A knitting teacher in your pocket!

I’m more and more convinced that Knit-Kards™ are the most genius thing ever. Produced by Nancy’s Knit Knacks, which sounds very folksy, these 14 double-sided laminated cards (with handy keyhole and ring included!) contain every piece of information you need to make a sweater, a sock, or a blanket, along with tips and tricks to make that project hum. A long-tail cast-on can be a pain, because what happens when you don’t leave yourself enough yarn to complete the cast-on? You have to rip that sucker out and start over. Believe me, my kids have learned the most choice swears from lurking around my knitting chair. The Long Tail Cast-on Knit Kard™  provides a table with a simple formula to figure out the number of inches of yarn needed based on number of stitches cast on and needle size. Bingo! Job done.

Along with yardage requirements for any kind of garment, from sweaters (baby) to afghans (huge), Knit Kards™ instruct users through Kitchener Stitch, basic increases and decreases, and how to use those increases and decreases for optimum graceful shaping. Yarn Label Guides explain the care symbols used by clothing makers so that your treasured garment doesn’t end up fitting your American Girl Doll. You can convert ounces to grams, meters to yards, and vice versa, learn how to make the perfect gauge swatch, or learn what the abbreviation K1b means. And to top it all off, you get a knitting needle/crochet hook inventory card to keep track of those needles you keep in a plastic shopping bag (Hey! maybe we can talk knitting bags and storage solutions in a follow-up post!). The bright colors make them easy to find in your crowded project bag, and the index-card size makes them convenient to take anywhere.

All the WEBS sales team keep Knit Kards™ in our apron pockets, and we all use them religiously. You should too!

Some of you may have noticed that we’ve recently added a few categories to help refine your search on our website.  Lots of you have asked for a simpler way to find New, Closeout, and Sale items.

Once you’ve begun a search, by entering a yarn name or key word into the search box at the top of the page,  you’ll notice the new options in the left-hand column.

You can now narrow your search specifically to these 3 categories bringing you right to the yarns you’re looking for. We’re always looking for ways to improve your experience with our website. What has been your favorite addition?

Today we’re writing to introduce an exciting new addition to our website, Live Chat! This feature is available from any page you visit on our website. You can click the Live Chat Available button at the top right of the page, above the shopping cart, or you can click the floating blue Live Chat button on the left side of your screen. If we’re not available to chat, the Live Chat button above the shopping cart will be greyed out.

When you open a chat window, you can ask your initial question. Questions like, “I’d like to check the status of my order.”, or, “I’m looking for a worsted weight wool to make a sweater.” We’ll see your message pop up on our screen and we can chat back and forth from there.

Live Chat is a great way to get in touch with us quickly and easily. We can help save you time by guiding you through your purchase. Generally, there is one customer service representative answering all your Live Chat questions, so Live Chat is best suited for simpler, less involved inquiries. We can help you select the perfect yarn for you next project, check on the status of your order, pick out the perfect gift and more. If you’re looking for something more involved like pattern support, we would better be able to help you over the phone.

So the next time you’re on our site, try sending us a chat! We’d love to hear from you.

Grace and Kristin: WEBS Live Chat Represenatives

Some of you who have been shopping yarn.com in the past week have already discovered that we’ve added a new In-Store Pickup shipping option. Now you can place an order online and we’ll have it waiting for you to pickup in the store. When you get to the shipping tab during online checkout, you’ll see In-Store Pickup as the last shipping method listed. If you select that option, you’ll notice the estimated shipping will drop to $0.00.

Here are a few guidelines to be aware of if you’re choosing the In-Store Pickup option:

• Please allow 24-36 hours from the time you place the order to be completed and ready for pickup. Orders placed on Friday, Saturday and Sunday will be processed on Monday. When your order is processed and ready to pick up, you will receive a confirmation email.
• If you call to make a change to your order, it may delay when your order is ready for pickup.
• As with all orders placed online, your order will be charged when it is filled. A complete invoice will accompany your purchase.
• Occasionally we will be unable to fill your order with a single dyelot. We will contact you if we have a mixed lot and inform you of the options for completing your order.
• If an item is backordered, we will pick and charge what we have in stock and contact you when the backordered items arrive. If the item is sold out, we will pick the rest of the order and contact you for substitutions.
• If you want to do more shopping when you come in to pickup your order, we will add any discounts to your in-store purchase that may apply.

We hope that you enjoy having this as another option when shopping at WEBS. Leave any questions you may have in the comments.

