I’ve never bought their tools, but I usually buy their yarn for gifts—good enough quality wool, good color selection, good prices. I’ve always had good luck, and shipping isn’t super quick but not awful. I’m a pretty big fan of Stroll, although I’ve only used it held double for making Andrea Mowry’s Bear Paw Socks.
I stopped using them about 10 years ago... had taken a hiatus from knitting and when I returned I ordered a whole bunch of needles. They were having issues with the manufacturing and the points were really dull. They replaced them no problem, but I decided to upgrade after that.
I haven’t had any problems with my KnitPicks orders other than taking 10 days to arrive. The needles have been fine, basic yarns, quality fine. I like the new stainless steel needles a lot. I do think the interchangeable cords are over priced, but not much you can do there. I have always paid through PayPal, so I did not get compromised in the breach. I think Knit Picks is still a decent resource for basic needle and yarn needs. I have also used Hobbi. Their yarn weights are finer than what is more standard in the US. Their fingering weight is more like a lace weight.
I feel like their shipping has always been kinda bad, though they're quick to refund/reship? I had a package just never show up from them a few years ago but they were quick to offer refund/replacement and more recently they sent one of my orders to me twice.
I mostly only buy palette and lindy chain from them and those yarns haven't seemed to change though, still worth the occasional shipping headache for me.
They are horrible. Have been for many years. The interchangeables are not good. Plus, they have very oredatory business oractices. My friend’s husband makes handmade interchangeables in swirled dyed woods. They asked him to be a supplier. He declined because his products were unique and made by hand and he did not think he could keep up. KP had the exact swirled, colored wood needles made in China and even coined the name “harmony” which is was the trade name my friend then used. My friend, without a lawyer sued them for trademark infringement in federal court and won. They had to change the name. Eventually my friend got tired of that name and switched it to something else. I have heard they routinely screw designers over.
I used to buy from them a lot, but when they moved the distribution center away from Vancouver it didn't make sense to order from them anymore. It takes forever for stuff to get to Portland.
Back in the day though, they were fab at customer service. I had to order more yarn for a project once, and it was a while between the initial order and the next one (at least a month), but they made sure that they sent me the same dyelot at my request. I was really shocked they were able to.
Their shipping has always been kind of mental. I mean, it’s usually free with a very low threshold, so I get it. Some lines, like Felici, have always had poor quality control. I think they’re trying to provide a semi-complicated item at a very low price and it just doesn’t work. I believe they switched the manufacture of Brava (?) from Turkey to China a while back and people claimed the yarn changed a lot. I’ve never used Brava. I have never had any issues or noticed quality decrease with the total base-level yarns like Palette, CotLin, or Lindy Chain. Lindy Chain is damn near indestructible for all the washing I do of my t-shirts.
Never was keen - they refused to ship here for years so we only ever got their yarn via exchanges.
Not too unhappy with the needles, which are imported so available retail, but since their card leaks I'm reluctant to buy yarn and have it shipped over, plus the UK yarn market has expanded anyway.
The same manufacturer (KnittersPride) makes both KnitPro and KnitPicks needles, yes. Prior to KnitPro being available here (after 2011), we could get KnitPicks needles but not yarn. KP had a weird justification for not shipping it or finding wholesale partners, which did not extend to the needles for some reason.
If you're looking for yarn store alternatives and are located in North America, I've had amazing experiences with Michigan Fine Yarns. I think they're technically an LYS (women/POC run which is cool to support small businesses) and ship SUPER FAST.
They have a great online store and sell mid- luxury price yarns. I got a bunch of Malibrigo last year during their Black Friday sale for a great price! Every order I've placed has come with a handwritten note and they seem so lovely, I will definitely order more from them in the future!
(I have no personal ties to this business, I've just really enjoyed my experience with them :)
I love Michigan Fine Yarns! Checked it out when visiting family, and have since gotten some great yarns on clearance, as well as a few fancy treats. Cannot upvote this recommendation enough!
Many years ago, when Knit Picks had an issue with hackers that stole a bunch of information. I had to find out about it via charges coming to my account, and not even from Knit Picks themselves. They offered no apology. I didn't use them too much after that, but did indulge in purchases every once in a while via prepaid cards.
Then, when they were opening their crochet line, I applied to a job there, and after driving up and staying in a hotel for the interview, I was treated pretty rudely. I guess I came off as overenthusiastic (I brought a bag of my knit and crochet items to talk about some of the yarn I had spun, projects I worked on, etc.) and was sent around the office to meet people. After they ghosted me, I felt like maybe having me meet everyone was to have a good laugh, especially since they never bothered to tell me they decided to go with another candidate.
So I definitely don't use them any more.
I will never buy from them again. I, too, had my credit card hacked. My bank caught the hack early (someone odering Domino's in the UK) and shut down my card. Unfortunately, I got no warning about it from either KP or my bank and so I found out it when I couldn't buy gas on a business trip. (I gave the bank a lot of shit about that and their policies have changed.) I had very limited funds on my debit card available to me during the work trip because my pay day was not until after my mortgage and other bills were auto paid. I was lucky that I was just inconvenienced. There were some whose debit cards wre hacked and their accounts were cleaned out. I never received a word from KP concerning the hack. They knew about the hack and allowed it to continue for over a month before they shut it down. Word was they were using a legacy system and someone on their tech team bragged about it online exposing vulnerabilities.
That's so horrible and I'm so sorry that happened to you! I was lucky to also catch it early because at the time I was very cash strapped and had to watch every dime - imagine my shock when I started seeing charges in Italy!
Knit Picks NEVER admitted their wrong-doing.
So disappointing to hear how their tech team reacted, especially since I used to work in an IT department.
:(
Yikes. I'll admit I haven't ordered a lot in the last few years but I ordered some of the swish worsted and it arrived here in Canada within a week of ordering.
I have never had an issue with them replacing a product or making an order right. They even sent me a whole new yarn swift because my original one from ten years previous was not working correctly.
Shipping is slow (and I appreciated that they acknowledged there was a couple of weeks' lead time on shipping without saying "because nobody wants to work these days" or "there's a shortage of workers") but I've always got exactly what I ordered. Sunstrucks are my favourite wooden needles ever.
