Sarah's Yarns

A Summary of Garment Blocking Tips

2008-03-02T19:01:00.000-08:00

We would like to offer a brief, and hopefully useful, summary of blocking tips. This post focuses on the yarn lines that we carry because those are the ones that we are most experienced with, but I am sure that you can use these tips on other yarn lines as well. I will do my best to show you pictures as soon as we get a chance, and I’m sure this post will go through several edits.

I confess, blocking is my least favorite activity and from speaking to our customers, I can see that I am not alone … nevertheless, I am convinced that swatching – and blocking – are necessary evils so that you can make sure that your finished garments fit-to-size and meet your expectations. I have found this to be the case for hand and machine knit garments, as well as for crochet projects, which are the types of projects where I have experience. Wouldn’t it be awful if you invested your time into making a garment, only to find that it didn’t meet your intended objectives because of the wrong long term care, or because it wasn’t blocked properly to begin with?

Once you gain experience working with a given fiber and with blocking, it turns out to be fairly automatic (albeit still tedious).

Before working on a project, it is useful to decide how the finished garment will be cared for over the long run: will it be hand or machine washed, or dry cleaned? This will provide insights into how to block the garment before joining the various pieces, or if you are working on a lace scarf or shawl, to set the shape and lace details in place. And I can’t stress this enough: before you embark on a project, it is always worth your time to make and block a good-sized swatch. The experience that you will gain during this process will not only make you an expert in working with your choice of fiber, it will yield consistent finished garment results. After all, you need to pin down your finished garment gauge results, in your own "working hand," to make sure that they meet your tastes and garment requirements.

Blocking Materials

Over the years I’ve tried a variety of different blocking materials, and here is a summary of the ones that I have found most practical and thus use today:

Blocking frame

After years of fiddling with a series of commercial offerings (and then auctioning them off on eBay), one day about three years ago I finally walked down to Pratt Institute, located in Brooklyn, NY. They have a large offering of art and design courses, a marvelous art supply store, and best of all, they are located just a few blocks away from Sarah’s Yarns. I bought their largest Canvas frame kit and one of their large packages of duck material that was big enough to cover the frame. When I returned, I assembled the frame and hand-stapled the duck material to it very taught while making sure that the duck threads were “straight,” which is very useful as a visual cue during blocking (at least for me).

Now here is the most useful thing I did: every six (6) inches down each of the sides of “blocking side” of the frame, I hammered-in a series of 3/8”diameter, 2-inch long nails. This is useful in order to “anchor” the fishing nylon or other strong, cost-effective thread that you can use to thread through the edges of garments in order to obtain clean, straight edges (description below).

My personal blocking frame is really big, no doubt, and here in New York City we all have space problems. But I can store it by standing it up behind one of our storage racks and then when I need to block something I can just pull it out and it is ready-to-go … and it is light.

2-inch Stainless Steel T-Pins

You can buy these at any sewing notions shop. I have been ordering notions at a pretty good price for years from Atlanta Thread and Supply. Their prices and delivery times are reasonable. I use these primarily to set in curved sides like armholes or necklines, or lace and other scalloped edges.

Tapestry needles

I recommend that you should have these in various thicknesses and lengths to meet several garment gauge requirements.

Fishing Nylon or a 100% Nylon Sewing Thread (for very thin-gauge delicate lace garments)

Over the years I’ve blocked using T-pins only – and then I wanted a faster method to get “straight edges really straight.” I tried a number of different blocking wire sets, but here’s what I didn’t like about them:

More often then not, the wires left an unsightly and sometimes permanent “residue” on my garments if they were being wet-blocked. Now I didn’t want to invest all that time making a lace heirloom garment – only to have it ruined right-at-the-end.

Even when I used floral wires or the Home Depot stainless-steel wires, which do not leave a residue, the straight edges of the garments were never “perfectly straight.” They were straight when viewed strictly from the top, but depending on how you threaded the wires through the edges, you could wind up with a “wavy effect” that was obvious to me when viewing the garment sideways or at an angle. Some people don’t mind this effect, but alas, my nature dictates otherwise.

I like doing things quickly.

I think I have found the perfect solution, at least for my tastes: I use a tapestry needle in a size that meets the “garment gauge” and thread either fishing nylon or 100% nylon sewing thread through the straight edges of the garment, depending on the garment type (fine gauge or bulkier), and then anchor the nylon in place using the nails that I hammered into the frame. Nylon is slippery, but if you use an “8” anchor method across two sets of nails, or some of the knotting techniques used by fishermen (my grandfather taught me a few when I was fishing with him as a little girl), you will obtain reliable results.

I always verify that the straight edges are really straight by using a carpenter’s level that I can anchor temporarily with the aid of the symmetrical sets of nails on all sides of the blocking frame. At the moment I don’t know anybody else who is this picky, but as I’ve grown older my eyes just don’t work the same, so I feel compelled to use all the help I can get … aside from my reading glasses, which keep increasing in diopters.

Spray Bottle

Available at many places, and very useful for a variety of blocking applications.

