Anyone who knows us know we are true yarnaholics. Even before we opened Woolfull Rosie and I both had hundreds of balls of yarn in our personal stash at home. Varying in colour, texture, squishyness and size you name it we had it, or something like it. Actually, that has only gotten worse in the 10 weeks since we opened the shop. Yeah, about that.
Anyway, as yarnaholics, and big Stylecraft fans, we were very excited to be invited to their Retailer Open Day.
Rosie and I love Stylecraft yarn, it's so easy to crochet with, and so so versatile. Our customers are loving it too, even those who had never used it before are coming back for more, so that's great. We have loads of Stylecraft yarn and patterns in our shop, and it looks so bright and colourful.
Sunday started with a very early (7ish) start and a drive over to Stylecraft HQ in Slaithwaite. The drive was a little scary, as it was very wet and foggy and the cross-country journey from our home in the Peak District involved both Snake and Woodhead Passes! We arrived safe and sound and queued up for the Stylecraft peeps to let us in.
Once inside we were introduced and split into groups (the lift is an oldie but goodie, and the corridors and stairwells were not designed for 50ish people to use at once so we split into groups of 10-15). Once organised we were given the grand tour.
Not gonna lie, the warehouse was my favourite part, spotting all my favourite Stylecraft yarns as we whizzed past was wierdly exciting, and I could probably happily move in and live among them.
It was very interesting to see the journey the yarn takes to get to our shelves. We're not talking going back to the names of the sheep or anything, but seeing the quality control rooms and hearing how the processes work was actually really cool.
We also got to meet Charlotte, one of the designers, who showed us her mood boards for the Autumn/Winter range, and talked us through all the steps she takes to get patterns designed, checked and ready for us to show to our customers. The level of detail, the logistics and the sheer number of people involved is something we didn't really think about before yesterday, so it's good to see the personal aspects of some of the processes we don't usually see.
Once our tour was finished we headed up to the showroom for a sneaky peek of the upcoming Autumn/Winter ranges, and had chance to have a coffee and a chat with other retailers, Stylecraft staffers and a couple of the Stylecraft Blogstars Helen and Lucia.
All in all it was a great morning, and a real insight into another aspect of our woolly world. Thanks Stylecraft, see you again next year!