New Direction for Crowing Ram
Click READ MORE at the bottom of each blurb for the rest of the article.
The Crowing Ram website is going through a revamp, so to borrow a phrase from buildings everywhere, please pardon our dust. Here's the thing. Developing a website for a retail store turns out to be somewhat different from doing the same for a wholesale rep. The thought process is different, and you're likely here for somewhat different reasons than my retail customers ever came to my site. Surprisingly, it only took me a couple of years to figure that out.
Reading Your Way to a Better Life
Ok. I'm not going to tell you that just by reading you're going to achieve greatness. I will say, though, that by ingesting a strong diet of empowering and thought-provoking ideas, you build your own ability to see opportunities and your own inherent strengths. You also do something that we, as instructors and guiders of our customers' choices, commonly suggest: learn.
Learning sometimes gets a bad rap. It's hard. You don't have time. You're too old. Um... in a word, bullshit. Learning is something our brains were designed for. You can always find time for the things you want to do. And if you're not dead, you're not too old; Colonel Sanders was literally already drawing Social Security when he started Kentucky Fried Chicken. So get to your nearest bookstore or sign up for an Audible account, because I'm about to offer you a list of books that have helped me get beyond my own defeats and turn them into successes.
Is the Trend Over? Forecasting What Comes Next
Shop owners, vendors, other reps, and even retail customers say the same things. Didn’t we do this already? What’s the next big thing in knitting? When will people stop knitting novelty scarves? Why don’t shops carry more X, Y, or Z yarn? The basic answers are simple: yes, who knows, never, and well, ok… that one’s not so simple.
I had more than a couple of people ask me if I wasn’t concerned that novelty yarns had come and gone before. No, I’m really not.
Even those of us with great track records for seeing the coming wave really don’t have a crystal ball. What most of us do have, though, is a fairly clear image of the past, present, and future of the industry not as a landscape but as a seascape. There are rolling waves all over. Some things cycle faster than others, and how fast a given category is cycling can change in the blink of an eye.
Let’s look at novelty, for instance. I was very excited in January of 2012 to pick up Trendsetter Yarns in about 65% of my territory, but I had more than a couple of people ask me if I wasn’t concerned that novelty yarns had come and gone before. No, I’m really not. First, whatever anyone’s perception inside or out of the company, Trendsetter isn’t just about novelty. It’s about fashion. It’s about fun. It’s about exuberance and feeling good about oneself and delight in texture and color. It’s also about luxurious natural fibers, stunning fabrics, and designs that people are excited to make and wear. So, while novelty certainly plays a big part in the perception retailers, customers, other vendors and reps, and even folks within company itself have of Trendsetter, it’s not the end-all-be-all of the line.
Smartest Business Development Money You Can Spend
If you were there, then you know that yet again the folks at Yarn Market News pulled out all the stops for a phenomenal weekend of business development aimed very specifically at yarn shop owners and operators. The speakers this year included experts on merchandising, marketing, business development, personnel, and even—a personal favorite—color trends. Beyond that, the Q&A sessions that followed each speaker's presentation may actually have been at times even more thought-provoking than the speakers themselves.
Drawing the Curtain
No, no. I'm not shutting down the site or going away. What I am doing, though, is pulling a lot of my content behind the proverbial curtain. All that means is that moving forward, more of my content will be accessible only to those users who I can verify are my own customers.
Worry not. Signing up for this content is free, and the information I request is basically just who you are, where you are, how customers can find you, and which of my lines you carry. If you're not my customer, there will still be some content that's available to the public. I'll post things like what I'm knitting and what I'd like to knit so we can all keep up with each other. My work, though, won't be free to all comers. I'm sure you see the logic.
So, if you're a Crowing Ram customer by way of any of the lines I represent or would like to become one, you may request an account any time. You'll then be privy to any content that I post regarding the lines that you purchase from me plus any vendor-nonspecific behind-the-curtain content.
Bodega
60% acrylic . 23% mohair . 17% polyamide
+/- 20 yards per 100 gram ball
US 35 needles
approx 1 sts per inch