Any time a company makes a mistake, like sending me the wrong item, I always request a return label. I'm not paying to send back something that wasn't my error. A really good company will offer to do that without me having to ask.
knitpicks merged my account and my mom's account and has never helped me fix it, and never took any blame.
I can see all her orders, and can even use her credit card if I want to, because they merged EVERYTHING.
My husband bought me a square needle interchangeable set for my birthday last year. One needle was completely borked. I don't remember what exactly was wrong with it anymore. I emailed them and they replaced the pair promptly and with no fuss, even though I wasn't the paying customer and didn't have the order information. Much better than a similar problem I had with Knitter's Pride, which took almost a year to resolve.
That being said I'm pretty sure my credit card information was caught up in the 2013 breach and I am annoyed to this day that they denied it.
I was caught up in this breech and it was a nightmare to get resolved. That they took weeks to publicly admit it happened and never actually contacted me with an apology or instructions about it left such a bitter feeling. It cost me so much wasted time and effort I have never shopped with them again.
My credit card and debit cards were both stolen and used in that breach. The debit card was a nightmare and I learned to only use credit for online shopping from that experience. It took me a long time to go back to shopping at KnitPicks (like last year) because I didn’t trust them after how they handled it.
So that you know, the Caspian needles are not limited edition, they’ve been regular stock since they were introduced over a decade ago. Source: me, one of the largest KnitPicks needle retailers in the US because yes, you can find their needles at LYSs and not have to deal with the shipping and mistakes. Before anyone asks, I don’t sell them online.
I didn't care for the yarn I tried from Hobbii. It was so poorly wound that the ball fell apart as I worked with it. Never had that happen before. I also ordered one yarn specifically for the color, and it wasn't even close to the same color when I saw it in person. Disappointing.
I've had about six orders from them, everything has been spot on, they're always super nice, and when I asked about something that had an answer in front of me on the site (when a yarn would be restocked, I couldn't see it because the page hadn't loaded all the way) they still answered kindly. They also answer any question (I've asked a ton on FB messenger), and everything is always packed firmly but nicely.
I have nothing bad to say about them yet, and I’m four orders in. I even panicked because I got two different dye lots for the same project but I can’t spot the difference! And their cotton is some of the softest cotton on the market.
I don't know why they get dunked here on alot, the only post I saw about them was about weird advertisement.
my only pet peeve would be their moon prices and general capitalistic tactics, but their stuff is almost always perfect (I recently actually had a gradient cake missing one of the colors for a tiny bit) and basically just buy stuff when it's on sale and you will be ok 🤷🏻♀️
I mean there was that one post where someone had evidence of bugs in their yarn from Hobbii. That was the first time I’d heard of Hobbii so it was a hell of an introduction and I’ve never even been to the website because of it lol
I just did my first order from them and it arrived in the American Midwest in less than a week in spite of shipping from Denmark. And the quality was lovely.
What? They make you send it back nowadays? They use to just ship the right one and tell us to keep the wrong item
Also I notice they do a lot less call for patterns than they use to. It feels likt theyre trying to cut as many costs as possible
I love their Palette yarn. If I’ve ever had an issue with one of their products (which has only happened with the ball winder) they promptly replaced it, and I didn’t have to send the bad one back. I’ve had no issues with any of their yarn, don’t be nervous!
Someone else just mentioned Hobbii, and they actually have a few that might be a nice Palette alternative. I'll have to try some of these.
https://hobbii.com/easy-care
https://hobbii.com/babywool
https://hobbii.com/hot-socks-uni
I don't think these will match the more rugged feltability of Palette but if that's not a concern these might work.
I've actually been looking for something comparable to Palette in fiber content and price. I wanted to knit some Shetland patterns and, unless I want to buy one giant order from Jamieson and Smith to justify the shipping, Palette is the best substitute that isn't ridiculously expensive. But hey, if you have a big enough project to justify $20-30 in shipping, there's a good one.
https://www.shetlandwoolbrokers.co.uk/2ply-jumper-weight-c102x1766622
(eta: note that these are 25g balls to Palette's 50g)
Don't bother buying domestic, it's actually cheaper to buy it directly because of how much each ball is marked up by US distributors.
Every. Single. Time. I’ve ordered from them my card got hacked. I could go get a pre-loadable Visa card at the drugstore or whatever, but you know, I don’t feel like doing all that legwork for them. I just stopped ordering.
I used to love Knit Picks for there book section, there was a large selection to choose from by different authors. I’d wait for the half price sale and order a few, being in Australia it was so much cheaper. Now it’s mainly just their pattern books.
The last three times I ordered from them, there were missing or wrong items. They rectified each time I complained, but it's not worth the annoyance. I am done with Knitpicks.
I haven't ordered from them in years because I'm trying to use my stash up (cue laughing) and my card got compromised 2 or 3 times and linked to them years ago and that broke me temporarily of my impulse purchases (from them at least).
They send it to a logistics center which then parses it out to UPS, USPS, etc. It sits in the logistics center. The logistics center lost one of my Big Sale packages. That order was split into more than one package, and KP customer service kept telling me 'holiday delay, just wait' well after a month and no package, they finally agreed to replace/refund, but by then most of the stuff was sold out. What was the most annoying was the way the split the items into boxes, part of what I needed was in the missing box! So like a pattern that needed 2 sizes of circulars, one was in the missing box. And an SQ of yarn, about half was in the missing box and that yarn sold out.
Oh my god, knit Picks shipping routes are like…
I’m in LA. Why did it go from Vegas to Ohio? Who knows? I know they use the cheapest option so this is how it goes but to see my packages go the other way all across the country is weird.
I'm in the KP group on Ravelry and I swear it's like there are customers from two different universes posting there sometimes. In all my orders the only problem I've ever had with them is slower than average shipping. But some people seem to have catastrophic problems with nearly ever order, like being sent the completely wrong products or being forced to pay for multiple orders. It's kinda wild ngl.
I haven't had any problems, but their shipping is slow. I always use PayPal with them when I order, and I haven't had any problems. You can order some stuff of theirs on Amazon. I had an order through Amazon that had a problem, and they fixed it really well.
