I posted recently about the Flutterby Socks, then noted in my last post that progress was being halted because of materials problems. Here’s what I mean:
The yarn is Heritage from Cascade, a 430 yd per 100g put-up in fingering weight that I bought at $13.50 for one skein. It’s 75% superwash merino wool, 25% acrylic.
I knitted a sock in it, washed the sock in warm water with shampoo and dried it in the dryer, all of which was in accordance with the directions. I then wore the sock for approximately 2 minutes in order to walk outside and take the following photo:
The problem is that the sock has already begun to show signs of wear, the kinds of wear that I’d expect of yarn after three or four days spent being walked all over. Certainly not reasonable wear from being washed once and worn for five minutes, tops.
Some pictures of the wear on the sole of the sock– some fuzzy areas, some beginning pills, and spots where the nylon (white fibers) appears to be working free of the wool.
Since these socks are meant to be gifted, I wasn’t at all happy. I then did what I recommend all dissatisfied customers do when they buy a product that doesn’t live up to expectations– I sent a polite email to the company describing my problem. I like Cascade yarns in general, have been happy with the results from using them, and was unpleasantly surprised at the performance of this yarn. Did the people at Cascade know about problems with the yarn?
I sent this email on a Sunday evening. I received a response within an hour. It was amazing! I may be unhappy with the yarn, but the fast and courteous response I got from Cascade was everything a person could hope for when corresponding with a company. Apparently this is the first they’ve heard of problems with Heritage, but they asked me for more details (color and dyelot), photos if possible and even to send them the sock or a swatch so they could check it for details. I’m putting the swatch in the mail tomorrow. They also offered to send me a replacement skein in the color of my choice– I chose Jade.
I hope that the problems with Cascade Heritage are limited to the color and dyelot I purchased, but if they’re not, Cascade’s response has convinced me that the problems will be remedied. I’ll let y’all know once I try out that replacement skein. In the meantime, I still plan to finish the second Flutterby sock– I’ve just turned the heel.
I’m impressed but not convinced. I was put off Cascade due to both my first experiences with them.
(1) really disappointing yarn called Indulgence. Supposedly superfine alpaca and angora, but quite irritating to the skin, which I don’t think the quality of yarn should be. I was forewarned: the shop owner I bought it from was selling it very cheaply since she wasn’t happy with it either. The given gauge for it was also dodgy.
(2) A pattern on their site did no match up to the picture given for it.
I found when I contacted the company re both of these matters, I received no communication from them whatsoever! Maybe they’ve improved….
Interesting. Let’s see how the next skein holds up.