Debbie Bliss brings me no bliss…
Long time readers of my blog may remember my rant back in February about Debbie Bliss Pure Cashmere coming up short? Well, it’s happened again.
Back when I bought the Pure Cashmere I also bought a pack of 10 50g balls of Debbie Bliss Merino DK also in a pillar box red (I was having a red phase) in order to knit myself a bright red cardigan. It sat in the stash for a while waiting for a pattern until I found this cardigan pattern
from Debbie Bliss book Cashmerino DK printed in the Dec issue of Simply Knitting. I decided it would be perfect for my red wool and although the stated yarn for the pattern was Cashmerino DK I checked the Merino DK I had and it stated the same tension and the same yardage per ball. The smallest size shown was 10/12 and required 10 balls - exactly what I had, so I cast on.
I completed the back and the fronts some time ago, I blogged about my progress back in March
and again in May
and was really pleased with how it was turning out. However, it then got shelved for a while as other projects took priority. This week I dug it back out to complete it as I only had the sleeves, the collar and the finishing to do.
The first sleeve knitted up very quickly and I got a lot of it done at knitting group on Monday night. That sleeve was completed yesterday evening which is when I got something of a disappointing surprise.
I checked the bag to get the remaining balls of yarn out to find that there was only one left, I had part of a ball left after casting off on the first sleeve and one unstarted ball and that was it with still one sleeve, the collar and sewing up to do.
Checking the first sleeve I had used the remainder of one ball, another full ball and the start of one more ball - so probably the best part of two balls and yet I only had one ball left. With my previous experience with Debbie Bliss yarn being short on yardage my heart sank…
Here is where I’ve got to on sleeve two with the yarn I had left on my penultimate ball
I have knitted to exactly where I started a new ball on the first sleeve and as you can see I only have about enough yarn to knit one more row. (Remember, I only have one ball left out of my 10). As you can see from the first, completed, sleeve I joined in another ball just before the start of the top shaping so from where I am now a full ball is going to take me to the start of the top shaping and that’s it….I am going to be left with the top shaping, the collar and the finishing to be done and no yarn left.
I am so angry I just can’t tell you - and this problem reminded me that I had the previous problem with the Pure Cashmere and that I had never had that resolved. To remind everyone, I bought 4 very expensive 25g skeins of Debbie Bliss Pure Cashmere and the Debbie Bliss Pure Cashmere pattern book, started knitting a hat which should take 2 skeins and ran out before I even reached the top shaping.
I checked my tension, checked the pattern and eventually measured the skeins and found that neither were even 37 metres long even though the ball band states 45m. This might not sound like much but it’s an 18% discrepancy and remember this yarn was £28 including postage.
I had tried to contact the UK distributors for Debbie Bliss yarns, Designer Yarns Ltd and had sent at least 4 emails and a contact via their website at the end of Feb beginning of March and got absolutely no response. Nil, nada, zip.
Can you believe that? I also left a telephone message back in March - still no response. And now I seem to have the same issue with another Debbie Bliss yarn.
I tried Debbie Bliss’ own website, can you believe that there is no contact information on there at all? No email, address or even a contact form. I tried the Designer Yarns online web contact form again and I’m waiting to here back…..
I remembered that when I discovered the Cashmere shortage I had found someone else online complaining of short yardage but wondered if there were other Debbie Bliss yarns that other people had found coming up short.
Well, after a brief search I came across this posting on a forum where someone found Debbie Bliss Donegal Tweed DK came up short…….
…I’ll let you know what happens but meantime I have a cardigan with only one and a half sleeves, reminds me of that fairytale about the princes who were turned into geese….
Blogged with Flock
July 4th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
WOW. I have no words. But thanks for posting about the shortage problem.
July 4th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
That is so annoying. I am tempted to go home and measure the balls of Baby Cashmerino I have. Two of the JL haberdashery people come to our knitting group and they are always complaining about Designer Yarns - how they are an awful company to deal with and never send the right things. Good luck with getting things sorted. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
July 5th, 2007 at 3:27 am
Wow! I would be totally bummed if I were you. I hope you don’t give up and will continue to try to contact them.
July 5th, 2007 at 4:34 am
That is unbelievable. I would have been spitting nails if it were me - twice with one company’s yarn (and supposedly a premier yarn at that!) is just ridiculous. And you couldn’t even get them to return the contact. Rude. Can you report them to some authority for false advertising - you know, if brand X claims to have 15% sultanas in their cereal but regularly have 10%, there’s usually some consumer group that will safeguard the general public. A lot of labour/time goes into knitting and not even getting a response from the company is quite offensive.