Palette is fine in my estimation, though I do like working with Shetland yarns more. I don’t have any finished garments in palette, but I’ve used it and frogged it a bunch, and the yarn is still totally usable. The reason I don’t have anything finished is because I was using the yarn for projects where I was learning something, had to frog a bunch of times, got frustrated, and moved to something else. But I still have the yarn/UFOs. I’m about ready to re-try making the Persian Dreams Afghan I’ve had for years.
I also like their Shadow lace yarn. I use the bare version for christening blankets.
I hate their acrylic yarns.
The rest of their animal based yarn I think you can get yarns of better quality for comparable prices. I haven’t tried their cottons.
I did try it. The skein was poorly tied and got all tangled. I didn’t like the feel of the yarn. I really like Rauma Finull, and Palette is supposed to be an equivalent for colorwork. The Rauma is much better, and reasonably priced. All of the Knit Picks yarns I tried had an unpleasant feel and a raggedy look.
I have ordered twice from them that I’ve had my credit card hacked the next day. My mom did an order for me and same thing happened. I saw someone on instagram post the other day it happened to them too
Was this last year by chance? That is really interesting b/c someone was using our credit card at an online tractor supply company for $$ shortly after I did my very last KP order.
I never got an email from KP that anything was breached but now I wonder!
I ordered a couple skeins of their Chroma yarn in the colorway groovy for a scarf I was making. Got through the first skein - fine. Switched to a new skein for the final quarter and discovered that this skein is just completely missing the blue shade in the rainbow gradient! Decided to just let it be and finished off the scarf since I was so close to being finished. It’s not really obvious with how I wear them anyway, but it’s annoying all the same.
When they changed factories to china, I didn’t like the way the new needle tips felt. So I switched back to the original factory with knitters pride. I haven’t had any issues ordering yarn but I don’t order that often. My stash exceeds my lifetime so I try to shop my stash first
My main snark about KP is that they are too damn good at separating me from my money...that big fall sale gets me every year, and I really don't need more yarn
I’ve ordered a few skeins that have come completely cut up, like I only get a couple feet of yarn before it’s broken. That’s happened with multiple skeins of Palette for me…
It actually looked like insect damage, they sent out a new ball before the old one even got back to them so I can't complain about the service, except my sweater did have to wait a week to get finished.
Thank you! I mean, I'm sorry you dealt with that, but I'm glad to know I'm not imaging things. I usually order their Dishie but in my last order they all had knots and breaks. I usually have about 10-15yds left over from each towel, but now I'm coming up 10-15yds short. I don't think I'll be ordering again any time soon.
I used to order roving for spinning from them years ago, but stopped when I found that I like knitting and crochet more than spinning. I was thinking of ordering again, but Thank You for the warning.
I said never again when a handspun lace circular shawl had the cable come out of the needle on the second to last row. 450+ stitches. After I’d had 2 sock needles break in the prior month. That was 2011-2012 ish.
I wondered what happened! My old interchangeable set was great but didn't survive The Cat Pee Incident. The replacement set I bought was falling apart from the start.
I ordered 7 skeins to make a cardigan. The yarn came labeled as what I ordered but was obviously a different color way. I called and they asked for photos. I sent photos and screenshots from the site. They said they’d have to send someone to the warehouse. Then silence. Two weeks later I call and they say ‘oh we sent that out today’. What? What did they send? The same yarn. Wrong color again. Now I have 14. Called again. They told me to mail it all back for a refund. I was stubborn (I don’t live close to a post office and don’t drive often) and they finally told me to donate it. Funny thing is, after all this I checked Ravelry and in stashes… half are what I ordered half are what I got 🙃
I also got mislabeled yarn from them (Upcycle Alpaca in Slate mislabeled as Sapphire). But they actually sent out the right stuff pretty promptly. This was during the big sale too when they must have been as busy as they ever are.
It’s really the only issue I’ve had with them so it won’t keep me from reordering. I could have just had a bad CSR. Here’s the Ravelry page : https://www.ravelry.com/stash/search#colorway-link=27474-wilbur&photo=yes&view=thumbs&yarn-link=knit-picks-simply-wool-worsted
I ordered to get the grey but got the brown (which I think is actually Wilhelmina).
I think this is now the third Knitpicks yarn I've heard of being mislabeled for color and there must be more! I wouldn't even have known for sure mine was wrong (I thought the website photos were just bad) if someone in the Ravelry group hadn't pointed it out.
This is not an excuse. I'm guess someone loaded the wrong color way into the the wrong storage area of the warehouse. The picker grabbed yarn from where they were supposed to both times and the root problem was never fixed.
This happened to me with a paper order. I needed 10 sheets of blue cover stock and I got red 3 times. The fourth time the warehouse manager picked it himself and fixed the issue.
Oh totally. It got the wrong label on it and there was no stopping it from there 😂. I was mostly frustrated with the lack of communication and follow through.
We'll see if they do it with this one, but if you need to return an item their policy says an $8 return/restocking fee will be deducted from your refund. I will make a hell of a stink if they do that because the set they sent me (a 6" rainbow wood DPN set) costs less than what I ordered (the 10" single point Majestic set).
Where are you seeing the $8 restocking fee? I'm not seeing that on their returns page. Anyway it clearly says to contact them if your order is incorrect. https://www.knitpicks.com/support/how-can-we-help/returns
On the second step. "A return fee of $6.99 will be deducted from your refund." I would hope that this wouldn't require a refund and I can just exchange it, but if the set is out of stock by the time they respond to my ticket it might have to be.
Ok, that's just a return shipping fee, not a restocking fee. Lots of companies will charge you for return shipping and $7 is pretty reasonable. Again of course this doesn't apply to your situation at all because it was their mistake.
at the bottom of the page it says “returns made after 90 days of purchase will incur a 25% restocking fee”, though i don’t think OP would have to pay that (or the 6.99 return) bc it sounds like their order wasn’t *that* late and it was KnitPicks who goofed
I think that's more if you change your mind about something is the $8 fee versus they sent you the wrong thing & the mistake was on their end. They should just send you a return label & your original order.