Steam Iron … Or A Steamer

If you aren’t wet-blocking and need to use steam, you’ll need one of these. The advantage of a steamer is that some of them come with attachments of varying sizes, which is helpful if you are trying to localize the steam as you steam-and-block your garment. Years ago I bought a Eureka Enviro-Steamer which turned out to be really useful for all sorts of chemical-free (and very fast) house cleaning projects – especially in bathrooms, and in the dreaded kitchen. I did a Google search and found a model called the Eureka 370A Enviro-Steamer that seems to be the equivalent to what I have. I’m sure there are other steamers available that are made by other manufacturers and that are perfectly suitable.

Blocking Methods

Wet Blocking

I prefer to wet-block my finished swatches and garments almost all-the-time. Please understand, however, that since we are in the business of buying and selling yarns, we are constantly running quality assurance trials for many reasons, especially to test color-bleading, and especially in yarn lines labeled as “superwash.” If you intend to dry-clean your garments only, then you can use the Steam Blocking or the Spray Bottle blocking methods.

I humbly believe that wet blocking enables you to set garment dimensions and shaping best. The other nice thing about wet blocking is that as you work on a garment, it is inevitable for dust and/or residues from your hands to “get stuck” or “rub-off” on the fibers of your garment. When you wet-block a garment these are eliminated and your blocked and finished garment will be ready-to-use (or give away as a gift).

Wet-blocking involves the following basic steps:

Soak the garment in a diluted solution of a very mild agent (like Woolite, Ivory Snow, Eucelan … or Shampoo). Proportions of agent-to-water depends on the agent used.
Rinse gently. Eucelan is a no-rinse wash, but I always rinse it out anyway because I’m always worried about the very sensitive skin that one of my children has.
Depending on the type of fiber, you might like to soak the garment pieces in a diluted solution of fabric softener (I use hair conditioner for wools, cashmeres and kid mohair silk because they come out silky-soft).
Final, gentle rinse
Lay each garment piece on a towel, and then roll to soak out the excess moisture gently
If the fiber type supports machine-washing, then machine-wash instead of the above steps (make sure that you tried this on a swatch prior to starting on your project to properly determine your finished project gauge).
Block-and-set the garment pieces using your T-pins and/or nylon threads (or blocking wires)
If you have the space to lie your blocking frame out “flat,” then you can just wait until the garment pieces are dry. Otherwise, I keep rotating the blocking frame every 1 to 2 hours to make sure the pieces will dry symmetrically … but then New York City has a fairly high humidity level.
After drying-and-joining, you might want to steam out any wrinkles … if you are using an iron, do not lay the iron directly on the fibers because depending on the fiber they could felt. Another option is to hang the garment in the bathroom, turn on the shower to let out the hottest water possible, close the door, and come back in about 10 minutes. By the way, I use this method for quick-ironing jobs for my children as well!

Steam Blocking

Steam blocking is much simpler then wet-blocking, of course:

Pin and/or thread-and-anchor your garment pieces to size, and

Steam to set the shape

If you are using a steam iron, steam from about 4 to 6 inches from the garment to avoid felting

Or you can steam your garment pieces as you pin and/or thread them in place to make them more “malleable,” but be careful not to burn yourself and not to overstretch the pieces … unless you are working with lace scarves and shawls, in which case stretching is desirable, but not too much ...

Then just wait a couple of hours or until the garment is dry and then it is ready for joining, or in the case of scarves and/or lace shawls, you are done.

Spray-Bottle Blocking

If you have decided that your finished garment will be dry-clean only, then this is the easiest method. Much like steam-blocking except that you don’t have to worry about getting burned:

Pin and/or thread-and-anchor your garment pieces to size, and

Use the spray bottle to moisturize lightly to set the shape

Or you can use the spray bottle on your garment pieces as you pin and/or thread them in place to make them more “malleable” if you find this easier. Then just wait until the garment is dry and then you can join the pieces, or in the case of scarves and lace shawls, you are done.

Recommended Blocking Methods For Several Yarn Lines

The recommendations below apply to some of the yarn lines offered by Sarah's Yarns. Click on any yarn line to view details.

Classic Elite Provence 100% Mercerized Egyptian Cotton

Wet block, hand washing

JaggerSpun Heather Lines

Wet block, hand washing, hair conditioner before the final rinse will yield very soft results.

JaggerSpun Maine Lines

Wet block, hand washing, hair conditioner before the final rinse will yield very soft results.

JaggerSpun Super Fine Merino 2/18 Lace Weight

Wet block, hand washing, hair conditioner before the final rinse will yield very soft results.

JaggerSpun Super Lamb 100% Merino Superwash

Wet block, but the washing takes place in the washing machine at normal cycle, cold water.

JaggerSpun Zephyr 2/18 wool-silk lace weight

Wet block, hand washing, even though I prefer to dry clean garments made from this fiber.

JaggerSpun Zephyr DK 4/8 weight wool-silk

Wet block, hand washing, even though I prefer to dry clean garments made from this fiber.

Mission Falls 100% Superwash Cotton

Wet block, but the washing takes place in the washing machine at normal cycle, cold water.

Mission Falls 1824 Superwash Wools

Wet block, but the washing takes place in the washing machine at normal cycle, cold water.

