Also in June 1999 at TNNA, I was placed in the
embarrassing position of<br>learning that a design competition
had been held some months previously, in<br>which it
had been assumed I had been the judge. I knew
absolutely nothing<br>about it.<br>These are salient
illustrations of the chronic lack of information that
has<br>affected me since October 1998. A further major example is
the fact that I<br>have been denied yarn inventory
figures since June 1999 on the grounds that<br>these
figures were suddenly classed as "privileged
information". I do not<br>know the motivation behind this
decision. To compound matters further, I was<br>told by a
reliable source who felt I should know, that Unicorn were
planning<br>to launch a new yarn from Jamieson Spinning
(Shetland) Ltd - the same<br>manufacturer of the Shetland
yarn already in the range. This yarn was to<br>include
several exact colours from my range, but would not be
part of it.<br>Although it would ride on the back of
the Alice Starmore range, no royalties<br>would be
payable.<br>At this point it became obvious that the yarn
manufacturer and Unicorn had<br>their own private agenda from
which I was excluded, and it seemed that I<br>could no
longer do meaningful business with them. In order to
test this<br>hypothesis, I terminated the agreement
that I had with Jamieson Spinning<br>(Shetland) Ltd
for distribution in Europe, with the intention of
making new<br>arrangements in this territory. European
sales as reported to me only<br>amounted to £2,500 for
the whole of 1999, with a consequent royalty to me
of<br>£250, so if these figures were accurate, it was hardly
a vital part of the<br>Jamieson business. I took
this step on 12th January 2000. The response
came<br>in the form of a letter on 11th February 2000, in
which Jamieson Spinning<br>and Unicorn jointly
presented me with two demands that combined together
to<br>form an interesting logical syllogism.<br>1 Peter
Jamieson of Jamieson Spinning (Shetland) relayed the
threat that if<br>I used any other yarn but theirs,
anywhere in the world, not just in North<br>America, then
they would immediately suspend supplies to the entire
North<br>American operation.<br>2 In the same letter, Stephen
Denkin of Unicorn Books & Crafts, Inc.,<br>demanded the
addition of a new clause to our North American
distribution<br>agreement: "Should Jamieson Spinning (Shetland) suspend
shipments... Unicorn<br>shall have the right to cancel the
entire distribution agreement immediately<br>upon that
suspension... if this is not acceptable to you, this letter
serves<br>as notice of our withdrawal from the distribution
agreement between us."