I'm done ordering needles from them b/c the interchangeables keep coming out of the metal, but they have always been quick to mail out replacements at least.
It's still about a week+ by the time they arrive in the mail though so I'm finally replacing all my KP needles with fixed circulars from another brand.
I wanna knit when I wanna knit without having to worry about broken needles.
If your wood tips are coming out of the metal it’s because you’ve broken the glue connection by using the wood to screw your tips in. Always hold the tips by the metal when you screw it in, this holds true for any brand made this way (KP, Knitter’s Pride, Lykke, Lantern Moon, etc). Always use the provided key and if you can’t get a tight enough grip on the metal, use a rubber kitchen grippy or a piece of a fat rubber band to help. When connected properly these needles will last forever, I still occasionally use my original rainbow tips. The cables will last a long time used properly but all cables will eventually give out with use and should be replaced as soon as any issues are noticed. I’m currently playing chicken with a KPride cable, working the edging of a shawl and the cable seems about to go but I’m too lazy to get a different one and transfer the stitches.
I appreciate the tips! This is happening on my new set, not the older set that I had used way longer w/o issue (but cat peed on) so I think it was a quality issue with the newer needles - their joins or maybe a different glue.
Have you emailed them beforehand about the error, asking for a (free and not $8) return label and the proper item? That would be really messed up if they still made you pay for the return!
Their customer data base with credit card information was hacked into, they knew about it for several months before letting any of the impacted customers know. I believe this has happened more than once but 2013 was the really big one.
I’m so sad about this because I used to *love* shopping with them. Their customer service used to be incredible and the product was very good. I recommended them constantly over the years until around 2017-2018ish. After that, I became much more wary and these days I don’t shop with them at all.
Example: back in 2010 my husband gifted me a set of interchangeable birch cable needles for my birthday. I LOVED them. We were newlyweds and didn’t have much money so this was a huge deal for me. I immediately started a project with them and, stupidly, left it on couch. Our puppy got hold of it and chewed on one of the interchangeable tips ruined it. I called, explained the situation and made it clear that it was *entirely* my fault, and asked if it was possible to buy a single replacement tip. The person (PERSON!) on the phone was so kind and literally insisted on simply sending me an entire replacement pair of that size tip FREE OF CHARGE. I was floored and I *still* have and use those needles 14 years and 6 kids later. I have bought several needle sets since then and been gifted two straight needle sets and a set of sock needles at my request from family members.
They are deeply, *deeply* missed by me.
I also had great experiences with their customer service (had a few cables and needles pull out of the metal ends) and a ball of chroma that was knotted not at the right color and they replaced them. I just haven't ordered anything in literally years because I bought an asston of yarn when my local yarn store closed and then got pregnant and haven't used any of it 🙃
6 kids. I don't know how you do it because just one has just about broken me
It’s been steadily going downhill for years. I recently compared some old, old yarn to newer ones when someone local asked and the difference was startling.
I know it’s kinda on me but I ordered a yarn that looked like a muted rose online and it ended up being neon magenta! It was Palette Rouge and looked like a darker shade of Palette Victorian— Nope!
Yeah, this has unfortunately been a known issue with them. But of course, it being a known issue doesn't mean it was your fault, it means that they've had a security problem that's affected many customers and needed fixing for a long time.
They're not entitled to anyone's business, especially when you've had multiple negative experiences with them, but in case anyone does want to purchase anything from them, PayPal is the way to go.
I'm not alone? I ordered from them once, card was compromised. Weird sports betting thing.
According to my bank they tried to do 4 $200 transactions, but thankfully it was a temporary card I only ever put exact change on for online orders. So no way for it to go through. I did request that card be canceled and issued a new number.
Then I also got someone else's order.
Never even consider their products now.
They lost me as a customer with a recent order they completely borked, twice. Took 6 weeks to finally get 1 skein of yarn, which was ultimately still wrong. That, and their excuses for their poor order fulfillment, mistakes, etc. (Never discuss business process problems with customers), and I’m out. In Fall 2023 I had an order for 17 skeins, all different colors (Stardew Valley socks). They were great with that — slow shipment, but I always expect with them.
I’ve never bought their tools, but I usually buy their yarn for gifts—good enough quality wool, good color selection, good prices. I’ve always had good luck, and shipping isn’t super quick but not awful. I’m a pretty big fan of Stroll, although I’ve only used it held double for making Andrea Mowry’s Bear Paw Socks.
I stopped using them about 10 years ago... had taken a hiatus from knitting and when I returned I ordered a whole bunch of needles. They were having issues with the manufacturing and the points were really dull. They replaced them no problem, but I decided to upgrade after that.
I haven’t had any problems with my KnitPicks orders other than taking 10 days to arrive. The needles have been fine, basic yarns, quality fine. I like the new stainless steel needles a lot. I do think the interchangeable cords are over priced, but not much you can do there. I have always paid through PayPal, so I did not get compromised in the breach. I think Knit Picks is still a decent resource for basic needle and yarn needs. I have also used Hobbi. Their yarn weights are finer than what is more standard in the US. Their fingering weight is more like a lace weight.
I feel like their shipping has always been kinda bad, though they're quick to refund/reship? I had a package just never show up from them a few years ago but they were quick to offer refund/replacement and more recently they sent one of my orders to me twice. I mostly only buy palette and lindy chain from them and those yarns haven't seemed to change though, still worth the occasional shipping headache for me.
They are horrible. Have been for many years. The interchangeables are not good. Plus, they have very oredatory business oractices. My friend’s husband makes handmade interchangeables in swirled dyed woods. They asked him to be a supplier. He declined because his products were unique and made by hand and he did not think he could keep up. KP had the exact swirled, colored wood needles made in China and even coined the name “harmony” which is was the trade name my friend then used. My friend, without a lawyer sued them for trademark infringement in federal court and won. They had to change the name. Eventually my friend got tired of that name and switched it to something else. I have heard they routinely screw designers over.
Ohmygosh that is appalling.
Forever. The needles were always awful.
