Yarn balls, that is. I finished dyeing the second cone of ugly pistachio silk yarn yesterday and starting rolling the first hanks into balls last night. Can I just say I’m loving this color?

My next dyeing project? That fugly drab olive wool from Uruguay. The online seller promised forest green. Not sure which forest this green came from, but it’s not a forest I’m familiar with. It’ll be interesting to see what over-dyeing will do to that color since it’s a bit dark already.

I purchased this 100% silk yarn from colourmart in pistachio.

Very much not my color. But I bought it intending to try over-dyeing using the crock pot method. I found a cheap 5 qt crock pot on eBay, purchased some Jacquard acid dyes and a few other necessary utensils and set to it. I ended up doing two dye baths to cover up some of the spots that didn’t dye quite evenly the first time around. Mainly where I had tied yarn to keep the hank nice and neat.

The results? Well take a look…

It’s a lovely deep teal color. The photo doesn’t do it justice. It has a lovely depth of tone and overall, I’m fairly pleased with my first yarn dyeing experience. The yarn is still slightly wet in the photo. I’ll have to post an update once it’s dry and I’ve wound it into neat balls.

Steven: Sigh… I think the pistachio is a much prettier color…

So Rowan has this perfectly lovely little yarn called Tapestry. I especially like their Moorland color - soft creams and pale blues - and was picturing it as a soft, yummy scarf for yours truly. So when I found it at a good price at Now and Zen online, I snapped it up.

I came home last night, all excited about opening up my box of yarn - oohing over the softness and aahing over the colors. So you can imagine my disappointment when I opened the box to find the wrong color. Instead of sending me Moorland as ordered, I received Highland - a dusky purple. Anyone who knows me, knows that pinks and purples are at the absolute bottom of my list colorwise. I left those colors behind when I was about six.

So I sent the following email:

Hi Christine -
I received my yarn order this afternoon (minus the promised pattern, by the way), but you’ve sent me the wrong colorway. I ordered Rowan Tapestry in Moorland (blue and cream) and you’ve sent me Highland (dusky pinky purple). While the yarn is lovely, I have a project planned for Moorland and would like to return the Highland yarn to you.

Thank you

I’ve had some pretty bad experiences with customer service in the past, so here I was, fully prepared to do battle with someone who could really care less about what they did or did not send me. But then I received the following response:

Dear Sarah;

Now and Zen Yarns

Ok, I thought. Fair enough. This is better than I was expecting - I can have a refund minus any fuss. But then she emailed me again:

Hi again Sarah;

Best Wishes,
Now and Zen Yarns

What? Really? I can’t remember the last time in my experience that customer service 1) owned up to a mistake, 2) offered reasonable restitution, and then 3) offered restitution above and beyond what was expected. You mean there are people out there who care what you think even if you’re on opposite coasts? There is such a thing as good customer service?

So I emailed:

Wow. It’s really unfortunate that good customer service is so hard to come by these days, so that when it happens, I’m blown away by it. I truly appreciate your offer of letting me keep the yarn without charge, but I wouldn’t feel right doing so. Especially since you’re going out of your way to keep me a happy consumer. Please consider the order filled. I will keep the yarn, but there’s no need to refund the charge to my card. I will set Highland aside for some future project and track down Moorland for my planned project.

PS - I’m glad that your yarn shop is doing so well online.

I figure mom likes purple-y things. I just won’t use the yarn for myself.

NWA - perhaps you could learn something from Christine at Now and Zen about how customers should be treated? Just a thought…

Guess what finally made an appearance after nearly four weeks of waiting?

None other than 100% mulberry silk from India. This fiber is so foreign, it’s fibre. (Boooo…) It’s unbelievably soft and although there’s some plant detritus for me to remove, totally worth the wait. It is scheduled for a dye job. I just can’t decide what color it’s longing to be.

And in spite of the healing tennis elbow (slowly but surely) I’ve been sneaking in a few rows of this now and then.

Is that a pumpkin cozy you ask? No. It’s my first official cable knit project. A scarf for myself from cheap-o acrylic yarn in case I messed up. Somehow it’s less frustrating to mess up with $3 skeins of acrylic yarn than it is with $12 skeins of merino wool.