love the way a magazine evolves, how seemingly disparate elements meld into a cohesive unit. An issue usually starts out with a few ideas for main features, based on topics relevant at the time, a theme for the yarn forecast, a company or store profile, an interesting fiber-related foreign story or two, an industry celebrity to interview, a few “Smart” column ideas, lots of odds and ends for the Market Report, and so on. The stories get assigned and start trickling in a month or so later, and we begin the process of pulling the whole issue together. Illustrations get assigned, a photo shoot takes place, and for a while it’s kind of crazy and overwhelming. Just as I start wondering if the issue is actually going to make sense, things start coming together, and I experience that aha! moment magazine editors live for, when you can say for sure “We’ve got an issue.” In a good way.

This issue came together a little differently, thanks to the scheduling of our YMN Smart Business Conference right in the middle of the magazine-planning stage. (If you couldn’t make it to Chicago, read Smart Legal and Smart Communications and check out the photos at right for a taste of what you missed. BTW, the event was such a huge success that we’ve already started planning next year’s, so stay tuned for details.) The conference took so much of our attention and energy, both in its planning and at the event itself (to say nothing of recovering afterwards), that this issue got back-burnered in a way that is completely foreign to us. I knew we’d have issues with the issue (sorry) because of the timing, but eventually I did get that good “We have an issue” feeling—later than usual, admittedly, though I’m still amazed at how serendipitously things finally came together.

We didn’t plan a “How did we get here?” theme for this issue, but… “Transitions: Act II” is all about how many people find this industry as a second or even third career, usually by following their fiber bliss right into a yarn shop. Our fiber celeb, Candi Jensen, discovered her passion for yarn three decades ago and has stuck with it through thick and thin. Then there are those who come into this field the old-fashioned way—by inheritance. “All in the Family” takes a fascinating look at several yarn companies run by the second and sometimes third or fourth generation of the same family.

I’m so happy to have had the chance to spend time with you in Chicago, hearing your stories as you shared your passion for this industry. I look forward to seeing you and even more of your colleagues again at our next conference.

CONFERENCE CRAWL:
The intrepid attendees of March’s YMN Smart Business Conference rallied their energy for an afternoon of visits to Chicago yarn businesses, including My Sister’s Knits (1) and Lorna’s Laces (2, 3). We met Monika and Erika Simmons, authors of Double Stitch (Interweave Press), at Loopy Yarns (4) and saw canine styles from the book Doggie Knits (Sterling) by Corinne Niessner at Arcadia Knitting (5).