Making a good Impression

Last year we introduced The Impressionist Collection to our customers. This was a really neat idea: we took a bunch of paintings by the Impressionists and then asked experts in hand-dyed yarn to interpret them for us. We kicked off with Artyarns. Iris Schreier developed some gorgeous interpretation of her yarns, including the sumptuous beaded silk! Then we added yarns from Lorna's Laces, Cherry Tree Hill, Rio de la Plata and -- most recently -- from Twisted Sisters.

Each time, I had the job of sending out a press release to let everyone know what we were now offering our customers. And I also got to come up with ideas for mailings to the knitting magazine editors. The tough part was figuring out what to do. The fun part was actually doing it.

The Twisted presented a unique problem: How do I tie in yarn, Twisted Sisters and French Impressionist painters? I anguished over this for days. There just didn't seem to be a link that made any sense. And suddenly it occurred to me. A French Twist!

We had great fun getting styrofoam wig heads, printing out color copies of the paintings and then decoupaging them onto the heads. Then, we attached a beautiful skein of the complementary yarn to each one -- to look like an elegant French Twist.

We shipped them out to the editors right before Christmas. Boy, I sure do hope that they liked their heads!

I can't wait to see what our next Impressionist yarn is. I wonder how the heck I'll present it?