30 Days of Blog 2015 – Day 12

I was going to post my update in finishing the first stocking today.  But this just happened…

I am both irritated and excited right now.  This spring, I found a pattern for a top I really liked in my Herrschners catalog. Unfortunately, the pattern only comes in a kit with yellow Caron yarn.  There is no choice of the color, which would of course just make too much sense.  I even emailed their customer service department to see if I could order the pattern without the yarn and that’s not an option either.

The thing is, yellow is not my color.  It just does not work with my complexion.  Besides that, I didn’t want it in yellow.  I was considering going ahead and ordering the kit anyway and just saving the yarn for another project-I actually had one in mind.  But today, whilst wasting time on Pinterest looking for other tops, I came across this exact same pattern for free!  It turns out that Yarnspirations actually has the pattern available for free on their website.  (Don’t worry, it’s not pirated. Caron is part of Yarnspirations.)

So not only is Herrschners selling an otherwise free pattern and only offering it in one color, they’re basically selling the yarn for more than its list price because they’ve inflated it to include the pattern. (The pattern that’s actually free. Do I keep repeating that?)  You can buy enough yarn on the Yarnspirations website to make a large top for $17.16 versus $19.99 from the Herrschners catalog, (plus the free pattern of course).

It also makes me wonder how many other patterns they sell that are available for free.  I will certainly be doing a search before I ever buy a pattern from them again.  Plus, I know they’re goal is to make money, but when it was obvious that I didn’t want the kit since it only came in yellow, the customer service rep should have told me, “Hey, if you only want the pattern, it is available on Yarnspiration’s website for free. Here’s the link…” And if that customer service rep did not know this little tidbit, well, they should have (meaning Herrschners should have made sure they did know.)  I’m actually thinking about replying to the last email they sent with this information and see what they say…

So, if you want the (FREE) pattern for this cute little top, click on the picture.  I’m excited to have it printed off and I know the exact yarn in my stash that I will be making it with!  Now I just have to figure out where to fit it in.  I want to do it sooner than later because I want to wear it this summer. But I have so much planned!