June 12, 2005

Yarn and ethics

I always think of knitters as generous, friendly souls - always willing to share tips, techniques, where to find bargains etc. I've found many of the UK's main suppliers very generous when I've begged support (by donations) for my "kids".

Then you hear of the Harris saga and you begin to wonder!

I correspond / mix with a number of people around the world involved in yarn production, from small, local producers to large corporations and thought I was a fairly cynical knitter - so why was I surprised to talk to one producer and learn that someone was buying stock from them, that the buyer planned to relabel and sell as their own. If it was big business I would accept this but for a single person operation I think this smacks of a rip-off to both the supplier and potential customers!

Posted by Yvonne at June 12, 2005 02:19 AM
Comments

I haven't been following this Harris saga. I always thought that it was a bad idea for Rowan to carry another tweed line. So who is relabelling whom's stuff?

thanks for all the caterham photos.

Posted by: P at June 13, 2005 07:13 AM

We had a lovely day at Caterham - can I add my thanks to Jan for the lift to the station and for the cake!

I'm wearing the non-beaded version of Martha from Book 37, done in RYC cash-soft 4 ply, instead of 4 ply cotton. Tension worked out just fine!

Posted by: Jill at June 12, 2005 05:50 PM

Lovely pics on the previous post. Thanks for sharing.

Posted by: carol at June 12, 2005 02:42 PM

What fun to see the picturetrail of the outing. As to ethics, exploitative people won out over good people in this case, but I do believe the good ones are out there... sometimes,
Regards Linda

Posted by: Linda at June 12, 2005 09:52 AM

I wonder what they hope to gain - if the yarn has to go through another set of hands, won't it need to be more expensive than if one purchased direct from the original supplier? Pity libel laws prevent this rather shonky trader being "outed"!

PS. Have just browsed through your Picturetrail of the day at Catterham. Looks like great fun was had by all. What cardi is that you are wearing Jill? Pretty pattern.

Posted by: Lesley at June 12, 2005 07:52 AM