tour of exclusive colorways, stop three
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 4:12PM Today I drew three new colorways out of a coffee mug on my desk. (No, it didn't have coffee in it. Come on now... give me some credit.)
I drew out Loopalicious, this bright and fun colorway based around one of the blue colors repeated throughout the Loops South store in Tulsa:
I love the inside of this store for so many reasons.
For starters, it's well-organized and clean. And let's be honest friends, not all yarn shops are. I have seen many stores that feel disheveled, scattered, and hard to navigate. But not this one:
Loops South has a particularly modern look that suits them well.
If you own a yarn shop, I'm not telling you that you that customers must be able to belly up to the Mac bar to look up projects on Ravelry. You don't have to have white leather seating.
But you do need to dust and vacuum and take out the trash, particularly if someone microwaved leftover salmon in your back room for lunch. Every day. You do need to reface your products continuously.
You do need to make your store visually appealing, so that people want to come and browse around for an hour, particularly if they are new to knitting and don't have a clue what they're looking for. You want to attract new customers, right? Make the store a place that people want to come into.
I'm not singling anyone out here, and --knock wood-- we're lucky to work with awesome stores.
I feel like I need to start a web series called Yarn Shop Takeover, in which I get to take over a store for a couple of days and completely redecorate and reorganize things from a customer-centric shopping experience. Good shop owners understand that they are high end, specialty retailers. I often say in my classes that it's important to love what you're knitting with -- the yarn, your tools -- and that you're knitting things you enjoy making, because no one is knitting because it's cheaper.
There are many reasons to knit. Cheaper is not one of them. Most of us don't spend $10-$30 per pair of socks in a store. But we are willing to spend that on one skein of sock yarn, and then we have to make the socks ourselves. We won't pay $30 for premade socks, but we will for socks we have to spend days or weeks working on.
If there were a store in the mall that sold $30 socks, I can guarantee you that the store would be clean, well lit, well organized, and pleasant to walk around in.
Yarn shops are high end retail. They sell the materials for a $300 sweater that you then have to make yourself.
Loops gets it right. There is more than one kind of right, but this is one of them.
I've been there twice -- you can see more about my visits here, here, and here.
Loops has a web store, which you can visit from anywhere in the world. And you can also call them at
1-877-LOOPSOK. The Loops Troops know what they're doing. They know their stock and they know how to help people.
(And hey, if you own a shop and want me to come take over for a couple of days -- use the contact form in the upper right. We'll see what we can work out, even if it's just a virtual consultation.)
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On to our next stop on the tour! I knew there would be a high probability (Because I am really, really excellent at statistics. Which is to say that I know how to multiply and divide.) that I would choose at least one more colorway from The Net Loft in Alaska. The probability is high (again, my genius statistical mind did these calculations), because there are just so many custom colorways for this one shop. Each year for the past few years we've done a new crop of them, so the collection is now quite sizable.
This one has been popular with both male knitters (and Cordova has plenty of rugged, outdoorsy men who know how to knit), and with women knitting for the dudes in their life.
Please tell me you know what animal this looks like. Because gosh darn it if I didn't go the Great Lakes Aquarium to compare for myself.
Getting the gold -- and the right proportion of it -- was part of the challenge. The other part was creating that subtle variation throughout the dark brown and black feathers a bald eagle has.
Here's an earlier draft of this colorway, which has too much white, and the browns and grays are not dark enough. The feedback I got from The Net Loft was that it was "good" and "almost there," but that it needed to look "more like an eagle perched on the top of a tree with its wings folded."
I'll be honest, my first thought when I heard that the wings needed to be folded whilst the national bird perched atop a tree was along the lines of, "Umm..."
But I get it now. It needed more dark brown and black, because the proportion of the eagle that is actually white and gold and medium brown is actually quite small.
Bald Eagle actually looks pretty darn nifty knit up. I've seen some sweet hats, scarves, and fingerless gloves made from it.
And next up is The Net Loft's Lupine colorway.
We went through at least nine versions of this colorway before I finally found something that was both pleasing to the eye and that looked like the flowers that grows prolifically in the Alaska summer. You can see some of my drafts here. Lupines come in purple, pink, and periwinkle, and some have lots of white at the tips, while others don't. We worked to find a colorway that would incorporate what was pretty about all the varieties.
We tried some with green. Some with white space.
And this is what we decided on: a variegated deep purple with accents of pink and periwinkle. This picture doesn't do the depth of color justice.
You can see some more pictures of both Bald Eagle and Lupine on the Net Loft's blog, here.
If you'd like to grab Bald Eagle or Lupine from The Net Loft, drop them a line at thenetloft3 AT yahoo DOT com, or call them at (907) 424-7337. I promise they are friendly and helpful.
