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August 29, 2008
Bits and Bobs
I've had a few emails from people saying that they would be interested in doing the etsy pages in Yarn Forward as well. if anyone is interested please email shirley@yarnforwardmagazineDOTco.uk so that she can let you know all the details and book you in.
We've also decided to extend the etsy pages on sew hip and yarn forward to include small indy sellers who are not on etsy.
I'm shocked at how much time I'm spending thinking about advertising these days...
I updated the shop yesterday with lots of yummy laceweight yarn but none of the thumbnail images seemed to show up. I'll try and fix that later but when you click on the product the main photo shows up...
Who's coming to I Knit next weekend? I can't wait for it, so excited. We're doing a photoshoot for the magazine the day before as well which is bound to be a lot of fun. I'm booking the male model today. Its a tough job searching through model agency books for attractive men but someone has to do it, right?
Posted by Kerrie at 09:21 AM | Comments (2)
August 28, 2008
Sew hip - editors choice
I've been working this week in the same office as our lovely new temp who is working hard selling advertising on Sew Hip. Now selling advertising really isn't my thing (all that talking on the phone, shudder) but obviously with Tereza sitting next to me I've been thinking about it more and more. We came up with an idea yesterday about how we can be more inclusive for the smaller independent people who run etsy stores and I think its going to work out just great. Manda and I talked on the phone and blogged about it at about 10pm last night and we've sold 1/4 of the spaces already.
You can read more about it on the Sew Hip blog or Manda's blog.
I wonder whether something like this would work for Yarn Forward as well. Not for the next issue because we've sold our ten pages already but maybe for one of the later issues. Hmmm.. Who'd have thought that advertising could be, well, almost interesting?
Posted by Kerrie at 07:31 AM | Comments (2)
August 27, 2008
The shop, it is updated
The shop, it is updated (sung to the tune of wonderpets if you can, you know "the phone, the phone is ringing." Everything is sung to the tune of the wonderpets around here at the momemt) and full of lovely stuff...
We have a few bits on the sale page and some silk that is half price in never to be repeated colours. Lots of lovely lace yarns, as well as some spinning fibre and lots of Ophelia. Goodies galore. Hurray. There is also plenty more that I didnt manage to get on the site today so I hope it will be there by the weekend.
Posted by Kerrie at 06:35 PM | Comments (0)
Brooke's book
Question in the comments from Tania - the book with Brooke on the front cover is the Debbie Bliss Family book. This one.
We were in John Lewis in Bluewater last week and she found the book and proceeded to move it to the front of the pile and tell everyone around us that it was her on the book. She spent the rest of the day talking about how she was famous and that she should have signed the book in case someone wanted to buy it. So funny.
Shop update coming today. By the time I would have got around to it last night I'd been up for almost 20 hours and really couldn't face it. This morning though, I feel like I can do anything again. Woot.
Posted by Kerrie at 07:24 AM | Comments (1)
August 26, 2008
Holidays - part 1
See these 3 kids? Wayne and I have had the best couple of weeks holiday with them, they have been amazing. We are all really sad to say goodbye this morning and make our ways off to work, nursery etc. We've lived in each others pockets for the last 17 days and it has been amazing. Trinity is growing up each day, she is talking loads and is just the funniest baby in the world. Cameron turned 4 and Brooke turned 8 when we were away in the caravan a couple of weeks ago and sometimes I just look at the 3 of them and wonder where my babies went!
There is so much to say, I don't know where to start. We had a great couple of weeks holiday, we were away for the first week and then at home hanging out for the second. The first week was almost perfect, but for the fact that I managed to trip over on the first day there and broke up my ankle. Not really how I had expected to spend my holidays but I've got used to the crutches now and I'm back on the mend again. It meant that I got a lot more reading and knitting done than I had anticipated while Wayne took the kids swimming, out on bikes, to the park etc.
Today is my first day back in the office (although I have had the occasional look at email and surfed a bit over the last week) and I have a huge pile of work to catch up on. There will be a HIpKnits shop update later on today although I suspect it will be an after the kids have gone to bed job rather than anything else. Lots to tell you about holidays, Yarn Forward, Sew Hip, HipKnits and other bits but there is plenty of time for that over the next week or so. For now I need to get my head down and catch up on all the events of the last 2 weeks. Trust me, it has been crazy around here in my absence.
Posted by Kerrie at 07:52 AM | Comments (7)
August 07, 2008
Happy August, back in September
For the first time ever I think I just don't have time to blog here. There is just SO much going on, a million more times so than usual and coupled with holiday season, birthday season and everything else I just need to bow out from here.
