There have been a couple of crafty news items in the past few days that I thought were worth noting for those of you who care about the crafty industry (which, if you buy yarn or knitting books or take online classes, you should care about).
Back on April 11, Jo-Ann Stores announced its acquisition of Creativebug, the online craft and DIY education site.
If you don’t know Creativebug, you should. It was founded in 2012 and now has more than 1,000 classes in all sorts of genres, from knitting and crochet to sewing and quilting, food and kids’ crafts. Some classes are all about techniques, while others walk you through a full project.
And Jo-Ann you probably already know as the nation’s largest craft retailer, with 850-plus stores in almost every state. Jo-Ann and Creativebug had already partnered on projects in the past, and Creativebug says the deal will open them to new audiences.
More specifically knitting related is the announcement that BlueGem, which owns the iconic British department store Liberty and had previously purchased French thread maker DMC, is now buying trendy knitting kit company Wool & the Gang. The company sells knitting and crochet kits, yarn and supplies.
It will be interesting to see what these changes mean for these businesses. We’ll no doubt see advertisements for Creativebug classes in Jo-Ann stores (and maybe kits of supplies to go with those classes), and the Wool & the Gang kits will probably be sold in Liberty. It’s always great to see wider audiences for crafting, so I think these announcements are good news. What do you think?
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