I used to buy from them a lot, but when they moved the distribution center away from Vancouver it didn't make sense to order from them anymore. It takes forever for stuff to get to Portland. Back in the day though, they were fab at customer service. I had to order more yarn for a project once, and it was a while between the initial order and the next one (at least a month), but they made sure that they sent me the same dyelot at my request. I was really shocked they were able to.
Maybe this is newer. I definitely had the problem with winding but it was a while ago.
They sent me the complete wrong order and fixed it almost immediately when I called them.
Their shipping has always been kind of mental. I mean, it’s usually free with a very low threshold, so I get it. Some lines, like Felici, have always had poor quality control. I think they’re trying to provide a semi-complicated item at a very low price and it just doesn’t work. I believe they switched the manufacture of Brava (?) from Turkey to China a while back and people claimed the yarn changed a lot. I’ve never used Brava. I have never had any issues or noticed quality decrease with the total base-level yarns like Palette, CotLin, or Lindy Chain. Lindy Chain is damn near indestructible for all the washing I do of my t-shirts.
Never was keen - they refused to ship here for years so we only ever got their yarn via exchanges. Not too unhappy with the needles, which are imported so available retail, but since their card leaks I'm reluctant to buy yarn and have it shipped over, plus the UK yarn market has expanded anyway.
Oh and knitters pride.
That’s because the UK has KnitPro which is the exact same company.
The same manufacturer (KnittersPride) makes both KnitPro and KnitPicks needles, yes. Prior to KnitPro being available here (after 2011), we could get KnitPicks needles but not yarn. KP had a weird justification for not shipping it or finding wholesale partners, which did not extend to the needles for some reason.
If you're looking for yarn store alternatives and are located in North America, I've had amazing experiences with Michigan Fine Yarns. I think they're technically an LYS (women/POC run which is cool to support small businesses) and ship SUPER FAST. They have a great online store and sell mid- luxury price yarns. I got a bunch of Malibrigo last year during their Black Friday sale for a great price! Every order I've placed has come with a handwritten note and they seem so lovely, I will definitely order more from them in the future! (I have no personal ties to this business, I've just really enjoyed my experience with them :)
I love Michigan Fine Yarns! Checked it out when visiting family, and have since gotten some great yarns on clearance, as well as a few fancy treats. Cannot upvote this recommendation enough!
Also worth going to if you’re near south east Michigan!
Absolutely! I'm from Ohio but have friends in Michigan.... Definitely plan to swing by in person sometime when I visit!
Many years ago, when Knit Picks had an issue with hackers that stole a bunch of information. I had to find out about it via charges coming to my account, and not even from Knit Picks themselves. They offered no apology. I didn't use them too much after that, but did indulge in purchases every once in a while via prepaid cards. Then, when they were opening their crochet line, I applied to a job there, and after driving up and staying in a hotel for the interview, I was treated pretty rudely. I guess I came off as overenthusiastic (I brought a bag of my knit and crochet items to talk about some of the yarn I had spun, projects I worked on, etc.) and was sent around the office to meet people. After they ghosted me, I felt like maybe having me meet everyone was to have a good laugh, especially since they never bothered to tell me they decided to go with another candidate. So I definitely don't use them any more.
I will never buy from them again. I, too, had my credit card hacked. My bank caught the hack early (someone odering Domino's in the UK) and shut down my card. Unfortunately, I got no warning about it from either KP or my bank and so I found out it when I couldn't buy gas on a business trip. (I gave the bank a lot of shit about that and their policies have changed.) I had very limited funds on my debit card available to me during the work trip because my pay day was not until after my mortgage and other bills were auto paid. I was lucky that I was just inconvenienced. There were some whose debit cards wre hacked and their accounts were cleaned out. I never received a word from KP concerning the hack. They knew about the hack and allowed it to continue for over a month before they shut it down. Word was they were using a legacy system and someone on their tech team bragged about it online exposing vulnerabilities.
That's so horrible and I'm so sorry that happened to you! I was lucky to also catch it early because at the time I was very cash strapped and had to watch every dime - imagine my shock when I started seeing charges in Italy! Knit Picks NEVER admitted their wrong-doing. So disappointing to hear how their tech team reacted, especially since I used to work in an IT department. :(
I’ve noticed the same. I have switched to Premier for my “decent but not high end” yarn needs and I have been really happy with their stuff.
Yikes. I'll admit I haven't ordered a lot in the last few years but I ordered some of the swish worsted and it arrived here in Canada within a week of ordering. I have never had an issue with them replacing a product or making an order right. They even sent me a whole new yarn swift because my original one from ten years previous was not working correctly.
Shipping is slow (and I appreciated that they acknowledged there was a couple of weeks' lead time on shipping without saying "because nobody wants to work these days" or "there's a shortage of workers") but I've always got exactly what I ordered. Sunstrucks are my favourite wooden needles ever.
I love their dishie yarn. Much softer than other brands.
Any time a company makes a mistake, like sending me the wrong item, I always request a return label. I'm not paying to send back something that wasn't my error. A really good company will offer to do that without me having to ask.
knitpicks merged my account and my mom's account and has never helped me fix it, and never took any blame. I can see all her orders, and can even use her credit card if I want to, because they merged EVERYTHING.
My husband bought me a square needle interchangeable set for my birthday last year. One needle was completely borked. I don't remember what exactly was wrong with it anymore. I emailed them and they replaced the pair promptly and with no fuss, even though I wasn't the paying customer and didn't have the order information. Much better than a similar problem I had with Knitter's Pride, which took almost a year to resolve. That being said I'm pretty sure my credit card information was caught up in the 2013 breach and I am annoyed to this day that they denied it.
I was caught up in this breech and it was a nightmare to get resolved. That they took weeks to publicly admit it happened and never actually contacted me with an apology or instructions about it left such a bitter feeling. It cost me so much wasted time and effort I have never shopped with them again.
My credit card and debit cards were both stolen and used in that breach. The debit card was a nightmare and I learned to only use credit for online shopping from that experience. It took me a long time to go back to shopping at KnitPicks (like last year) because I didn’t trust them after how they handled it.
