So two months ago, I walked into my job after a week’s vacation and turned in my notice and was promptly asked to leave the premises. And I did.
I started a new job about a month and a half ago down in Galveston. It required me to move. And I did.
The Universe smiled at me for good decision making and asked me to like my new boss because he’s really freakin’ awesome. And I did.
Then the universe in a further reward announced to me that as long as I was doing my job well and completing the various training that was asked of me, then I could knit, at work, in between phone calls. And I did.
I’ve really gotten a lot done.
Then the Universe laughed at me for uprooting myself from Houston where I was happy. Currently the Universe is giggling. I have a glimmer of hope at making the Universe break out into full on guffaws before the end of the week. The Universe using me at it’s own stand up comedian (albeit, a very poor one, but whatever) would be very welcome because it would mean that two and a half months after leaving, I would move back to Houston. So cross your needles and fingers for me.
One day it’ll settle out and be level for a while right??
Because I’m still working on some stuff that isn’t worth writing about right now (Hello huge shawl that I need to finish suddenly before the 26th. Curse you knitting gods!!), I’m going to tell you about something I got about a week before I moved.
A while back at some ungodly hour of the night, I was haunting the Ravelry boards and happened upon a conversation amongst some knitters that amounted to wondering what was wrong with Anthropologie that they didn’t just suck it up and release a book of knitting patterns based on their sweaters. Because they consistently have freaking FANTASTIC sweaters/cardigans. The cuteness would make you choke. But at their prices, you might as well knit it yourself and have it fit you perfectly to boot.
So it this ungoly hour of the night, I had a lightbulb that said “Hey! See if you can write Anthro- and tell them this remarkable idea.” So being the resourceful googler that I can be, I googled Anthropologie and found the main website and dug around and lo and behold, I found email addresses for not only the entire Board of Directors but all of the corporate officers as well. I picked a name and proceeded to write them an email telling them that knitters had a lot of money to spend seeing as we numbered way more than 5 million strong. And I told him about what a good idea I thought it would be to make a book of their knitting patterns because we liked to customise things and well, it would just be really really awesome of them and knowing us knitters and our penchant for fashionable and unique, it would also certainly sell very well. (I probably sounded like a raving lunatic.)
And I never heard from him. Not a peep.
One night, I stopped packing and opened my door to pay for the pizza I’d ordered and the pizza guy is holding my pizza in one hand and a UPS box for me in the other (Who knew these guys did double duty!)
I wasn’t expecting anything from UPS. Hmm.
Then I saw the return address…Anthropologie.
Apparently this guy that I emailed in my sleep deprived state (I just went and reread my email to this guy…I would have deleted my email if I had received that. Eeesh.) forwarded my email to the President’s secretary and she sent me a very sweet letter that thanked me for my idea and explained that they didn’t have any plans at the moment to write a knitting book (rats!) but that they were teaming this next season with Twinkle and she hoped that I would be able to utilize the book and yarn to begin knitting my own Anthro-ish sweaters.
Now, while I wouldn’t ever be able to pull off the super chunk of Twinkle’s knits (Unless its a scarf or something) it’s still something that they would actually read my email. In a perfect world, we wouldn’t be so amazed by responses like this because they would be commonplace because companies would be listening to their patrons closely.
But in the real world, there is reason to be quite pleasantly surprised. Perhaps companies are forgetting that their customers usually just want to feel like they’re being heard. Even if they don’t take every suggestion, it doesn’t take anything to drop a letter in the mail thanking them. You’ll keep more customer goodwill that way. Even if you don’t suit everybody all of the time, you’ll still have harbored good will and thusly, good press/word-of-mouth/what have you.
And honestly, even though I can’t really wear anything Anthro sells (damned skinny ideals about women!!) I can still oogle a few things and decorate my home with a well bought piece or three and if we’re being completely honest, they have certainly won me over with their thoughtful letter.
Even if they hadn’t given me a book and yarn to boot.
(The momentum on the shawl is slowing…I’m so going to pay for cursing the knitting gods…)
(my friend Anne told me I could appease the knitting gods by donating warm squishy yarn to another knitter, more specifically, her. I laughed and said really now? So I think I might have to come up with something warm and squishy for her. No?)
