All,
I just received a mail catalog for a company I’ve not heard of before, Willow Yarns. Has anyone purchased from them before? And if so, what was your experience with them?
http://www.willowyarns.com/default.aspx
Thanks!
They’re new to me. This looks tempting. http://www.willowyarns.com/Product/Gosling+Yarn.aspx If it’s good yarn I like the price.
ETA Love these colors…thinking Skew socks…electric…hmmmmmm
You’re so brave GG! :notworthy: Not much knitting scares me anymore, but Skew socks still do! Electric is a gorgeous colorway, isn’t it?
I’d agree, the pricing looks pretty good, just wish I could fondle the fiber first. 
They have some cute free patterns too.
Skew socks. If I keep planning them, I’m not making them. :teehee: One of these days I’ll run out of excuses and have to give them a go I guess. I keep hoping someone here will say they’ve had experience with this company. I looked at a free sock pattern, it was really nice.
The planning stage is so important, isn’t it? :teehee: My planning project is about to move to reality, a Batman hat for DGS in stranded color work.:oo: Been planning that one for a few months.
Now that it’s the 1st of the month, I may have to give Willow a test drive to check out the yarns. Surely Husband won’t begrudge me yet another ball of sock yarn?:hmm:
I got the catalog, but nothing enticed me. :shrug:
A few things struck me as odd in the yarn photos, like some of the fingering weight yarns appear to be a heavier weight than they “should” be. I’m wondering if the lenses make the yarn look bigger than it really is, like pictures do to me. 
Maybe a skein or two of the Willow Dappled Nazca coloway will reassure me that all current photos of me are not accurate either.:teehee:
If you order from them you must let us know how your experience goes and what you think of the yarn, please.
The yarn is inexpensive, but did anyone look at the shipping costs!! Seems really high to me or just set up weird. Shipping is based on how much you spend, not the weight of the package.
Thanks for pointing that out! I didn’t notice their S&H. :sad:
You’re right, it does look a bit high - at least KP gives free shipping for orders >$50 without a coupon code. Maybe the higher cost orders of yarn are heavier…but I’ll not buy a set of Addi interchangeables from them. The shipping for that is way too expensive. :oo:
I just took a look at the link. I really like some of the colors, and if you read the reviews, people seemed pretty pleased with the products. Several yarns get 5/5 stars. I just got a bonus at work, so maybe I’ll order some (never mind the splurge I just had at Jimmy Bean’s!)
Splurge at Jimmy Beans?:woot: Pardon the pun jinx, but spill the beans.
What awesome yarns did you find to adopt into a good home?
Yes, jinx, elaborate, please.
I went sort of crazy! Some Misti alpaca sock yarn, some heather colored Cascade 220 Superwash, some Madeline Tosh bulky to finish a cowl that I started, and 3 skeins of Koigu KPPPM fingering. Also, kids, I did order 2 kinds of yarn from Willow!
I LOVE the sock yarn in “Peacock” colorway, and I ordered 5 balls of worsted in a pale green color so I can try and make a full sized sweater. I will let you know what the yarn is like when it comes!
How did I afford this? With my bonus, which was about $8,000.
Now, you might feel envious of me, a bit, but, boy do I work my asteroid off for it! You may recall that I’m a physician at the VA hospital in Reno. Many of my veteran patients are lovely people, but we also see a lot of drug addicts. We’ve been trying lately to figure out how to cut way down on the narcotic use (even before Congress started breathing down our necks). I told one fellow several months ago that I wouldn’t keep giving him oxycodone after he had cocaine and methamphetamine in his urine drug screen. He came to the emergency room later that week screaming that he was going to come in with his M16 and “blow that Dr. Nyhan (that’s me) away!” That prompted the folks in administration to put up bullet-proof glass doors in the front of our clinic. So, the job can be sort of stressful. Thank God for knitting! And, if DH grumbles about me buying too much yarn, I just remind him, “But, Mr. Peebles (not his real name) might shoot me tomorrow!” Ha!
Yeah, that sounds like a lot of money, but reality is that yes, you do earn it and more. I’m sure you don’t make what you could in private practice. You deserve hazardous duty pay. It’s a crying shame what the vets have been through and then come back to the h*** they have to go through too. I’m sure they don’t start out crazed maniacs. The only doctor I ever thought of as “my doctor” went back to military practice or some such thing in Desert Storm.
I’m glad you’re getting some yarn therapy. You need it. I look forward to the report on Willow.
Thanks, GG! It’s actually a fascinating job, and most of the vets are great.
Thanks for sharing your loot list, jinx . You’ll have untold hours of enjoyment with all of that scrumptious yarn.
Thanks also for sharing the small slice of your life. With any luck Mr. Peebles will accept the help he needs, and it will be a win-win for both him and you. You absolutely earned that bonus! Congratulations on being rewarded for a job well done.:cheering:
Holy cats, Jinx!!:passedout:
Sadly, Mr. Peebles died of an overdose several months later at another hospital. I’m assuming the drugs he used were bought off the street. He and his family had been referred to drug and alcohol rehab, social worker, mental health etc., but sometimes
guys like him don’t make it. I’m pretty sure his threats were empty, but I least I don’t have to worry about it now.
Tuesday morning we are going to have a meeting about trying to reduce narcotic abuse, something we are always trying to do, but I think some stricter limits are going to be imposed. It’s a good idea, but some patients are going to be angry. Some of them sell their pills in order to get other things like meth, etc., but some use the money to pay bills. It’s bad that so many vets are w/o jobs in the economic downturn.
Anyway, don’t believe all the bad press about VA hospitals giving patients buckets full of narcotics. At my hospital at least, we are struggling to give the right meds to the right patients-it’s quite a juggling act, but it’s the right thing to do. A year ago, a high school kid died of an overdose of methadone that he evidently got from a veteran. Just can’t have that happening!
I know, crazy, isn’t it! But we have armed federal police here as security, and one of them checks in on me routinely to make sure things are OK. If a patient is really considered dangerous, the police will escort him/her through the hospital to the exam room and wait while we do the exam. We do have psychotic patients and some are newly out of jail. One guy was a murderer who killed some women in San Francisco! He was another doctor’s patient, though, not mine. Yeeek!
But, that’s why I get to buy lots of yarn!