Punta Del Este Yarns, Montoya Beach 100% Lace Weight Linen

Wet block, but the washing takes place in the washing machine at normal cycle, cold water. This fiber is very sturdy, and it softens and becomes drapier after washed.

SY 100% Bamboo

Wet block, hand washing

SY Superwash Superfine Merino Bamboo Silk Blend

Wet block, but the washing takes place in the washing machine at normal cycle, cold water.

SY 100% Organic Cotton

Wet block, but the washing takes place in the washing machine at delicate cycle, cold water.

SY 100% Silks, both DK and Worsted Weight

Steam block, and I always dry-clean these garments to ensure that the silk sheen endures.

SY 45% Mongolian Cashmere/55% Silks

Steam block, and I always dry-clean these garments to ensure that the silk sheen endures.

SY Kid Mohair Silk

Wet block, hand washing, I use hair conditioner before the final rinse and then rinse it out. The resulting garments are silky-soft. Some of our customers prefer to spray-water block. I choose to dry-clean these garments over the long-run.

SY 100% Mongolian Cashmeres, 2-Ply Fingering and 4-Ply DK

Wet block, hand washing, hair conditioner before the final rinse will yield very soft results.

SY Cashmerino (20% Mongolian Cashmere, 80% Superfine Merino Blend)

Wet block, hand washing, hair conditioner before the final rinse will yield very soft results.

Please feel free to contribute your comments!

Consider Bamboo

2007-05-15T12:17:00.000-07:00

Bamboo fibers are made from the cellulose found in Bamboo stalks. When this cellulose is broken down and processed, superfine strands of fiber can be obtained. These fibers can be spun into yarns made up of either one to many intertwining plies, or single-ply strands knitted into a length of circular tube – our favorites as these have the greatest durability, drape, sheen and elasticity in finished garments.

Bamboo is a renewable resource that can grow without the use of pesticides. The fiber structure has microscopic holes that wick away moisture and facilitate its evaporation, making bamboo an extremely comfortable fabric for warm-weather climates. These same qualities offer natural insulation as well … we think of Bamboo fabrics as the naturally-occurring versions of “Gortex.” Bamboo has natural antibacterial and non-allergenic qualities that remain in the fabric even after many washes – ideal for socks and children’s wear.

Bamboo yarns have a lovely sheen and a beautiful drape, and are very similar to viscose rayon (also plant-derived). Bamboo yarns absorb dyes easily, and the dyes reflect back brilliantly. Fabrics made with bamboo yarns remind us of silk, but are far less expensive.

We carry 100% natural fiber yarns. Therefore, we have been studying Bamboo yarns and so far, we like what we see …

Sincerely,

Sarah Siegel

Color Cards and “Samples for Swatching”

2007-04-26T06:59:00.000-07:00

In order to help our customers make better purchasing decisions, color cards for any of the yarn lines that we carry can be included with your order free-of-charge. These can either be requested upon checkout, or you may indicate which color cards you would like to receive in the “message” section of the order page.

On the other hand, if you purchase color cards from us, these purchases are applied as a credit towards your next purchase.

We recently implemented our “Try Before You Buy” program, for a limited time. This program enables you to request yarn in amounts large enough to make a swatch of at least 4 inches by 4 inches in size for most, if not all, of the yarn lines that we carry. These samples are also useful for yarn dyers. You pay only for S&H. The colors that you receive in the samples that you request depend on availability. Not all yarn lines may be available as part of this program – this depends on availability. We will include the color card(s) for any yarn sample(s) that you request with your order.

We hope these programs help us provide better customer service, and help you with your future yarn purchases.

Sincerely,

Sarah Siegel

Why We Phased Out Of Artyarns Luxury Hand-Painted Yarns

2007-04-23T18:56:00.000-07:00

I have been asked by many of our customers why we phased out of the Artyarns yarn lines and have been reallocating our resources to bring in new, different lines, and to expand our current yarn lines.

Artyarns, located in White Plains, NY, imports source yarns primarily from Italy and Japan, which they in turn dye in order to produce very nice variegated-type yarns. I was invited to visit Artyarns on several occasions. I was honored by being invited over to the Artyarns’ owner’s breathtakingly luxurious and exquisite 3-story home on several occasions as well. And I will be forever grateful to Mr. Elliot Schreier, one of the owners of Artyarns, for all of the business advice and information that he provided me with.

While Artyarns yarn lines are very nice, we considered some key business factors, which I discussed with Mr. Schreier, and made strategic decisions.

The most compelling factor was that we developed a customer base through our wholesale venue made up of very nice people who hand-paint luxury yarns for resale. I came to understand that these luxury, hand-painted yarns are produced by these fiber artists in small batches, which are not only beautiful, but also unique. Since we are loyal to our customers first-and-foremost, over time I realized that carrying mass-produced “luxury hand-painted yarns” was in effect a conflict of interests as we were creating competition for our own customers.

