A Yarn

As I've already mentioned, I thought I would try my hand at doing some knitting over the weekend, so I was keen to get my hands on some new yarn. Something a little less acrylic than the purple yarn if been playing with recently. Even though I kind of dig the purple colour, I'd be more inclined to wear something a bit more subtle, like a much darker purple maybe. (It may not translate well in the photo I posted the other day, but the colour is kind of over-the-top vibrant.)

I didn't know of any specialist shops near where I work in Parramatta, and I was rushing frantically to get to Borders for a book and then buy some yarn before the shops shut last night. This meant only one thing, stealing myself, gritting my teeth and going into Lincraft. I used to love Lincraft, back when it was owned by the original owners and had a fabulous range and pretty good service for a mega-chain. Then they sold, the good fabrics were ripped out and the cheap tat brought in, the staff levels cut, and it all went to Hell in a hand-basket. I didn't renew my loyalty card. It was sold again and the new(ish) owners have clawed back some of the lost ground, but not by much.

The yarn range was crap. Weird novelty yarns and acrylic mixes for days. I had spoilt myself by looking at lots of fantastic yarns and projects on The Internetz, so I was kind of crestfallen. Anyhoo. I dug around and found a couple of balls of a nice darkish olive green pure wool that I would actually consider wearing, and made my way to the register. A queue, with one staff member serving. Welcome to Lincraft!

I paid with a $50 (all I had on me sadly because I'm mega rich and would never consider to carry anything smaller) and got handed back a huge fistfull of $5 notes, without any acknowledgement that this might be an inconvenience for me, or even without being told how much I was being given back. I worked in retail for many years and would always count back the change to customers. I understand it was the end of the day and that Lincraft might be a soul sucking place to work, but lady come on for goodness sakes. It's not that hard.

So I counted them all out in front of her. Oh yeah, you can believe that I showed her. In your face bad service lady!

Anyhoo, diatribe over. My friend Judy (sock knitting demon) then made me an offer too good to refuse, swinging by a specialist store near home tonight with her in tow to provide technical support. Then afterwards maybe even the chance of checking out her stash... So inferior Lincraft yarn, you may yet end up somewhere at the back of the cupboard after all.