Yarn shopping in the 21st century

Although there aren't a lot of bricks-and-mortar yarn stores in Sydney, and those there are don't have a huge range of stock (which is to expected, given the size of the knitting market here), it shouldn't be that difficult to get yarn. There are thousands of yarn stores on the knitternet. You see a yarn you like, you get online and order it. It should zoom into your postbox days to weeks later, no sweat. But complications, it seems, abound.

I have been on the hunt for replacement yarns for my Transatlantic shawl (see last post). It's been so much admired and complements my wardrobe so well that I want another the same. The green was easy; the multi-coloured one not so easy. It is, in the way of yarn, discontinued - which is probably why I had been able to get it on special about a year ago. I put in an order for a skein from the only US shop that claimed to have it, only to awaken the next morning to an email telling me that they had lied and didn't actually have it in stock, wouldn't be getting it in stock, and had therefore cancelled my order.

But the magic that is ravelry has come through for me again. A sweet woman in Florida had some in her stash that she didn't want, and sold it to me for a very reasonable price, with minimum postage - the whole thing cost about half what it would have cost from the store that didn't stock it. So I will be able to make another shawl for next winter. And of course, serendipitously, I had in the meantime bought another skein in the wrong colour (well, it's hard to tell online exactly what colour variegated yarns are, and of course I'd lost the tag, so I had to guess. Good story, huh?). It's the most wonderful toffee caramel butterscotch colour - oh here, let me show you - and it sits quite beautifully with the precious deeply saturated orange skein of Collinette Jitterbug that Emily and Clare gave me for my 60th. Precious, because, in the way of yarns, the recent batches of this colour are about half the saturation and not nearly as lovely. I know this because I excitedly ordered more from Sarah Durrant, only to be disappointed when they arrived with a note from her apologising for the wishy-washy colours, and offering to take them back if they didn't suit. So I returned them, thinking the universe was telling me that I didn't need a deep orange cardigan anyway.

Where was I? Oh, yes, the toffee/caramel/butterscoth skein? Perfect with the orange. So another Stephen West shawl in the future.

I find it interesting that everything appears to be so easily available on the internet - just a click or two away - and yet, often we return to the old community mores of helping each other out, just on an international scale and with strangers. Is it that we can't bear to not have something, so we have to go scrounging for it?

Sandra is away this week - her mother in Brisbane is celebrating her 90th birthday in good health, and Sandra is helping out, ferrying her around, taking her out for lunches with her friends and making up for the fact that we will be spending Christmas here in Sydney for the first time in three years. Her mother has made other plans this year, involving Sandra's brother - she's not entirely happy about that but she'll survive. We haven't quite got our heads round it yet, but if you're going to be in Sydney over Christmas we are hoping to have a few barbeque events. Once we've bought a barbeque.

Comments

[Bonitoclub]

Well done! It's always a bit of a gamble, ordering yarn online, whether it turns out not to be the colour you expected, or it just isn't what you had hoped it might be. I have had some pleasant surprises, such as the Cascade Eco "Turtle" that I thought would be a neutral but arrived as a soft heathered green. Nasty surprises too... Rowan Summer Tweed "Sprig", a deservedly discontinued colour which I stashed away so well that I now cannot find it. ~ tony

[Emily Dibdin]

I'm going to the Colinette mill-shop on Friday - want me to look????? (Does look good with the gold, though, and would be a very 'you' shawl.

I'm sure it will be lovely for you both to have Xmas together in your on place. x

[M-H]

Don't worry, Emily, I have two more cardigans planned with my birthday yarn for next winter. I don't need any more.