My Experiences with Knit Picks

I just wanted to take a moment to talk about the special love I have for Knit Picks. You always hear that when someone has a problem with a company - they'll tell everyone. When they get great service - they'll tell one person. Well, I'm here to tell everyone that I love Knit Picks, and not just for beautiful needles, affordable quality yarns, or that fancy catalogue they send me that makes my wallet cry.

What I love most about Knit Picks is their customer service. I've never bought from a company with such prompt, polite and understanding individuals on the other end of my customer service calls. In the past I've purchased many cables, needles, yarns and accessories from Knit Picks (and will continue to do so), although I have only ever had an issue three times - it was always handled without question. And without me having to send back an item, fill out some form, or sacrifice my first born.

My first experience with their customer service was 2 years ago - a giddy me had purchased the Harmony Interchangeable needle set. I got my set, was in love, and didn't pay attention to the cap on one of the cables, and it stripped the connection on my size 5 tips. I was sad. Very sad. My husband said "Well, try calling them." So, on a whim, I did. The kind woman who picked up said "Okay, well I'll get a new 32" cable and set of size 5 needles right out to you!" Since my first issue I've only had to call customer service twice more, but both times they handled my issues quickly and kindly, with no hassle on my end. It was this interaction, and confidence in who I was buying from, that has brought me back time and time again.

I've gone into yarn shops after buying a product the day before (realizing I grabbed what I thought were yarns from the same dye lot but were not, circulars with faulty connections, etc), and they wouldn't take returns. Or they told me to contact the manufacturer, who told me to contact the store, and it was a big run around.  I'm still going to go to my LYS for yarns that I need right now, or that Knit Picks doesn't carry, but for the things I can wait a few days for - I'm a KP customer all the way.

Note: I am in no way affiliated with Knit Picks, other than being a pleased customer. This post isn't an advertising ploy, and it's not lining my knitting basket with yarn.

On The Needles

Wow! It has been awhile since I've mosied over to my very own blog. I'm sorry guys... if any of you followers are left!

Life has been absolutely crazy for me lately. My husband and I have been handling his outprocessing, and getting me moved back home to Michigan while he's abroad. On top of that, we've been trying to get information on how to handle our move to Italy once his service overseas will be done. It's been a mess. But we did our best to enjoy this last years festivities together, as we won't be able to be together next Christmas.I also had a bad bought with the flu, and then a back injury during the holiday season, so I'm finally bouncing back from that.

And then (yes, there's more) my sister announced that she's 3 months pregnant with her first child. Being a dutiful sister and soon-to-be-Aunt, I, of course, have launched head first into tons and tons of baby knitting. The silver lining of all this baby knitting is that it's pushed me out of my "comfort zone" with my knitting. I seemed to have fallen into a hat, cowl and mitten slump and now I'm having to get back into doing all of that small circumference in-the-round work.

So, now that I'm done making excuses for my abcense, it's time to get back to the blogging! It will be nice for me to have something to be a bit of a distraction when the hubs does leave.

I have several WIP's going on right now (If you're new to knitting or crochet - a WIP is a "work in progress"), it's an illness really - I can't stop myself from casting on every pretty, or cute item that catches my eye or tickles my fancy.

The Inga Hat (Found here on Ravelry!), this hat has been an experience for me. Being that it's the first time I've done a pretty heavy piece of color work, and haven't had to frog back rows and rows of my work at a time (touch wood!), and I'm nearly finished. 

Fair warning, though, this sock pattern has been very frustrating for me. The directions have been rather vague and hard to follow, and I've found myself having to figure a lot of it out by trial and error (and way too much frogging for what should be a quick knit). Although it's entirely possible that this is a personal problem, and I'm a little more dense than I'd like to admit. For the brave, or the more talented, the sock pattern can be found here.

These gloves are being completely patterened by myself. I couldn't find a pattern on Ravelry that really fit my needs, or that my husband liked. So I decided to give it a go myself and see what I could come up with. When I finish, I'll most likely post the pattern here.

The last of the current WIPS, it's a baby towl for my sister, which will have a hood and be a frog when it's all wrapped up. 

And that's all she wrote, folks! I'll definitely be back with more tutorials soon! What are all of you working on?!

Allonsy

Of Sandpaper and Spray Paint

I've been getting into the idea of finding not-so-perfect but more than perfectly priced home decor, to then refinish and make beautiful again. Typically I wussed out.

Today, I finally made the steps towards a project like this. I got some not half bad floating shelves from my Airman's Attic, which means they were free. I thought, "I can put those in my bathroom!" My bathroom doesn't have nearly as much counter space as my husband's, but it has a tub... So I win. And because I do find myself in the predicament of being a female, I have about 100 too many products that clutter up my small bathroom. Having some small shelves would be a saving grace.

They weren't too beat up, or shockingly ugly, but I wanted them to be matte black. Queue the spray paint.

I would like to take time to say, that as someone who has very little experience with such things, I did purty darn good. I'm the daughter of a painter who's been in the business for longer than I've been on earth, but I somehow evaded all of his lessons through books and studying, and plain old laziness. 

But after a little love, this is what I ended up with.

So, the total cost for this project comes to: 

Shelves: I picked them up at the thrift store on my Air Force Base, so: $0.00 

Sandpaper: $1.99

Spray Paint: $3.99 (had it from previous project, too.) 

Grand Total: $6.00