010 at 1:10 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.