Happy Shopping!

Dena

Some of you may have noticed that we’ve recently upgraded our product review system on our website to PowerReviews. In the past, customers could give a product a star rating and write a review. But with PowerReviews, customers can now provide more information with their reviews. Plus there are some nice features that allow customers to get a quick summary of all the reviews of a product to help them with their shopping decisions.

Here are some PowerReviews highlights to look for while shopping on our website.

Product Browse Star Ratings

When you’re browsing through our categories, you’ll find the average star rating for each product. If you see a product with 0.0 star ratings, no reviews have been written yet for that product.

Facebook Like Button

If you like a product and want to share that with your friends and family on Facebook, click the Facebook Like button to spread the word. A link will appear in your Facebook newsfeed saying that you like it.

Review Snapshot

Some products will have a Review Snapshot which will summarize the Pros, Cons, Best Uses, and other information of the reviews written for that product. This is a great way to see quickly what others are saying about the product. As more and more reviews are written in PowerReviews, you’ll see more of these Review Snapshots showing up for our products.

Review Faceoff

When a review has at least 10 reviews written, you see a Review Faceoff. This will show you the most liked positive review vs. the most liked negative review.

Write a Review

The best part about PowerReviews is that you can include a lot more information with your review.

• Who’s writing the review? – Look for review badges such as Verified Reviewer and Staff Reviewer. Also you can find more information about who’s writing the review such as ‘beginning knitter’ or ‘Malabrigo junkie’.
• Pros, Cons, and Best Uses – Pick from commonly used attributes or add your own.
• Recommend Accessories – List other products you’d recommend to use with the product, such as a good yarn for a pattern.
• Add Photos or Video – You can even upload photos or a video with your review. This is a perfect opportunity to include a photo of your finished project. We love to see your work!
• Service Comments – You can leave service comments separately from your product comments. Maybe you love the yarn you just got, but there was an issue with shipping.

Chime in on Other’s Reviews

If you read a review that was particularly helpful or not, you can click on the Yes or No at the end of the review. Also, you now have the option of commenting on a review by clicking on the Facebook Comment link at the bottom of the review.

We hope you enjoy this upgrade to PowerReviews. Let us know what you think in the comments. Do you read reviews when shopping online? What do you find helpful in a review? We encourage all reviews, the good, the bad, and everything in between. A negative review of yarn because it’s scratchy may be just the rustic yarn someone else is looking for. Thanks to all of you who have already left reviews on our site. We truly value them.

Dena

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Guest: Andra, our Berroco rep chats with Kathy about the new fall yarns and patterns.

• Berroco Link
• Berroco Soufflé
• Berroco Voyage
• Berroco Flicker
• Berroco Boboli
• New Berroco Patterns
• Norah Gaughan Collection Vol. 9

Andra also chats about what’s she’s seen in area yarn shops she has traveled to. Lots of small projects for vacationers and a building into afghans and sweaters.

Steve’s Yarn Picks

• Dream in Color Smooshy Sock
• Katia Aloha
• Katia Ondas
• Katia Triana Lux
• Louet MerLin Sport
• Prism Delicato
• Fiesta Baby Boom Spirit of the Southwest

Check out our YouTube channel for great new videos.

We also have a new review system on our website, so if you’ve purchased a yarn you enjoy, leave a review and let others know what it was like to knit with. You can also upload a picture of your finished project.

Hi Everyone

I realize it’s been awhile since I’ve posted but now that school has (almost) started, I think the schedule will be much more consistent.  Just because I’ve been a bit quiet doesn’t mean we haven’t been working hard.  In fact, I am thrilled to announce that we are now officially accepting PayPal as a method of payment!

I know this is wonderful news for many of you, especially our international customers.  The integration came with it’s challenges as these things always do but it’s done and we are tickled to be accepting Paypal.

Enjoy!

Kathy

Hi Everyone

Last week we made a minor but important improvement to the website.  Previously we had only offered options for regular shipping.  If you needed and/or wanted your order faster, you either had to make the request in special instructions or call Customer Service.  Not a huge deal but not as seamless as it should be.

Well, now it is seamless:

These options were always available but you had to do some work to make it happen.  Since all of you are the customer, you really shouldn’t have to be any of heavy lifting, so to speak.

Not a huge revolutionary change, but a nice update.  Rates are based on the weight of the package and your zip code.

Enjoy!

Kathy