The worst name EVER for a sweater! Why? you ask? This sweater kit has been nothing but a PITA from the day it arrived. Every time I’ve worked on (slaved over) this sweater, it’s been a needlessly confusing, irritating, splitting headache producing nuisance.
First, if you go to the expense of buying a kit, you’re supposed to get enough yarn to knit the da***d thing. I’ve run out of yarn not once, not twice but FOUR TIMES.
Now, since I praise the shops who give me good service, I’m also going to post about the ones with customer service that is either non existent or stinks.
When I ran out of yarn the first time, Nancy of Handkntting.com, (no – I’m NOT going to provide a link) which is where I bought the kit, told me that they’d be happy to sell me more yarn. I told them I’d purchased a kit, and it should have enough yarn to complete the sweater. She told me, the kits came from Louet, and since they had no control over what went into the kits, well, they’d be happy to sell me more yarn – but that was all they could do bout my problem.
I’ll NEVER buy anything from Handknitting.com again.
I had my email removed from their email list.
So, I contacted Louet. I ended up speaking to 3 people. The first one just passed me along to someone else. Numbers 2 and 3 listened to the problem. Then they started asking me questions. Was I using the right size needles? (yes) Was I getting the specified gauge? (yes). Was I following the pattern? (yes – although this pattern is the most confusing piece of crap I’ve come across in over 50 years of knitting!). If I was making a size 2X, had I ordered a size 2X Kit? (Yes – I found that one REALLY insulting). Was I using the colors in the specified order? (yes).
Finally, they agreed to send me 2 skeins of yarn for the 2 colors I had run out of.
Three weeks later, when the yarn still hadn’t arrived, I called Louet again. After an hour on the phone – once again I had to talk to 3 people – they agreed to re-send the yarn. (The original shipment of replacement yarn never has made it to my house)
Every time I’ve called Louet, it’s taken at least an hour on the phone, (yes – long distance) talking to anywhere from 3 to 5 people. And I’ve had to explain, re-explain, beg, plead, and grovel, just to get what should have been in the kit in the first place.
Will I ever buy another kit from any company, for any reason, ever again?
HELL NO!!
On top of running out of yarn multiple times, this was the most aggravating pattern I’ve ever come across.
It’s an 8 page pattern, but 2 of those pages are pictures, 2 pages are schematics, and 2 are how to’s for the techniques used in construction of the sweater. That leaves 2 pages of actual pattern. The pattern covers all sizes from toddler small to women’s 2X. Readable it is not. It has taken me 4 years of deciphering the pattern, getting fed up, throwing it in the back of the closet for months, and re-starting it, to get this finished.
I’ve been knitting for over 50 years, and if I’d had any idea what a B**CH this sweater was going to be, I’d have forgotten all about it.
It’s finished, it’s pretty, and
I STILL DON’T WANT TO WEAR IT.
This knit was so annoying, that I’ve come to hate everything about this sweater, so I’m shoving it in a plastic bag, throwing it in my closet, and I don’t care if it never sees the light of day again.
Here’s some photos.
Vicki wearing the sweater.
