In retail, sale time is one of the most exciting times, because it means we can start looking forward to new stock for the next season.
With that in mind, we traveled just a short distance from the A1 from Tadcaster on what was thankfully a beautifully sunny day and visited Sirdar at their showrooms. Sirdar is the main yarn brand we stock at Needlecase, so this is a rather important day in our shopping calendar and we were excited about what we would find there.
When we arrived at the Sirdar showroom we met Maria who is one of the reps for that brand and she toured us around their showroom and showed us all the new yarns and new colours available for next season.
Everything was really well displayed too which is another reason why we enjoy visiting the brands we stock. The whole place was decorated with knitting and crochet, there were flowers in the bushes, birds and sheep in the reception and even knitted arrows to direct us around the building! These were all done by Sirdar members of staff too so the brand really is all about knitting and crocheting.
We definitely came away with a little inspiration for our new window and shop displays after visiting Sirdar! Especially after we had attended Sirdar’s window display workshop.
After touring the showroom and looking at everything Sirdar had to offer we’d worked up quite an appetite which was just as well because Sirdar served us a lunch on the lawn outside. A hog roast with champagne!!
After lunch, we headed back inside and straight to the Design Room, this is where all the pattern designers work and we were lucky enough to be given a talk by the head designer a Sirdar.
She explained the processes involved when designing patterns, including how they choose new yarns and colours for a season and then how the design team produce the pattern collection to compliment those yarns and colours. She also touched on how the Sirdar team then displays and photographs the finished garments.
After the talk we were free to do a little networking and meet some of the designers chat, ask questions and generally just get to know the Sirdar team a little better, which is great because we are certain to be stocking some of their next season collection!