The inventory cost-of-carry, exposure and risk of Artyarns products are too high in order for us to operate within our business model and standards of customer service. Based on my tours of Artyarns and conversations with Mr. Schreier, Artyarns schedules the dyeing of their yarns “by color,” each week. Apparently, Artyarns cycles through dyeing all of the yarn lines ordered by their customers in “color order.” There are no lot numbers for Artyarns yarns. But if one keeps track of the date when a given batch of yarn was shipped from Artyarns, this information correlates a “lot number” for that batch. Thus, we had to keep track in our database not only the dates when each batch from each yarn line color was received, but also of the bin location in order for us to ensure that our customers would receive yarns in their order that were equivalently dyed and that yielded consistent results in their finished knit garments. This administrative overhead would add to our inventory cost-of-carry over time. However, we saw the greater cost-of-carry, exposure and risk problems when we analyzed the following scenario: if Mr. Green places an order with us for twelve (12) skeins of Artyarns Supermerino in color XYZ, we must verify that all twelve (12) skeins are from the same “lot number” in order to properly ensure that Mr. Green would be able to achieve predictable and consistent results in his finished project. But if we have ten (10) batches of Artyarns in the Supermerino line in color XYZ, each shipped to us on different dates, and each containing only eleven (11) skeins at the time that Mr. Green places his order, then we would have to tell Mr. Green what our situation is and therefore we would most likely not be able to fulfill Mr. Green’s order. As we thought about this scenario, we realized that over time we would be at risk of becoming stuck with a lot of excess small-number-of-skeins inventory from different “lot numbers” that would be very difficult to sell, and which would require a lot of organization and space.

The most frequent question that we were asked by our customers regarding the busy color ways that are prevalent in the variegated Artyarns yarn lines was: “What will the finished garment look like when knit up?” Artyarns has a very nice pattern library with pictures of garments knit using their yarns, and a couple of books written by Ms. Iris Schreier with even more pictures. However, we would have had to make a monumental investment in order to continue to promote Artyarns products if we were to produce our own swatches out of our inventory.

Since we do not have a retail LYS location, we offer color cards for all of the yarn lines that we carry so that our customers can see the actual yarns and colors, and take the time to decide before making their purchases. Artyarns does not produce color cards in the same manner as some of our other suppliers, most notably, JaggerSpun. By the way, JaggerSpun's color cards are the most cost-effective that we have come across. Given the nature of variegated color ways, we realized that our investment in labor and time for Artyarns color card production would simply have been too high for our business model.

Since we had just started carrying Artyarns lines during the early Fall Season of 2006, all of our Artyarns purchases had been recent and we had a great deal of inventory from within the same “lot numbers.” So now was the right time to phase out of the Artyarns product lines and move on.

Sincerely,

Sarah Siegel

On Yarn Weights and Counts

2007-04-23T08:54:00.000-07:00

Many of our customers have told us that they do not understand what quoted thicknesses of 2/18, 3/8, etc. actually mean. Therefore, I will attempt to clarify these measures, which we consider are very important in order for fiber artist to be able to gauge yarn thickness and desired garment production results.

For starters, when you see a yarn quoted in 1/8, 2/18, 3/8, etc., this means 1/8 nm, 2/18 nm, 3/8 nm, etc.

In the metric system, the standard that we refer to is as follows:

one (1) nm equals 1,000 meters of yarn per kilogram (1,000 m/kg), regardless of the underlying yarn fiber. This standard means that a 1 nm yarn will contain 1,000 meters per kilogram, or 50 meters per 50 grams.

Therefore, a 1/8 nm yarn, referred to simply as “1/8,” tells you that the yarn has been spun 8 times longer than the standard, and is therefore thinner or finer. You will get 8,000 meters per kilogram if you use a “1/8” yarn.

Taking a look at the “1/8,” “2/8,” “3/8” nomenclature, note that the number in the “numerator” portion of this nomenclature (e.g., the “1” in the “1/8”) always indicates the number of plies in the yarn in question. Therefore, a “1/8” yarn has one ply; a “2/8” yarn has 2 plies, and so forth.

To unravel this further, a “2/8” yarn indicates a yarn that was spun to 8,000 meters per kilogram, but then it was spun into 2 plies, and so the resulting yarn will have 4,000 meters/kilogram. A “3/8” yarn will have 2,666 meters/kilogram.

For those of us who are used to dealing in terms of “Sport Weight,” “Fingering Weight,” etc., here is some useful information, going in order of the “thinnest” yarns to the “thickest:”

A 2/24 weight yarn has approximately 5.960 yards per pound, and is a “lace weight” yarn. Excellent choice for all manner of exquisite lace work, weaving, machine knitting garments with professional results, crochet, etc.

A 2/20 weight yarn has approximately 5,600 yards per pound, and is a “lace weight” yarn. Great for all manner of exquisite lace work, weaving, machine knitting professional-looking garments, crochet, etc.

A 2/18 weight yarn has approximately 5,040 yards per pound, and is a “lace weight” yarn. Again, this weight is wonderful for all manner of exquisite lace work, weaving, machine knitting professional-looking garments, crochet, etc

A 2/8 weight yarn has approximately 2,240 yards per pound and is approximately a “fingering weight” yarn. These yarns offer great versatility for a number of applications.

A 3/8 weight yarn has approximately 1,490 yards per pound and is approximately a “sport weight” yarn. These yarns fall into the category of “DK” weight yarns, and offer great versatility, yield most professional results for hand-knitters, and can be used by all fiber artists.

