How do we find new yarns to bring you?

Thursday 4th April 2019

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When you hold a ball of Stylecraft yarn, do you ever wonder how we came up with the colours or the style of yarn?  Well, it’s a quite an involved process. At any one time our design and product development team can be working on up to four seasons at a time; organising the current launch, finalising designs and shoots for another, sampling new yarns and looking at colour palettes for a third or even fourth.  That’s quite a lot of balls to juggle! [caption id="attachment_1862" align="alignnone" width="3024"]IMG_5112 Test swatches[/caption] At our most recent meeting we were looking as far ahead as Autumn Winter 2020 and Spring Summer 2021 are just around the corner for us. Sample yarns are all carefully catalogued and knitted swatches scrutinised to make sure the yarn will meet your expectations. Looking at several seasons together helps us to get a really broad view of where trends are heading and how that is reflected in what Stylecraft brings to your local yarn shop. [caption id="attachment_1864" align="alignnone" width="2065"]samples Yarn for sampling[/caption] It all begins with supplier meetings up to eighteen months ahead of a launch, looking at trend predictions and samples of new dyeing and spinning techniques. Then the Stylecraft team visits an amazing yarn show in Florence called Pitti Filati where they can view some of the fashion trends and colour palettes for the season. [caption id="attachment_1863" align="alignnone" width="3024"]IMG_5113 All sample yarn is carefully catalogued[/caption] Now the designing can begin in earnest as the colour palettes are finalised and sample quantities of yarn arrive from the suppliers.  Next the Stylecraft knitters and crocheters have their needles and hooks ready to make the garments and accessories for the photoshoots which are put together around eight months before the season launches. Finally, the press releases are written and the Stylecraft sales team hit the road bringing the entire collection to a local yarn store just for you. Phew! So next time you visit your yarn shop and look at the latest Stylecraft yarn or browse our pattern leaflets you have an idea of how much work goes into bringing you your next project.      

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