It’s lucky that I don’t make my socks very tall, because I weighed the Claudia Hand Painted yarn I’m using, and both skeins are only about 36g instead of the 50g it’s supposed to be sold in. I was surprised when I finished my sock today, because there was so little left over from the skein, and I really didn’t make it that tall. But I realized that knitting cables eats up more yarn, so out of curiosity, I weighed the sock. The sock weighs 25g, and the leftover ball weighs 10g. Further investigation showed that the second skein was only 36g. Like I said, it’s not a huge deal because I’ve got enough yarn for the socks, but… That’s just not right. When you pay $23 for 100g of yarn, you ought to be getting 100g of yarn, not 72g. It would have been even more unfortunate for someone who knit their socks toe-up and started with a 50g skein, knit up the entire ball, and then found that their second skein was only 36g - not nearly enough to finish the second sock. Just sayin’.

But it brings up an interesting point. There are tons of small-scale dyers out there, and while Claudia Hand Paints is not a teensy tiny Etsy-shop retailer, it’s also not as large-scale as Rowan or Berroco, or even other hand dyers like Koigu or Lorna’s Laces. How accountable are these small sellers? Do you take little inconsistencies and screw-ups like this as a small price to pay for having beautiful yarn? Or should they be more responsible? Should you call them on it? What do you do - take it back to your yarn store? Call the manufacturer? How far does the term “approximately” reach? Is 36g “approximately” 50g?

It’s sort of the same with my new Lantern Moon needles. The 2s in ebony and 1s in both blondewood and ebony are lovely - sturdy, strong, smooth, and beautiful. The 0s in ebony are only smooth and beautiful. I’m so afraid they’re going to snap at any minute. I would never consider doing cable work with them, and even some lace patterns would seem to be asking for trouble. But Lantern Moon is a small company. They’re not Plymouth or Clover. Do you accept a broken needle here and there as the price to pay for using beautiful, exotic needles? Or do you call them on it and demand that you receive a quality set of needles for the hefty cost you’ve paid for them? (Because let’s face it - the Sox Stix ain’t cheap, people.)

I know there’s a huge difference between hand-made stuff and mass-produced stuff. You have to expect some little quirks with hand-made stuff. But when you sell your hand-made stuff, I would think you would want to provide your customers with the best you can offer. This is part of what scares me about selling my hand-dyed yarn. I don’t have a yardage measuring device - I hand-wind the skeins off the cone, counting the number of turns of the swift, and then I weigh the skein as an added measure, just in case. But what if I messed up, and one of the skeins I sell is accidentally only 3oz instead of 3.5oz? What if my colors pool, and the sock the customer knits ends up ugly and unsatisfactory? What if there was a splice in the yarn that the manufacturer tied together and I missed? These things fall on my head. I don’t want to read someone’s blog and find them complaining that the yarn I sold them was unsatisfactory.

As a small business, can you afford to replace everything that’s not perfect? Your cost-revenue ratio is probably not terribly high, and you’re probably not making a fortune off your sales to begin with. But on the other hand, can you afford not to replace those items? Your customers are your bread and butter, and without them, you’d have no income. So what do you do?

Sorry for my rambling. It’s just something that’s been on my mind. All that said, I’m not angry that my sock yarn was short a few grams - I had plenty for the socks. And I’m not angry about the needles, either - Mom said she may take them back when she comes to visit and send them back to Lantern Moon for replacements. No one did this maliciously or on purpose - these things just happen. It’s just that I’ve spent such a long time working for a company whose customer service and return policy were about as close to nonexistent as you can get, because it was all about the bottom line. And it just makes me wonder, where exactly do you draw that bottom line?