A 4/8 weight yarn has approximately 1,120 yards per pound and is a “DK” weight yarn. Hand-knitters will find that these yarns will yield the most cost-effective, stunning results for their projects, and they can be used by all fiber artists as well.

We recently implemented the “Try Before You Buy” promotional program to enable any fiber artist to request our yarns for free in a large enough quantity to be able to produce a swatch of at least 4 inches x 4 inches in size, while paying only for shipping-and-handling. We hope that this program will enable all manner of fiber artists to gauge whether or not investing in a particular yarn will be worth their while.

All the best!

Sincerely,

Sarah Siegel

Our Yarn Collection

2007-03-30T01:02:00.000-07:00

We are proud to offer a unique collection of luxury yarns manufactured under the highest quality standards.

Classic Elite

Classic Elite Provence: Egyptian cotton is the world’s finest and most luxurious cotton, and this yarn is perfect for all warmer weather projects as well as for year-round use. This yarn has a nice sheen and a lovely drape, which makes it perfect for just about any garment.

JaggerSpun Yarns

JaggerSpun, located in Springvale, Maine, produces classic, world renowned natural yarns for knitters, weavers, yarn dyers and other fiber artists. JaggerSpun’s yarns are unparalleled in their color and textural consistencies and are available in highly acclaimed color palettes.

Zephyr Wool-Silk: a line that truly stands apart from all others. These are beautiful yarns, with a unique combination of natural fibers that provides their lightweight and lustrous characteristics. Equal percentages of fine Merino wool and Chinese Tussah silk are joined to create a truly elegant yarn. The resulting garments have a lovely sheen and a beautiful drape. Available in both 2/18 lace weight, and in 4/8 DK weight.

Super Fine Merino:
made from super fine grade 100% Australian Merino Wool. It is a soft, very elegant yarn that has been used traditionally to create garments of the highest quality.
So soft it almost feels like cashmere, and with it's elegant drape and luster it is an excellent choice for those who are looking for a top quality 100% wool yarn. Available in 2/18 lace weight.

Super Lamb: a 100% fine grade Merino Lambswool made from Superwash treated Merino Lambswool. This yarn offers the best of both worlds — the special qualities of worsted spun wool combined with the convenience of being able to machine wash and dry without fading or shrinking. Available in 2/24 lace weight.

Heather: a top-dyed worsted spun wool yarn. The beautiful heather effect is created by blending together many different shades to achieve each unique yarn color. The resulting garments have a beautiful "tweed" look. Very nice! Available in 2/8 and 3/8 weights.

The Maine Line: a worsted weight yarn long a favorite in the commercial sweater market. This versatile yarn can be used successfully for hand and machine knitting, weaving, crochet, and a variety of other fiber arts. Available in 2/20, 2/8 and 3/8 weights.

Mission Falls Yarns

Mission Falls 1824 100% Cotton: The shades of 1824 Cotton are inspiring, stylish and versatile. This line’s sophisticated color palette lends itself well to both adults and young ones. The subtle textures and gauge (18 sts and 24 rows on US size 7 needles) makes it a very easy 100% cotton to work with. And ... it is machine wash and dry!

Punta Del Este Yarns

Punta Del Este Yarns Montoya Beach 100% Lace Weight Linen (2-Ply). Exquisite, 100% pure, naturally processed and dyed linen with a lovely sheen and beautiful drape. Available in an elegant color palette. Use with confidence for hand and machine knitting, weaving, crochet, tatting and all manner of fine lace work.

Sarah's Yarns

100% Pure Luxury DK (4-ply) Mongolian Cashmere: this lovely cashmere has an incomparably silky-soft texture. Very easy to work with, and will show your work off beautifully. The nicest thing about Cashmere is that it is very warm, yet very light and soft – and it gets softer as you wash it.

100% Pure Luxury (2-ply) Mongolian Cashmere: this is the same lovely cashmere as our DK (4-ply), but in 2-ply, approximately fingering weight. Highly versatile for lovely lacey garments.

20% Mongolian Cashmere/80% Super Fine Grade Merino Blend: This yarn offers the best of both of these beautiful natural fibers yielding luxurious, feather-light garments that are a pleasure to wear against the skin.

45% Cashmere/55% Silk:
combining the softness of Mongolian cashmere with the sheen of silk, this yarn has an incomparable silk-soft texture after blocking the finished garment using Eucelan.
Incomparably silky-soft texture. Very light and soft, this yarn can be used to create beautiful garments year-round.
Great for yarn dyers!

100% Pure Spun Silk: our 100% Spun Silk will work with any patterns that call for worsted weight yarn. It will keep you incredibly warm in winter, yet knits up into such feathery light garments that it are always a pleasure to wear close to the skin regardless of how warm the weather is.

Kid Mohair Silk: Breathtaking and lustrous fingering weight kid mohair yarn with a silk core. Soft to the touch and a pleasure to work with. Knits up beautifully in all sorts of delicate designs with lace and cables; ideal for intricate patterns or in combination with other yarns. Imported from Italy. Same yarn used by other brand-name manufacturers!