I’ll let my LYS know of this problem; Fay’s been thinking of stocking DB yarns but she’ll think again if her customers are going to be coming up short and demanding compensation in terms of extra balls to complete yardage for their projects.
July 5th, 2007 at 8:32 pm
Oh no, that so totally sucks!
I’m so sorry that’s happened.
July 21st, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Did you ever find any contact info for Debbie Bliss? I am trying to knit a pattern of hers and line 4 makes no sense. I am in a large knitting guild and our resident experts cannot make sense of it either. Please email me with any contact info that you find (if you ever do find any). I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks,
Maureen
July 31st, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Have you tried contacting the yarn shop you bought it from (I know you said that the price “included shipping”, so the online store)? Just a thought that they could get in touch with their rep for you or something. Retailers don’t like it when their customers aren’t happy so maybe if you get them involved then things might start to happen.
So sorry about all this! It sucks!
October 21st, 2007 at 4:37 pm
Hi there
Would you be able to give me the email address that you used to contact Debbie Bliss? I am struggling with reading a pattern and need some help for it - it is the simple wrapover from the alpaca silk book just in case you happen to know it and can help me instead!
Thanks
Bryony
January 11th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
I’m having a problem with one of her patterns, it doesn’t remotely have enough rows to produce the required length and my tension is correct according to the book. 96 rows is nowhere near enough for the back of a cardigan - surely there should be 200+!
January 15th, 2008 at 10:55 am
I’m about to enter DB hell I suspect! I had 10 50g DB balls cotton angora, been in my stash a while. Found a DB pattern, needs 15 balls! I’ve just received my online purchase of extra balls to find the yardage on the new ones is 78m and the old ones and every other ball I’ve seen online is 90m. The yarns do not resemble each other but have the same needle size and tension gauge. How about that! In all my 40 years of knitting, never seen such a thing. Nothing wrong with the retailer. She’d put in the yardage (I went back to check) but who’d have thought you’d need to be so thorough to check that? I’m looking for a DB contact and came across this site as it occurred to me that DB isn’t easy to track down. Also emailing retailer to hear her views. I also tried a DB tea cosy last year and it came out totally wrong! Couldn’t work out what went wrong. I followed the pattern properly, etc. Again, never happened to me before in all my years of knitting. I’ll plough on with my complaint. Let you know maybe how it progresses. Gillian
January 15th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
I am also trying to find an email address as I have a question about a quick baby knit pattern. Does any one have it???
February 17th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
The telephone number for debbie bliss yarns is 01535 664222 and they tried to be helpful by looking in their stock room for the wool I have run out of (Marino DK colour 225005), like you I am on the last sleeve and haven’t enough to finish the garment. I am so-so cross and can’t seem to get a couple of balls anywhere. If there is anyone who can help, please let me know.
February 20th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
I am delighted to say I have achieved success in my search for Debbie Bliss DK Marino. The colour I wanted looked like your second article - colour 005 and even the right dye lot - 72.
She has 6 No. 50 gm balls left and also has a good quantity of gold and beige.
The lady to whom I owe all of this is Pat Baxter
The Craft Cottage
The Mews Courtyard
Main Street, Kirkby Lonsdale, LA6 2AJ
Her email address is www.thecraftcottage.co.uk
She only opens Thursday Friday and Saturday so it may take her a while to respond if you catch her wrong
She was really helpful and is sending me my order.
Best of luck
Margaret
March 12th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
My Debbie Bliss problem is that both balls of baby cashmerino I am using have knots in them. This is totally unacceptable in what is a very expensive product, especially as it is on a tie-front bolero and the first knot came in the middle of a very long row. I unpicked to the end and started again but would like to complain to Debbie Bliss about it. However I can find no contact details anywhere. Is anyone able to help??
March 26th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
I’ve just come across this website and want to share with you my DB cotton Cashmere crisis! Yes, you’ve guessed it i’m out of wool desipte buying the number of balls stated in the pattern.
To make matters worse this wool is now discountinued and i’m minus a sleeve.
Does anyone have any suggestions on finding shade 33 of this wool? All help much appreciated.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:30 am
I totally sympathise as I have exactly the same problem with the same pattern. I bought the yarn a year ago so will be unlikely to find a match and cannot finish the garment. I love the patterns and the yarn but would not recommend them to anyone because of this problem. It is also annoying to say the least to find no contact details on the Debbie Bliss website.