SuperSock This Week

The wait for the Wool2Dye4 SuperSock has not taught me any lessons in patience, sadly. It has been all I could do to control myself and not pester the supplier, but to learn to wait, instead. Actually, I have done a little pestering within the past few days. After the first call, I was excited to hear that the mill had my order ready to process. I just learned that my order is being shipped today and had been delayed because of the skeining process. So, the bad news is that this yarn is delayed two more days, and the good news is that it is actually being shipped to me today. It should arrive Thursday or Friday, and I can immediately begin to fill the backorders from my customers who have shown more patience than I have.

I know that yarn is not one of the necessities in life, though some of my customers would be hard put to admit this. I know we don't need our yarn; we just want it.

During the wait to stock the Wool2Dye4 SuperSock again, I have been surprised at my customers' reactions. Some were involved in the recent Dye-O-Rama yarn swap and did have a deadline. Some just wanted their sock yarn! Others were fairly laid back about the entire thing. I wrote a note to everyone -- and that was a lot of people -- offering the subsitute of Kona Fingering for the Wool2Dye4 SuperSock. Most people took me up on the substitution; several chose Kona Superwash instead. Of those who took the subtitution, several wrote back to say that the Kona Fingering was just a bit too thin for their sock knitting preference. Many had been knitting with the SuperSock and immediately put in a backorder and chose to wait for the stock replenishment.

The recent internet swaps may have introduced sock knitting to many knitters, some of them new knitters. People wrote asking my advice on the yarn they should choose, which is always a difficult question to answer. There are so many possibilities and combinations of yarn with needles, pattern with knitting experience, etc. that I can only tell them what I've got, how people use it, and leave the decision up to them. Over the past three weeks, I wound up with several dissatisfied customers. During this time, three people wanted to trade their yarn, something that has never happened before and is a little awkward for me. I know how I protect the yarn while it is in my care, but I don't know what happens to it on the other end.

I can't make everyone happy, I know that. It's just that I have been pretty successful at making my customers happy until this stock thing hit me. We Southerners do not like to be the cause of inconvenience or to make waves, and being a true Southerner at heart, I have been uncomfortable with the wait.