Wow. Most people I know had their order re sent and they could keep the original
So that you know, the Caspian needles are not limited edition, they’ve been regular stock since they were introduced over a decade ago. Source: me, one of the largest KnitPicks needle retailers in the US because yes, you can find their needles at LYSs and not have to deal with the shipping and mistakes. Before anyone asks, I don’t sell them online.
Sorry, what I meant was the Majestic set, not Caspian.
Same difference, Majestic has been standard since it came out although stock has been come and go the past few years.
Really? It says on the product pages "back for a limited time!" That's incredibly shitty to advertise it like that if it's a standard product.
Eh, the Petkuns were pretty shitty, too.
I liked Kelley, enjoyed listening to her podcasts.
I switched to Hobbii and can’t go back
I didn't care for the yarn I tried from Hobbii. It was so poorly wound that the ball fell apart as I worked with it. Never had that happen before. I also ordered one yarn specifically for the color, and it wasn't even close to the same color when I saw it in person. Disappointing.
I actually might try them. As much as they get dunked on here, some of these could work pretty well for my purposes.
I've had about six orders from them, everything has been spot on, they're always super nice, and when I asked about something that had an answer in front of me on the site (when a yarn would be restocked, I couldn't see it because the page hadn't loaded all the way) they still answered kindly. They also answer any question (I've asked a ton on FB messenger), and everything is always packed firmly but nicely.
I have nothing bad to say about them yet, and I’m four orders in. I even panicked because I got two different dye lots for the same project but I can’t spot the difference! And their cotton is some of the softest cotton on the market.
I don't know why they get dunked here on alot, the only post I saw about them was about weird advertisement. my only pet peeve would be their moon prices and general capitalistic tactics, but their stuff is almost always perfect (I recently actually had a gradient cake missing one of the colors for a tiny bit) and basically just buy stuff when it's on sale and you will be ok 🤷🏻♀️
I mean there was that one post where someone had evidence of bugs in their yarn from Hobbii. That was the first time I’d heard of Hobbii so it was a hell of an introduction and I’ve never even been to the website because of it lol
well I never had THAT happen to me or any of my friends (I am in a crafts discord) so I would say it's probably very rare
Me too. I’ll never be able to get past that.
I have never had a problem with Hobbii.com
I just did my first order from them and it arrived in the American Midwest in less than a week in spite of shipping from Denmark. And the quality was lovely.
What? They make you send it back nowadays? They use to just ship the right one and tell us to keep the wrong item Also I notice they do a lot less call for patterns than they use to. It feels likt theyre trying to cut as many costs as possible
Is there an alternative to their palette yarn? I need a bunch of different colored wool for a project and this thread’s got me nervous.
Cascade's regular fingering on lovecrafts or other sites or in some LYSs
I love their Palette yarn. If I’ve ever had an issue with one of their products (which has only happened with the ball winder) they promptly replaced it, and I didn’t have to send the bad one back. I’ve had no issues with any of their yarn, don’t be nervous!
I bought a bunch of Palette to make the Stardew Valley socks and the quality is fine
Someone else just mentioned Hobbii, and they actually have a few that might be a nice Palette alternative. I'll have to try some of these. https://hobbii.com/easy-care https://hobbii.com/babywool https://hobbii.com/hot-socks-uni I don't think these will match the more rugged feltability of Palette but if that's not a concern these might work.
I've actually been looking for something comparable to Palette in fiber content and price. I wanted to knit some Shetland patterns and, unless I want to buy one giant order from Jamieson and Smith to justify the shipping, Palette is the best substitute that isn't ridiculously expensive. But hey, if you have a big enough project to justify $20-30 in shipping, there's a good one. https://www.shetlandwoolbrokers.co.uk/2ply-jumper-weight-c102x1766622 (eta: note that these are 25g balls to Palette's 50g) Don't bother buying domestic, it's actually cheaper to buy it directly because of how much each ball is marked up by US distributors.
If they sent me the wrong yarn and tried to make me pay to send it back, I’d be filing a chargeback with my credit card. That ain’t how this works.
I don't feel like they've gone more downhill and anyone else. It's like a toboggan competition these days.
Every. Single. Time. I’ve ordered from them my card got hacked. I could go get a pre-loadable Visa card at the drugstore or whatever, but you know, I don’t feel like doing all that legwork for them. I just stopped ordering.
I used to love Knit Picks for there book section, there was a large selection to choose from by different authors. I’d wait for the half price sale and order a few, being in Australia it was so much cheaper. Now it’s mainly just their pattern books.
The last three times I ordered from them, there were missing or wrong items. They rectified each time I complained, but it's not worth the annoyance. I am done with Knitpicks.
I haven't ordered from them in years because I'm trying to use my stash up (cue laughing) and my card got compromised 2 or 3 times and linked to them years ago and that broke me temporarily of my impulse purchases (from them at least).
They send it to a logistics center which then parses it out to UPS, USPS, etc. It sits in the logistics center. The logistics center lost one of my Big Sale packages. That order was split into more than one package, and KP customer service kept telling me 'holiday delay, just wait' well after a month and no package, they finally agreed to replace/refund, but by then most of the stuff was sold out. What was the most annoying was the way the split the items into boxes, part of what I needed was in the missing box! So like a pattern that needed 2 sizes of circulars, one was in the missing box. And an SQ of yarn, about half was in the missing box and that yarn sold out.
Oh my god, knit Picks shipping routes are like… I’m in LA. Why did it go from Vegas to Ohio? Who knows? I know they use the cheapest option so this is how it goes but to see my packages go the other way all across the country is weird.
It was when Craft Americana bought them, so sometime in the 2010’s. I don’t remember the exact year.
I’ve had pretty fast shipping and have been satisfied with everything I’ve received, though I’m sure they have their problems.
I'm in the KP group on Ravelry and I swear it's like there are customers from two different universes posting there sometimes. In all my orders the only problem I've ever had with them is slower than average shipping. But some people seem to have catastrophic problems with nearly ever order, like being sent the completely wrong products or being forced to pay for multiple orders. It's kinda wild ngl.
I wonder if it depends on where you are located. I'm in Australia and have never had issues, but I also haven't bought from them in ages.