Consumer Friendly Yarns Website

2006-10-02T16:20:00.000-07:00

We received the following e-mail while we were closed today, October 2, 2006:

"We're emailing you to let you know about a new website called Consumer Friendly Yarns. The website's mission is to accurately report the keystone pricing policies of all yarn manufacturers (large and small) and to be a reliable resource for the knitting and crochet communities to refer to before they make yarn purchases. We would love it if you would mention the site on your blog, and please let your readers know that we are looking for volunteers to help compile "the list" of friendly (and unfriendly) yarn manufacturers. We have also started a petition to request that yarn manufacturers world-wide abandon the practice of keystone pricing within the yarn industry and a link to the petition can be found on our site as well.

Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or can provide us with any information for the site.

Many thanks!

Consumer Friendly Yarns"

I just reviewed the website and I think these people have done a most remarkable job through researching, publishing and factually disclosing a proven list of price fixing vs. non-price fixing yarn wholesalers and manufactures. Please refer to this site if you have any questions about which yarns are consumer-friendy, and which are overpriced due to the yarn manufacturer's and/or wholesaler's price-fixing policies.

All the best.

--Sarah

Our Gratitude to JaggerSpun and Jagger Brothers Yarns

2006-09-29T13:59:00.000-07:00

We at our parent company, No-Nonsense Business Solutions, LLC, and at Sarah’s Yarns, want to express our most sincere gratitude to JaggerSpun and Jagger Brothers.

I have been a knitter since I was a child, and many years before I decided to go into the business of selling yarns I noticed that the yarn lines offered by these firms were unsurpassed in their textural and color consistencies, which is no surprise because these firms have invested years of research since the late 1800’s in order to accomplish these objectives. I can assure you that these JaggerSpun and Jagger Brothers quality objectives continue to shine.

The JaggerSpun and Jagger Brothers yarns are manufactured 100% in the USA, by really nice people in Maine. These people put their heart-and-souls into making sure that their products are of the best quality, because they believe in the USA and in not seeing our money go to other countries.

JaggerSpun and Jagger Brothers have received world-wide calls from yarn resellers and retailers complaining about our pricing, and they never once caved in. They believe in the USA, and in the free-market policies that we, as Americans, are supposed to stand for. Sure, they give advice to our competitors about “how we do it,” but that is a good thing for all of us and we sincerely appreciate the competition.

All the best to the person from whom I’ve learned the most, Chuck Desmond, from JaggerSpun.

--Sarah Siegel

Update on Tilli Tomas

2006-09-20T20:06:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday, 9/17/2006, I wrote a letter to Tilli Tomas which was sent to the company via e-mail and fax on that same day, and via FedEx Priority Overnight on Monday, 9/18.

In our letter to Tilli Tomas, we stated that pride has no place in business, and that we would be willing to continue to buy their yarns at the wholesale prices that they had faxed to us on July 17, 2006. However, I made it clear that we will not abide by any price fixing policy as it is clearly illegal in the US at the Federal and State levels, and ultimately, unethical and immoral. Finally, we offered to publish their change of policies on our Blog.

We received an initial response to our letter via e-mail on Tuesday, 9/19 stating the following:

“Dear Sarah:

We have received your letter. We are happy to hear that you love our product.

We will review the information provided.

TIlli Tomas”

Today we received the following e-mail from Tilli Tomas:

“Sarah:

After reviewing your letter, we have decided to suspend the keystone pricing policy.

Tracy”

We responded to this last e-mail by thanking Tilli Tomas humbly for their change of policy, and asking if we will be able to place orders with them going forward. Our response was sent via e-mail, and we also left a voice mail message on Tilli Tomas’s phone.

We have not received an answer to our question regarding whether or not we will be able to continue to place orders with the company.

We are a legitimate firm organized under the Laws of the State of New York, and provided Tilli Tomas with all of our company documents, including our New York State Certificate of Authority prior to starting to buy yarns from them in circa July, 2006. By the way, yarn sales are not subject to sales tax within the State of New York. We have invested a great deal of effort in promoting Tilli Tomas products. Yet, we are able to sell at very low prices. When a company issues a statement that they have changed their pricing policy, it is a good first step. However, implementing the policy is the bottom line. So I pose the question: if a company states that they have changed their “keystone pricing” policy, but then refuses to sell to qualified resellers who can offer their products at very competitive prices, have they really changed their policy?

We can only wait to hear back from Tilli Tomas.

--Sarah Siegel

Launching Our Exclusive Luxury 100% Cashmere Line

2006-09-19T21:09:00.000-07:00

Our customers asked, and we listened: we have started launching our exclusive luxury 100% Cashmere DK, 4-ply line. The prices are incredible -- $14.50 per skein -- because we are not using distribution chanels or middle-people. Very soft and easy to work with! Stay tuned as we are working with our dye house to develop new colors to supplement and complement the beautiful JaggerSpun and Jagger Brothers lines.

We are also working on our new 2-ply 100% Cashmere, 2-ply 45%Cashmere/55%Silk, and 4-ply 45%Cashmere/55% Silk lines. Truly soft and luxurious lines -- at very down-to-earth prices.

Yarn dyers: these yarns dye beautifully in the White and Natural White colors, and we will be sure to list them shortly!

