Return of the Camera
The camera has been found! It is still unclear as to exactly where it was hiding, and a small person with sticky fingers was definitely involved somewhere, but as it has now come back I shall ask no further questions.
So, I have multi many things floating around my head and I have been doing muchos knitting too. I initially thought I'd do one huge blog post about everything, but have changed my mind. I'm too drunk to cope with that.
To begin with then, I have been doing sock knitting. Sock number one of this pair was knitted on the way home from Woolfest, and I made an almighty bodge of the heel, hence no heel close ups.
Despite this, I'm fairly happy with these. The yarn is from The Yarn Yard (bought at Woolfest, colourway unknown), and it is very nice to knit with. It has a smooshyness to it which I like, and I love the colours. The stripes match up pretty well, and this is totally coincidental - I made absolutely no effort to do this. The only complaint I have about these socks is entirely to do with my knitting of them. There is the naff heel, but I also think I knitted these too loosely. I used my 2.75mm Boyes needles and got 7.5 spi, and I think this yarn really needs to be knitted tighter than that. I'd happily use this yarn again, but next time would probably use a 2.25 needle to make a firmer fabric.
There are other FO's to share, but I'll be blogging regularly over the next few weeks so I'm not going to share them today. Instead, I'd like to ask for people's thoughts and reviews of online yarn shops. Just recently I've had some excellent customer service from some shops and some downright shocking service from others. I'm feeling quite magnanimous today and so shall not name names (yet), but wondered if other people had recommendations or lists of places to avoid like the plague?
So, I have multi many things floating around my head and I have been doing muchos knitting too. I initially thought I'd do one huge blog post about everything, but have changed my mind. I'm too drunk to cope with that.
To begin with then, I have been doing sock knitting. Sock number one of this pair was knitted on the way home from Woolfest, and I made an almighty bodge of the heel, hence no heel close ups.
Despite this, I'm fairly happy with these. The yarn is from The Yarn Yard (bought at Woolfest, colourway unknown), and it is very nice to knit with. It has a smooshyness to it which I like, and I love the colours. The stripes match up pretty well, and this is totally coincidental - I made absolutely no effort to do this. The only complaint I have about these socks is entirely to do with my knitting of them. There is the naff heel, but I also think I knitted these too loosely. I used my 2.75mm Boyes needles and got 7.5 spi, and I think this yarn really needs to be knitted tighter than that. I'd happily use this yarn again, but next time would probably use a 2.25 needle to make a firmer fabric.
There are other FO's to share, but I'll be blogging regularly over the next few weeks so I'm not going to share them today. Instead, I'd like to ask for people's thoughts and reviews of online yarn shops. Just recently I've had some excellent customer service from some shops and some downright shocking service from others. I'm feeling quite magnanimous today and so shall not name names (yet), but wondered if other people had recommendations or lists of places to avoid like the plague?
posted by Badger at 8:28 pm
16 Comments:
I believe you know my opinion of the place where I no longer shop. If something is out of stock I'd like to know. When my yarn hadn't arrived after three weeks I chased it only to find it was out of stock. I gave them a second chance and it happened again. I don't even look at their website anymore.
Good looking socks!
Jannette on ebay and Gill at the Woolly Workshop are my fave yarn sellers.
I've always had stunning service from GK, Woolly Workshop and this past week I ordered from MCA and it turned up within 24 hours. With GK when something is out of stock I've always had a phone call or an email that day to ask what I want to do with my order.
I have my magazine subs with P&M and would certainly recommend them to anyone. And I use Texere whenever I'm looking for awkward subs and they've not let me down yet.
GK is my favourite. I've never had anything but superb service from them and their product range is excellent. But I have tended to get surprisingly speedy delivery from tiny shops with dodgy looking websites.
There's one shop where I've had to chase up orders for other people because they can't get any response, but I'm not going to mention names because they're litigious and I don't want to get you in trouble.
Really lovely colours in those socks - it's a shame when you decide what you should have done after you've completed something. Aren't small sticky fingered people always involved when things go missing?! Mine loves my knitting bag and box of pins so I've no idea where my needle gauge is right now!! Your Swallowtail shawl is lovely as well - really great berry colour, very yummy!
Oh and I agree about P&M woolcrafts re subs - great! Plus MCA are really quick to deal with!
The socks look lovely, even if you aren't happy with 'em. I'll have 'em!
Good places to shop:
Woolly Workshop - fast service and Gill is really nice.
Get Knitted - fast service, again.
Cucumber Patch - fantastically cheap Rowan All Seasons Cotton in the sale and arrived in two days. Was very happy.
Angel Yarns have been great whenever I've ordered stuff. The BF had problems, but this may have had more to do with him making an order five days before Christmas. Doh!
Aileen at www.knitwool.co.uk ("Wool" in Stockport) is very good. Good advice on yarns and very prompt service. Shop is actually via Ebay.
Ooh, and Kemps are good. I think the shop is actually called E Kemp. They do phone orders and online too. Very cheap supply of Twilleys Freedom Spirit.
Very nice socks!
I like GK - they were very helpful in finding me the right fabric for Matilda Jane. Cucumber Patch is a good one too. I would put in a vote for Dragon Yarns, but even though the service is good, the website seems to be constantly broken.
I've never had out-and-out bad service from anywhere, but I've tended to stick with the places that have shown themselves to be worth returning to.
I think you're too kind in not naming names. If you've given them a chance tp put things right, they deserve to be called out.
Love the socks and how cool is the striping! :)
Shops I love:
Posh Yarn - absolutely brilliant customer service.
Get Knitted/Woolly Workshop - both great, and speedy delivery too.
Janette's is brilliant as is P&M.
There are only two online shops I wont order from, one due to very bad experiences and the other due to reputation/friend's experiences, but I wont name them here (but if you want to know, email me - I think you have my email address). :)
Great socks, glad you found the camera!
I love due to great service: Get Knitted, I Knit, Woolly Workshop, CucumberPatch, Dragon Yarns, ebays Jannette, The Knitterly in Aus.
There is one store I tried a few times and they never had what they said was in stock on their website, I never got an email to tell me it was out of stock. Other stores manage to keep stock levels updated without excuses on how expensive it is to have that type of software or at least email the same day. There is another smaller store that I like the yarns from but never order from now as communication is so hard and I had postal issues with. No names mentioned of course!
I would recommend many already mentioned in terms of service (though I suppose for hand-dyed yarn quality, as well as service, I'm stuck on Posh Yarn). GK, Woolly Workshop, SKD and Hipknits have all been really great when I've wanted to change my order/exchange goods.
The look great, btw, lovely colours. Come one, show us that heel!
... the socks, that is!
Love the socks, yarn yard is one of my favourites but since I'm on a strictly 'NO FIBRE' diet, I just have to keep stroking the skein in my sock stash drawer.
It must be great sitting in your little world handing out opinions. You've got no idea how hard it is to run a shop when people leave for no reason. It's not like these web pages just update themselves!
I'm anonymous and so is my shop!
Great socks, I like the colours a lot.
I mainly shop from GK, WW, janette and colinette. no problems really with any other online shops.
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