How I decide which yarns to carry

Hello dear Collective members!

I've been sitting here for the past 10 minutes, gazing out the window at the slowly turning leaves, trying to figure out what I wanted to write about. Originally, I had planned a post about preparing a launch, but all of a sudden, I was sitting here and thought "oh, maybe that's a bit boring?" (Do let me know if you do not think it's boring and I'll write it up!)

As I let my gaze wander, I noticed a bowl full of fluffy yarn on my office shelf - Bérénice, our latest yarn addition, and I suddenly knew what I wanted to write about: I wanted to share with you how I decide which yarns to carry.

Finding a new yarn that fits into our webshop feels a little bit like magic and fate. Every once in a while there's one that just feels so right, and over time I've learned to trust my instinct if that happens. It's a really good indicator for that I will be excited about carrying and knitting a yarn, which I think is really crucial - not because I believe that I have the absolut best taste in yarn (I do think it's pretty good though :D), but because I will be talking about this particular yarn for weeks, months, possibly years, and I better be very much in love with it in order for that to work.

So finding a new yarn is not easy, which is why I go about it in a couple different ways:

1. A list of "blank spots"Here's how I think about where I want us to go in terms of yarns we carry: We don't need five different worsted-spun DK weight yarns, but I would like to offer a comprehensive portfolio of yarns eventually: Woollen- and worsted-spun yarns at multiple price points in all yarn weights from lace to worsted.

In Notion (my trusted project management tool aka second brain), I have a list of "blank spots" - points in this future portfolio where we don't have any yarn(s) yet.

I periodically revisit this list to see if I've come across a yarn that I feel would fill one of the spots, or if I feel pulled towards one of the "blanks" and would want to invest time to research and try yarns to proactively fill it.

2. Research & trying yarns

When I feel pulled towards a particular blank spot, or when I know that we'll have a really exciting campaign coming up, but are lacking a certain type of yarn, I go into research mode.

A good example is our upcoming Socktober Celebration: I knew that I wanted a slightly more affordable natural sock yarn for the shop, so I started researching! I went through my running list of yarn companies, looked through their websites, googled, all to figure out which yarns might fit the brief of "natural, non-superwash, affordable sock yarn".

Once I've found a couple of yarns I like, I usually order a test skein to get at least a swatch knit up. There's nothing like getting yarn on your needles to see whether you like it or not!

3. Lucky breaks

Every once in a while, there will be a yarn that just "jumps out" at me - either through an email from a yarn company (like with Bérénice) or because I see it being used in a project, usually on Instagram. More often than not, I then go down a rabbit hole which ends with me ordering a bit of it to test - or, like Bérénice, I fall head over heels in love with it and just order the whole palette :)

I know that I could do more structured "user research" (borrowing a term from my previous life as a software company person) by keeping a closer eye on what folx are knitting with, but I also want to resist the temptation to add something to the shop just because it's popular right now. I want the yarns that we carry to reflect who we are as a company, and what we value, and that takes time.

I hope you liked this insight into how I decide which yarns to carry! If you have a particular topic you're interested in me writing about here on the Collective blog, do comment below - I'd love to hear your ideas.