--Sarah Siegel

Donations for Service Men Abroad

2006-09-19T04:52:00.000-07:00

We received the following message that we thought we should post on our Blog for others to consider:

Hi there...my name is Beverly Penrose and i live in Oklahoma,i have bought a few items from you in the past.
I am from New Zealand and know the wool there,i come home every other year.
I am involved with THEHUGSPROJECT here in which we make neck ties for the summer for the troops overseas,then knit socks and hats for the winter.
My son Michael is in the army and in Afghanistan where it is getting cold and the men have asked us for wool items.
It is very hard to find any wool for knitting here and was wondering if you would be interested in donating some wool socks black if possible,or some wool insoles which i know are warm.
All my family is in Invercargill and are on the lookout for wool for us also.
This would be very much appreciated,we would be willing to pay costs for shipping,if you know of any other company there in New Zealand that might be willing to help us please let me know.
Thanking You
Beverly Penrose
nz0315@yahoo.com

Our response that we do not have socks, but that we will soon be receiving a super wash yarn and would consider donating some cones to knitters who could create the socks for service people. Feel free to respond to Beverly directly, and/or feel free to give us ideas on how we can help our Service People located abroad.

--Sarah Siegel

Knitting Machines for Sale

2006-09-18T07:59:00.000-07:00

There are four (4) Brother 970 medium guage computer knitting machines, plus a used bulky knitting machine, for sale by a JaggerSpun referral. Please contact Bonnie Aitken at (703) 631-2548 for details.

--Sarah

The Truth About Price Fixing and Bid Rigging

2006-09-18T05:38:00.000-07:00

Based on the feedback that we have received from a myriad of e-mails, and from our Blog regarding Tilli Tomas’s refusal to sell their yarns to us because of our free-market policies, and based on our own research, we have concluded that “Price-Fixing” and “Bid Rigging” is indeed illegal in the United States at the Federal and State levels.

As stated on a web page of the Office of the Attorney General of the District of Columbia, “Price fixing and bid rigging occur when competitors agree to set prices for goods or services. An effective agreement among sellers results in prices that are artificially high. Artificially high prices can damage government or business buyers. Buyers lose the ability to get the best price that results when there is competition among sellers.” Another page of this website further states, “If any person knows or suspects that competitors, suppliers or even an employer are violating the law, that person should alert the DC Office of Attorney General (OAG) or federal antitrust authorities so that they can determine whether to investigate,” and that “Price-fixing, bid-rigging and similar conspiracies are most likely to occur where there are relatively few sellers who have to get together to agree. The larger the group of sellers, the more difficult it is to come to an agreement and enforce it.” They offer suggestions of telltale signs of these practices.

It has been elucidated to us that the best evidence comes from documentation submitted by a manufacturer or product seller themselves, when it clearly states that their terms of business requires that the reseller follow "keystone pricing."

These practices are carefully monitored by the US Department of Justice Antitrust Division, the Federal Trade Commission Bureau of Competition, and the Office of the Attorney General of the District of Columbia and of every state in the Union.

During a conversation I had with JaggerSpun last week, they told me that “Price Fixing” was a practice “implemented” many years ago in an attempt to protect resellers. This practice was later found to be in violation of Antitrust laws.

Now why would so many yarn manufacturers and retailers want to pursue violating The Law, thus exposing themselves to costly class action and other types of lawsuits? Especially given the stiff penalties, fines, and possibly even jail time that usually follows?

We will never encourage or subscribe to Price Fixing, just as much as we never encourage our Tax and Accounting clients to try to cheat or play games on their tax returns. We walk away from such clients, because we have been brought in to clean up major messes made by companies who cheated on their Federal and/or State taxes, and then either wound up paying astronomical penalties, serving jail time, and in most cases, both.

-- Sarah Siegel

JaggerSpun Yarn Update

2006-09-13T14:43:00.000-07:00

We wanted to keep you updated on the status of our inventory:

Zephyr wool-silk 2/18 lace weight: all colors in stock, except Peacock. We are waiting for a long-back-ordered batch of around 85 cones.

Zephyr wool-silk DK weight: all colors in stock, except Pewter

Super Fine Merino: one of the most beautiful, fine, and elegant fine grade merino yarns we’ve come across. We now have the full line in stock, but we just sold out on the black (popular color!). We are waiting for an 80 cone shipment that is back-ordered.

Heather: I love this unique line for its “tweedy” look, which seems to have a nice “halo” to it. It is so appropriate for the Fall and Winter seasons. We placed a major order in and received several very nice colors yesterday.

Super Lamb: this line is made from super wash treated fine-grade merino lambs wool. It offers the best of both worlds by combining the special qualities of worsted spun wool with the convenience of being able to machine wash and dry without fading or shrinking. Many of our customers asked us to carry this line, so we listened. We have an outstanding order for the entire line and will promptly update our website when the line comes in. The colors are really, really nice!

Color Cards: we are waiting for color cards from JaggerSpun, so we have sold out temporarily on most of these, with the exception of the Super Lamb and the Maine Line.

We have updated our website accordingly.

