TWO THINGS THAT BUG ME

There are two things that bug me about the way yarn is sold.  For socks I like to buy Paton's Kroy Sock yarn.  I like the feel, I like the way it washes and wears, I like the colours.  It comes in 50 gm balls, enough for one sock each.  So to make a pair you need to buy two balls.  I always check to make sure the colour number and the lot number match.  But sometimes the socks don't match, as we saw in the last pair I finished.  I planned to give them to our daughter in law, but they just weren't good enough.

So that's number one: sometimes there's an inconsistency in matching in the same colour way.

Number two:

I really, really wish that the manufacturers would tag the end of yarn at the middle of the ball.  Look at that mess!  I was trying to find the beginning of yarn in the centre of the ball.  It's so much better to pull the yarn from the centre and not have the ball jerking around as you knit, which is what happens when you start with the loose end on the outside of the ball.

If yarn comes in a skein, it's so much easier.  That is, if you have a yarn winder, which I do.  Remember how years and years ago you dragooned a family member into sitting with the skein around their wrists, so you could wind a ball from it.  Well, now we have yarn winders, and we can just wrap the skein around the back of a chair and go from there.  Come to think of it, when there were no willing family members, that's how I wound my yarn ball years ago.  (Plus, I had learned how to wind the ball so that the yarn pulled out from the middle, and wandering balls were avoided!)

And now I thought of a THIRD thing that bugs me when making socks.  I like the socks to have the colour changes at the same places.  But that means that each ball should start at the same spot in the colour changes of the yarn--and go in the same direction.  That is OFTEN not the case. 

I have resorted to rewinding yarn and trying to spot visually where they match, so that my socks will match.  Sometimes I come close.  Sometimes I hit it spot on.  But often, it just doesn't work.

Hey, that was a pretty big rant, wasn't it?  I wish the yarn companies would hear what I've said and actually make some changes.

Oh, and guess what?  I've thought of a FOURTH thing.  Have you ever experienced this: you buy what is supposedly a good ball of yarn and in winding it, or knitting from it, you discover it's full of broken threads, or knotted threads?  That happened to me once on a ball of bamboo yarn from Mary Maxim.  I took pictures and emailed them with the evidence.  They responded right away with an apology, and mailed me a free replacement.  That was GOOD customer care!