Knit, Vote, Read

I recently finished (that's right, I finished something) reading two very interesting books. The first book was The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell and the second one was Sweater Quest by Adrienne Martini. Reading these two books in tandem, gave me great pleasure and plenty to think about.

The Tipping Point was a book that I have wanted to read for a long time. When a passenger left his copy of the book in a seat back pocket, I saw it as a sign that it was meant for me to read it. So, I did. In a nut shell, Gladwell describes the key factors that can make an idea "tip". By "tip" he means spreading an idea or message through the population in a sweeping and contagious manner.

Sweater Quest was a recommendation from Jill. It has been described as the Julie and Julia of knitting. As I read it, I felt like I could have written it. It was about a knitter (from Pittsburgh-my hometown) who attempts to knit an Alice Starmore Fair Isle Sweater just for the challenge of knitting it. It is a wonderful and fascinating read, that is so much more than just the adventures of knitting an authentic Alice Starmore Mary Tudor sweater. The importance of a "knitting community", the advancement of the internet in connecting and educating knitters and the key components that make knitting a popular past time are discussed.

While reading both books, I kept asking myself (and anyone else who would listen), "Does Knitwits have the ability to "tip" something? Is Knitwits the "knitting community" that Sweater Quest refers to? Can our Knitwits Community "tip" something and if so, what is it?"

The answers to the above questions my friends, is YES!
The day after we sent last week's e-mail, we peeked at the statistics that we get from Mad Mimi, our e-mail marketing service. Of the 655 e-mails sent, over a third of you had read the email. Of those readers, 40 of you had clicked the link to vote for Sue's Pepsi Project. And as a result...we watched the Narcolepsy Project jump from 57 in popularity to a ranking of 46 today. I don't think this is a coincidence.

We have gotten phone calls and replies to the e-mail telling us that the email has been forwarded to friends and family. The momentum is building and our request for votes seems to be working. If we all vote everyday and we ask at least one person each day to do the same...we can keep the Narcolepsy message moving up the leader board and I think we can "tip" Narcolepsy into the top spot by the end of the month.

We have ordered a bunch of copies of Sweater Quest for the shop. They should be available sometime next week. If you want a copy, let us know and we'll set one aside. Sue and I found a Fair Isle Scarf in the Fall Rowan Magazine that could be our "Quest" Knit a Long project for the Fall.

Knit, Vote, Read