Sincerely,

--Sarah

Tilli Tomas Conclusion

2006-09-11T12:59:00.000-07:00

Well, it’s official. Tilli Tomas told us today that they refused to ship any more of their yarns to us – after charging our accounts and tying up our money for major shipments that we were waiting for, and without even having the courtesy of informing us of their decision until after having received many of our e-mails and phone calls.

When I asked Tracy Robinson, the person who seems to be in charge of Tilli Tomas, why she was refusing to ship to us, she just continually responded “We just don’t want to ship to you at this time.”

I saw an anonymous post on our blog regarding Tilli Tomas, which I assume came from them directly, and which I responded to as professionally as I could. I can only assume that our philosphy of passing on savings to our customers was a major issue in Tilli Tomas’s decision.

The problem I have with this episode is that Tilli Tomas never told us that we had to adhere to a "fixed" pricing policy when we started doing business with them. They never disclosed that we had to abide by a "price-fixing" policy to us; otherwise, we would have been able to make a decision at that time. Their "price-fixing" policy came to us by surprise, only about two weeks ago. In our view, this is not honest business dealing.

In the meantime, while supplies last, we are back to our old pricing. We will most likely be liquidating whatever Tilli Tomas inventory we do not sell through our website on eBay.

-- Sarah Siegel

Cashmere and Alpaca Yarns

2006-09-07T04:08:00.000-07:00

We have been contacting suppliers to include cashmere and alpaca yarns among our offerings, and will be receiving samples to evaluate the yarns and suppliers.

All suggestions are welcome!

--Sarah

JaggerSpun Inventory Update

2006-09-07T03:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we received a new order from JaggerSpun, so here is the status of our inventory:

Zephyr 2/18 Lace-Weight yarn: all colors in stock, except Cinnabar and Peacock. We have some very large backorders in these two colors, however, so we will follow-up later today to get an ETA on when we can expect to receive these two colors.

Zephyr DK Weight: all colors in stock

Superfine Merino 2/18 weight: we just received some new colors -- Admiral, Raspberry and Ruby. Really nice! We have backorders on the entire line, as we feel this is a truly elegant merino yarn.

Our website has been updated accordingly.

Many of our customers had expressed an interest in the Heather 3/8 line. I happen to really like it because of the “tweedy” look. We have an outstanding order with JaggerSpun for the following colors: Edelweiss, Russet, Hollyberry, Periwinkle, Lava, Midnight, Amethyst, Cobalt, Moss and Brindle. We would love to hear about what colors our customers would be interested in, so that we can place orders. Orders in this line take a lot longer to fulfill than JaggerSpun’s other lines because this is a top-spun line, not died.

Please feel free to let us know what other JaggerSpun lines people would like to see!

--Sarah

Tilli Tomas

2006-09-06T02:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Tilli Tomas instructed us to raise our prices to the new prices posted on our website.

Stay tuned, we plan to hold a one-week sale in the near future, around the week of 9/18.

--Sarah Siegel

Uh, Oh, Tilli Tomas Business Practices

2006-09-05T07:51:00.000-07:00

Our parent company, No-Nonsense Business Solutions, LLC, is a full-service tax and accounting firm. But my personal passion includes yarns and fiber arts, so I started “Sarah’s Yarns.”

Our background in taxation and accounting has enabled us at “Sarah’s Yarns” to manage our inventory like hawks, lower our cost structure, focus on listening to our customers, provide rapid-fire fulfillments, and do everything we can to provide the best possible customer service. We are not perfect, but we really work hard on trying to fulfill these goals. Whenever we don’t meet the mark, we listen carefully to what our customers have to say … and implement their advice. After all, our customers are what we value the most.

Apparently there have been complaints from other yarn resellers because our Tilli Tomas prices are the lowest, while our fulfillments and customer service are still pretty on-the-mark. So now we are being hit by Tilli Tomas to follow a “Keystone” pricing policy – which according to our humble understanding translates into “price-fixing.” Now isn’t this against fair market competition? Is this practice even legal? I’m not a lawyer, but I would love to know the answers to these questions.

If we are able to manage our costs and inventory, why should we not be allowed to pass these savings on to our customers?

In all fairness Tilli Tomas supplies beautiful yarns, and I myself have been able to make many beautiful items for my children and myself with their yarns. We will have to think about how to deal with this situation, because free market competition is what the USA is supposed to be all about.

All thoughts are welcome!

-- Sarah Siegel

JaggerSpun Continues To Be Backlogged!

2006-09-05T07:22:00.000-07:00

JaggerSpun closed during the month of July for their annual vacations, and so did their dying mills. As a result, now they are backlogged on just about all of their product offereings. Thank goodness we stocked up on the Zephyr 2/18 and DK (4/8) weight yarns before they closed in July. But it is getting frustrating for us to expand into their new lines! They informed us that a shipment was sent to us this past Friday, 9/1/2006, that is supposed to include a lot of our back-ordered Zephyr and Super Fine Merino yarns. We just placed a major order for their Heather line, which we consider really nice, but we are told that the production lead times are not very encouraging. We will keep you posted!

-- Sarah Siegel

Started a Blog for Sarah's Yarns!

2006-08-25T12:06:00.000-07:00

We want to keep track of our yarns, our knitting and what our customers (or anybody else) has to say!

--Sarah