I hope you're enjoying these behind the scenes peeks into the genesis of exclusive colorways. And hey, if you're not, then you probably like meatloaf and football. And then there's no hope for you at all.
Reader Comments (14)
Sharon, the first time I saw your Lupine I knew I would own some one day. One of my favorite books to read to my children was "Miss Rumphius", by Barbara Cooney. I think you have accomplished what she set out to do in her book...leave the world a more beautiful place. She planted flowers...lupines...on her little island in New England. You've certainly done so with your yarns...works of art!
Oh how I laughed at this: " no one is knitting because it's cheaper."
Because, when I started knitting, I thought that I had finally chosen a hobby that WOULD be cheap (my other ongoing hobby/interest/learning project being photography). Hahahahahahaha! Don't get me wrong. I LOVE knitting. I just had NO idea how infectious it was when I started. What a difference good materials make when you're knitting.... and how addicted you can become to GOOD (expensive) yarns!
I would also like to shout a "here here!" to the whole clean, tidy, organized yarn store thing. I have shopped at stores that I walk into and I just don't GET how things are laid out. It's too close, it's cluttered. I don't know where to find the yarn I need. It's daunting and therefore, I usually walk out without having purchased anything because the whole thing has made the yarn/implement buying an exercise in anxiety and confusion. I really like the layout of the store you pictured. I'm kind of OCD though... I'd like a yarn store that I can walk into that's kind of like a library... where I can easily go to exactly the type/weight yarn I need and see the entire selection. Ohhhh that would be heaven. And very dangerous for my wallet.
I love the photos of the Loops shop. What an inspiration for shop owners. I want to go there! Once again Sharon, you should receive the "Golden Skein" Award for your patience with me as we worked on these colors and what must have seemed like 99 trials to get that Lupine down. Here is link to our facebook page and a picture of the Bald Eagle in a sock.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150593010625446&set=a.294309810445.191157.243271355445&type=1&theater
Lupine is also great for socks and lacework and we also have it in spinning fibers as well.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150593025915446&set=a.294309810445.191157.243271355445&type=1&theater
I am lucky enough to live in Tulsa and be able to shop at Loops! It was the first novelty yarn store I went to (the original Loops at Utica) and I just fell in love. Now I'm disappointed when I go to other cities and they don't have a yarn store! Or worse, the one they have is terrible! I LOVE yarn. Love love love. And agreed, cheaper it is not. But worth it? Ooooh yes!
Your colorways never disappoint! I love Bald Eagle! I agree, that shop looks amazing, and I'd be far more willing to drop some serious cash for a special project at a shop that's very well organized and clean than at a shop where I'm not so sure they care about their inventory. Beautiful store!
So much loveliness!
ahem
I cook meatloaf. I own 3 football jerseys. And if I lived in Alaska I would camp outside the Net Loft just to be the first one at some of those awesome colorways. The truly discriminating soul can enjoy all 3. ;-)
I really loved your "no one is knitting because it's cheaper" comment. Today's blog was very timely for me. I spent the afternoon at my lys helping them rearrange everything. the store needed a fresh face. It looks so much more colorful and inviting, kinda like my little toe does now that I dropped a shelf on it while moving things around. My toe isn't inviting, just colorful, oh well, it was for a good cause.
I'm loving the colorways tours, it's fun to see your beautiful renditions of the different areas of our gorgeous country.
It's OK, Jen. It's not that I don't like you because you like football and meatloaf -- nearly all of the men in my life enjoy both of those things. (In fact, my husband informed me he would be making meatloaf later this evening to eat for lunch tomorrow. He told me I could "go shopping" or "run errands" while he was making it, if I wanted.)
So, it's not that I think you're a bad person or unlovable. It's just that there's no hope for you.
;P
I loved your idea of "Yarn Store Takeover" now that is the perfect TV show lol
I loved your take on the high end/not cheaper aspect of our LYS's. I was so excited to find out that my small town in MN had a yarn store when I first started knitting, but unfortunately, it is not a place I want to spend an hour..too overstocked and unorganized, too dark, too crowded with bins to walk around the store. I end up buying most of my yarn online.
I would really like to try the loopalicious colorway.......but alas.....Loops has no more. So if I understand the process correctly......Loops needs to place the order. I am hoping they do but if not is there a colorway you would recommend that is similar.
Thanks!!
I'm glad you like it! Yes, since the colorway belongs to them, it needs to be ordered through them. But I will be happy to talk to them to see if I can make that happen for you!
I have never knitted but I am inspired by this blog and knitters for Newtown. I love the colors of the yarn. My first purchase will be the bald eagle yarn from Alaska.
Judy