Local Yarn Stores and Customer Service

Today I was disappointed with my local yarn stores. It may have just been a bad day for the clerks also, as we had 6 inches of snow drop last night, but I was ready to spend money and they didnâ€™t help.

I wanted a certain pattern for a sweater I saw online at the Brown Sheep Company. I had the required yarn because I bought it for a class, but this yarn wasnâ€™t right for the pattern we were using in the class. Now, I should have used this yarn as a credit on the material I did use in class, but I so loved this Lambâ€™s Pride Worsted and wanted to keep it.

So, I called two of my local stores and ask if they had this sweater pattern made by Brown Sheep Company.

No they did not have the pattern. So not what I wanted to hear.

End of conversation. What?

Neither store volunteered to order the pattern I wanted. Not what I expected from either store because they both usually have great customer service. A good yarn store earns customers by word of mouth as much as they do advertising.

I really wanted that pattern! So I called Brown Sheep Company and asked if they sold to individuals. NO, they didnâ€™t, but they did give me the name and number of a store that could help me. Ellen, of Needle Magic (1-877-922-0117) was highly recommended by the person at Brown Sheep. Ellen found the pattern, told me the required amount of yarn necessary, and took my billing and shipping info happily. She informed me that she works at the mill, but not for the mill and has access to all patterns and yarn that Brown Sheep carries. I will defiantly call Ellen again for more supplies.

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy, I canâ€™t wait to get the pattern to start using some of my stash.

And, I will also give my local yarn stores another chance at allowing me to spend more money with them. Must work hard to keep them open! LOL

I guess I must have had this pattern on my mind, because I had chosen this log cabin blanket recipe to write about, promptly forgot about it and a couple of weeks later started knitting a log cabin blanket using all my pink yarn.

It might stay pink if it makes it to baby blanket sized, or I might add in some pastel green and blue, too, to make a bigger blanket. We’ll see. I’m also holding several strands of yarn together to make a kind of bulky yarn, which means it’s deeply satisfying how much yarn is used even as the project is still relatively small.

In Kristen Finlay’s version, DK weight yarn scraps (or fingering/sock yarn held double) are used to make a simple scrappy log cabin blanket that’s lighter weight than my version. Log cabin is a great technique for knitters of any skill level because it’s worked in garter stitch. The only not completely basic technique you need for log cabin knitting is picking up stitches.

If you’ve never worked a log cabin knitting project before, this is a good introduction, and it is really nice to use all your yarn scraps in one big project you’ll use for years to come.

If you use a lot of DK weight yarn you can keep building on it whenever you finish a project, or if you use more worsted weight you can do the same thing with it, it will just be a little bigger starting out than the pattern calls for. How big it gets is totally up to you.

I have really been enjoying working on my log cabin project, and it’s my current sitting at my desk and need a break knit (do you have one of those or is it just me?).

Ready to start your own log cabin blanket knitting project? You can grab the free pattern from Kristen Finlay on Ravelry.

Need more log cabin inspiration? Check out more log cabin knitting patterns.

[Photo: Kristen Finlay]

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