There will be another HipKnits shop update around the bank holiday when I'm back from holiday but apart from that I'll be MIA until the kids are back in school and some kind of normal (ha) routine is re-established.
I hope you all have a lovely lovely remainder of August, catch you in the autumn! xx
Posted by Kerrie at 04:06 PM | Comments (3)
August 05, 2008
What happened to Monday?
Does anyone know what happened to Monday this week? I'm sure it was supposed to be yesterday and I'm sure that there was a whole long list of things that I was supposed to do but suddenly it is Tuesday and I can't quite put my finger on what happened yesterday and what (if anything) I actually did.
There is a nice HipKnits update on the site now, with some good discounts for the holiday month.
- discount code for brand new customers giving 10% off all orders from August 5th to 31st - type U71n0N into the coupon code field
- discount code for existing customers giving 20% off all orders from August 5th to 31st - type PRGv3f into the coupon code field
- Free Miriam Felton shawl paper pattern with all purchases of the correct amount of laceweight cashmere and Ophelia sock yarn whilst stocks last. (1 x 100g skein of lace cashmere gets you a free copy of either Mountain peaks, Hidcote Garden or Icarus. 2 x 100g skeins of Opheila get you a free copy of Seraphim) This offer can be mixed with the above percentage discount giving you an extra brilliant bargain.
- Free pattern with any custom dyed aran silk. You can choose any of the patterns that we have for sale. Custom dyes will be posted within 2 weeks of order.
- Free Della shawl kit when you spend over £50 in one transaction. This includes pattern and a skein of cashmere lace dyed in colours of your choice.
- Gift certificate to the value of £15 if you spend over £100 in August after all other discounts have been applied.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that the winner of the July feedback gift voucher was Joanne. Thanks to everyone who left feedback last month, we'll be doing the same thing every month from now on so please feel free to leave us honest feedback about your orders.
Posted by Kerrie at 07:10 AM | Comments (0)
August 02, 2008
Saturday
Yay, you're all as excited about Sew Hip as we are. That's brilliant news, really really good news. We've been thrilled with the amount of interest there has been in the magazine, we've sold lots of subscriptions, pre orders of issue 1 and had tonnes of lovely emails and comments. What more could we ask for?
I dont usually work on the weekend and I am avoiding my emails this evening as I know that will suck me right into proper work and I won't escape for a long time but I decided to turn on the laptop and do a few bits this evening. I need to finalise the plans for HipKnits discounts this month, we have lots of freebies and giveaways to manage and I thought that tonight would be a good time to organise them. Wayne is out and the plan was that the kids would go to bed but for some reason its an hour past bedtime and NONE of them are showing any signs of tiredness. Isn't that always the way?
Posted by Kerrie at 08:11 PM | Comments (1)
August 01, 2008
Sew Hip
When Lou and I set up KAL Media back in January we talked long and hard about what we wanted the company to achieve. Obviously our primary objective was to publish Yarn Forward and as you've seen already we have had a big year with regards to that magazine already.
We also talked about what else we wanted to publish and one of the first things that we both agreed on was that the UK was crying out for a yarn forward type magazine for sewing. We knew that this was something that we wanted to do but that we had to do it properly and in a way that wouldn't mean us getting even less sleep and having to spend even more time at work and not hanging out with our families.
So, whilst negotiating the Tescos / Smiths deal for YF we talked to our agents about launching a sewing magazine at the same time. Everything went according to plan and here we are, 2.5 months away from or first issue of Sew Hip hitting the news-stands on October 16th along with Yarn Forward.
We hired a fantastic editor who I'm thrilled to say is doing a brilliant job on the magazine. I travelled up to visit her and her lovely family last week and its scary how similarly our minds work. The designs that we've had coming in look brilliant and we have some really big name sewing people involved with the first one. This also means that Lou and I can concentrate on being the publisher of the magazine and not get involved with the day to day fun and games that editing involves.
Or little KAL Media family is growing all the time. We have now hired a designer, a production editor, a Sew Hip editor, an admin assistant and an advertising manager. All we need now is to sort out the editor / dep editor vacancy for Yarn Forward and we'll be all set. Its very very exciting (and just a little bit scary) for me to be able to start to hand over big chunks of my work to other people. We've been really lucky with the people that we have managed to hire so far, long may that continue.
You can pre-order the first issue of the magazine here or subscribe here. A nice big list of all of our contributors is on the pre order page together with lots of other information on the magazine.
Now, if you'll excuse me I've earned a day at mum and dads playing in the garden and hugging my children. Catch you on Monday. xx
Posted by Kerrie at 05:18 AM | Comments (12)