Apologies for the gap in posting! Goodness, it’s been a wee while since I put anything up on here. I have been a tad busy though, and don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about part two of the business start up blog.
However, for now, I thought I’d let you know just why I’ve been head down and other wise occupied. I’ve decided to take out a proper advertisement in a real magazine. Yarn Forward is a fabulous new knitting mag that comes out mid month, and it’s very different from all the other magazines.
For starters, it’s more ‘grown-up’. It’s not plastered with neon text and exclamation marks, and the pictures on the front aren’t garish and wince-inducing. It talks to you like you’re an intelligent adult, and also, from the point of view that you can already knit, as you would’t be buying a knitting magazine if you couldn’t, right? So there aren’t pages of ‘how to cast on’ or ‘how to purl’ at the back. But there are articles on the more advanced techniques, like colourwork and how to design your own knitwear!
Plus, they have nice green credentials too – Yarn Forward isn’t wrapped in layers of plastic, which is good not only from an environmental point of view, but it also means you can pick it up and flick through it in store. That and they can’t fill it full of dozens of advertising flyers either. Added to that the fact it’s printed on recycled paper and paper from managed forests, and they make a donation to a tree-planting scheme for each subscription that’s taken out. Very nice indeed!
They limit their advertising to ten pages of targeted ads as well. Knitters want yarny adverts, right? Not ‘find a friend’ or conservatory blinds ones.
And they do plus sizes. Instead of stopping at a 38″ or 40″ size, they go up to 50″ chests. Good for those of you who are blessed in the bra region. And nice for me as a yarn retailer, because bigger sizes need more yarn! Actually, that’s a plus from the knitter’s point of view too – more yarn is good for everyone!
I’m in the next issue, number 10, so keep your eyes peeled! Yarn Forward has been spotted at WHSmiths, Tesco and Borders as of late. If you find it anywhere else, let me know!
Kris x
Hiya Kris,
Thought I might post a comment here as not good at lurking… looks like you may have induced a mutual friend of ours to take up knitting which is no mean feat. I have often looked heard talk of Yarn Forward mag but never actually looked at a copy. I don’t live in the UK now but sometimes my sister will send me out a copy of ‘Lets Knit!’ (note the exclamation mark), or ‘Simply Knitting’ which I used to lurve but they seem to have had a bit of a format change and it is now not so good. Jean Moss used to reply to the letters asking for help and I miss her now that they seem to use a load of people rather than her, whose oppinion I trust. I was thinking of treating myself to a subscription to Rowan too, but I know that they rarely go up past a size 16 in their patterns so, for me, not really worth it… but I love Knitty as they have really revolutionised the sharing of knitting patterns for nowt and free advertising for their designers who are top notch and hope this might lead on to some of the magazines etc realising that one of the things about knitting is that it isn’t a ‘one size fits all world’ and there are a lot of us knitters about in all our various guises.
You neeeeed a blogroll… And a link list of your fav websites….