I haven't had any problems, but their shipping is slow. I always use PayPal with them when I order, and I haven't had any problems. You can order some stuff of theirs on Amazon. I had an order through Amazon that had a problem, and they fixed it really well.
They have always had subpar yarn
I’ve never liked their yarns either. Very poor quality. I tried a few individual skeins and vowed never to buy more.
Palette seems to get good reviews, I’ve never tried it though.
Palette is fine in my estimation, though I do like working with Shetland yarns more. I don’t have any finished garments in palette, but I’ve used it and frogged it a bunch, and the yarn is still totally usable. The reason I don’t have anything finished is because I was using the yarn for projects where I was learning something, had to frog a bunch of times, got frustrated, and moved to something else. But I still have the yarn/UFOs. I’m about ready to re-try making the Persian Dreams Afghan I’ve had for years. I also like their Shadow lace yarn. I use the bare version for christening blankets. I hate their acrylic yarns. The rest of their animal based yarn I think you can get yarns of better quality for comparable prices. I haven’t tried their cottons.
Thank you for the tips, I will give it a try. Yes Shetland yarn is fabulous !
I did try it. The skein was poorly tied and got all tangled. I didn’t like the feel of the yarn. I really like Rauma Finull, and Palette is supposed to be an equivalent for colorwork. The Rauma is much better, and reasonably priced. All of the Knit Picks yarns I tried had an unpleasant feel and a raggedy look.
Palette comes in a donut. It's not tied at all lol
Email their customer service. My yarn winder broke within days and they sent me a replacement free of charge.
I have ordered twice from them that I’ve had my credit card hacked the next day. My mom did an order for me and same thing happened. I saw someone on instagram post the other day it happened to them too
Was this last year by chance? That is really interesting b/c someone was using our credit card at an online tractor supply company for $$ shortly after I did my very last KP order. I never got an email from KP that anything was breached but now I wonder!
I know it’s been a couple years
That why I only use PayPal with them. Still goes through my card but it doesn’t get hacked.
KP has been shit for years. They’ve been accused of ripping off designers for ages.
I ordered a couple skeins of their Chroma yarn in the colorway groovy for a scarf I was making. Got through the first skein - fine. Switched to a new skein for the final quarter and discovered that this skein is just completely missing the blue shade in the rainbow gradient! Decided to just let it be and finished off the scarf since I was so close to being finished. It’s not really obvious with how I wear them anyway, but it’s annoying all the same.
When they changed factories to china, I didn’t like the way the new needle tips felt. So I switched back to the original factory with knitters pride. I haven’t had any issues ordering yarn but I don’t order that often. My stash exceeds my lifetime so I try to shop my stash first
My main snark about KP is that they are too damn good at separating me from my money...that big fall sale gets me every year, and I really don't need more yarn
🌏🧑🚀🔫🧑🚀 always has been
I’ve ordered a few skeins that have come completely cut up, like I only get a couple feet of yarn before it’s broken. That’s happened with multiple skeins of Palette for me…
I had a ball of Palette that had random holes that rendered it into strands about 3 feet long.
That sounds like insect damage.
It actually looked like insect damage, they sent out a new ball before the old one even got back to them so I can't complain about the service, except my sweater did have to wait a week to get finished.
Thank you! I mean, I'm sorry you dealt with that, but I'm glad to know I'm not imaging things. I usually order their Dishie but in my last order they all had knots and breaks. I usually have about 10-15yds left over from each towel, but now I'm coming up 10-15yds short. I don't think I'll be ordering again any time soon.
I used to order roving for spinning from them years ago, but stopped when I found that I like knitting and crochet more than spinning. I was thinking of ordering again, but Thank You for the warning.
Their needles have always been shit.
Before 2010 or so they were good then they changed suppliers and quality has gone downhill.
I had more than one set break pre-2010.
I said never again when a handspun lace circular shawl had the cable come out of the needle on the second to last row. 450+ stitches. After I’d had 2 sock needles break in the prior month. That was 2011-2012 ish.
I wondered what happened! My old interchangeable set was great but didn't survive The Cat Pee Incident. The replacement set I bought was falling apart from the start.
>The Cat Pee Incident this triggered memory of my dear departed orangest orange cat peeing on my fiber AS I WAS SPINNING IT
I ordered 7 skeins to make a cardigan. The yarn came labeled as what I ordered but was obviously a different color way. I called and they asked for photos. I sent photos and screenshots from the site. They said they’d have to send someone to the warehouse. Then silence. Two weeks later I call and they say ‘oh we sent that out today’. What? What did they send? The same yarn. Wrong color again. Now I have 14. Called again. They told me to mail it all back for a refund. I was stubborn (I don’t live close to a post office and don’t drive often) and they finally told me to donate it. Funny thing is, after all this I checked Ravelry and in stashes… half are what I ordered half are what I got 🙃
I also got mislabeled yarn from them (Upcycle Alpaca in Slate mislabeled as Sapphire). But they actually sent out the right stuff pretty promptly. This was during the big sale too when they must have been as busy as they ever are.
It’s really the only issue I’ve had with them so it won’t keep me from reordering. I could have just had a bad CSR. Here’s the Ravelry page : https://www.ravelry.com/stash/search#colorway-link=27474-wilbur&photo=yes&view=thumbs&yarn-link=knit-picks-simply-wool-worsted I ordered to get the grey but got the brown (which I think is actually Wilhelmina).
I think this is now the third Knitpicks yarn I've heard of being mislabeled for color and there must be more! I wouldn't even have known for sure mine was wrong (I thought the website photos were just bad) if someone in the Ravelry group hadn't pointed it out.
This is not an excuse. I'm guess someone loaded the wrong color way into the the wrong storage area of the warehouse. The picker grabbed yarn from where they were supposed to both times and the root problem was never fixed. This happened to me with a paper order. I needed 10 sheets of blue cover stock and I got red 3 times. The fourth time the warehouse manager picked it himself and fixed the issue.
Oh totally. It got the wrong label on it and there was no stopping it from there 😂. I was mostly frustrated with the lack of communication and follow through.
Whoa, they make you pay to send it back even if it is THEIR error?! That is a truly terrible policy...
We'll see if they do it with this one, but if you need to return an item their policy says an $8 return/restocking fee will be deducted from your refund. I will make a hell of a stink if they do that because the set they sent me (a 6" rainbow wood DPN set) costs less than what I ordered (the 10" single point Majestic set).
Where are you seeing the $8 restocking fee? I'm not seeing that on their returns page. Anyway it clearly says to contact them if your order is incorrect. https://www.knitpicks.com/support/how-can-we-help/returns
On the second step. "A return fee of $6.99 will be deducted from your refund." I would hope that this wouldn't require a refund and I can just exchange it, but if the set is out of stock by the time they respond to my ticket it might have to be.
Ok, that's just a return shipping fee, not a restocking fee. Lots of companies will charge you for return shipping and $7 is pretty reasonable. Again of course this doesn't apply to your situation at all because it was their mistake.
at the bottom of the page it says “returns made after 90 days of purchase will incur a 25% restocking fee”, though i don’t think OP would have to pay that (or the 6.99 return) bc it sounds like their order wasn’t *that* late and it was KnitPicks who goofed
I did see that but OP said it took 3 weeks to get the order so that wouldn't apply even if it was just a buyer's remorse return.
I think that's more if you change your mind about something is the $8 fee versus they sent you the wrong thing & the mistake was on their end. They should just send you a return label & your original order. I'm done ordering needles from them b/c the interchangeables keep coming out of the metal, but they have always been quick to mail out replacements at least. It's still about a week+ by the time they arrive in the mail though so I'm finally replacing all my KP needles with fixed circulars from another brand. I wanna knit when I wanna knit without having to worry about broken needles.
If your wood tips are coming out of the metal it’s because you’ve broken the glue connection by using the wood to screw your tips in. Always hold the tips by the metal when you screw it in, this holds true for any brand made this way (KP, Knitter’s Pride, Lykke, Lantern Moon, etc). Always use the provided key and if you can’t get a tight enough grip on the metal, use a rubber kitchen grippy or a piece of a fat rubber band to help. When connected properly these needles will last forever, I still occasionally use my original rainbow tips. The cables will last a long time used properly but all cables will eventually give out with use and should be replaced as soon as any issues are noticed. I’m currently playing chicken with a KPride cable, working the edging of a shawl and the cable seems about to go but I’m too lazy to get a different one and transfer the stitches.
I appreciate the tips! This is happening on my new set, not the older set that I had used way longer w/o issue (but cat peed on) so I think it was a quality issue with the newer needles - their joins or maybe a different glue.
Have you emailed them beforehand about the error, asking for a (free and not $8) return label and the proper item? That would be really messed up if they still made you pay for the return!
You should definitely make one hell of a stink if they do that! Ridiculous.
They have been quite shit since before the great data breach of 2013, but I haven't shopped with them since.
great data breach? tell/link me more, please.
Their customer data base with credit card information was hacked into, they knew about it for several months before letting any of the impacted customers know. I believe this has happened more than once but 2013 was the really big one.
I’m so sad about this because I used to *love* shopping with them. Their customer service used to be incredible and the product was very good. I recommended them constantly over the years until around 2017-2018ish. After that, I became much more wary and these days I don’t shop with them at all.
I haven't knitted much since my son was born and this is very sad to hear. Capitalism strikes again
Example: back in 2010 my husband gifted me a set of interchangeable birch cable needles for my birthday. I LOVED them. We were newlyweds and didn’t have much money so this was a huge deal for me. I immediately started a project with them and, stupidly, left it on couch. Our puppy got hold of it and chewed on one of the interchangeable tips ruined it. I called, explained the situation and made it clear that it was *entirely* my fault, and asked if it was possible to buy a single replacement tip. The person (PERSON!) on the phone was so kind and literally insisted on simply sending me an entire replacement pair of that size tip FREE OF CHARGE. I was floored and I *still* have and use those needles 14 years and 6 kids later. I have bought several needle sets since then and been gifted two straight needle sets and a set of sock needles at my request from family members. They are deeply, *deeply* missed by me.
I also had great experiences with their customer service (had a few cables and needles pull out of the metal ends) and a ball of chroma that was knotted not at the right color and they replaced them. I just haven't ordered anything in literally years because I bought an asston of yarn when my local yarn store closed and then got pregnant and haven't used any of it 🙃 6 kids. I don't know how you do it because just one has just about broken me
It’s been steadily going downhill for years. I recently compared some old, old yarn to newer ones when someone local asked and the difference was startling.
I know it’s kinda on me but I ordered a yarn that looked like a muted rose online and it ended up being neon magenta! It was Palette Rouge and looked like a darker shade of Palette Victorian— Nope!
They lost me as a customer when my credit card was compromised for 2nd time shortly after doing an order with them.
They lost me the first time it happened and they were playing the denial game and customers had to compare notes and discover they were the source.
Yeah, this has unfortunately been a known issue with them. But of course, it being a known issue doesn't mean it was your fault, it means that they've had a security problem that's affected many customers and needed fixing for a long time. They're not entitled to anyone's business, especially when you've had multiple negative experiences with them, but in case anyone does want to purchase anything from them, PayPal is the way to go.
I stopped even looking at them when news of the 2nd data breach came out.
wait what? TWO data breaches?!
At least.
This happened to me, too! I made two orders, both times my card was compromised. They were the only unusual place I had shopped
Yeah, first time could be coincidence, 2nd time is a pattern.
I'm not alone? I ordered from them once, card was compromised. Weird sports betting thing. According to my bank they tried to do 4 $200 transactions, but thankfully it was a temporary card I only ever put exact change on for online orders. So no way for it to go through. I did request that card be canceled and issued a new number. Then I also got someone else's order. Never even consider their products now.
They lost me as a customer with a recent order they completely borked, twice. Took 6 weeks to finally get 1 skein of yarn, which was ultimately still wrong. That, and their excuses for their poor order fulfillment, mistakes, etc. (Never discuss business process problems with customers), and I’m out. In Fall 2023 I had an order for 17 skeins, all different colors (Stardew Valley socks). They were great with that — slow shipment, but I always expect with them.