Weighty Subjects

I’ve been having a great time spinning some of the treasures I got recently. The grey is really a brown blended with white, which produces a real ‘grey’ shade. I don’t know what it is, but it does contain some very long fibres and some short ones too. There is a fair bit of kemp in it as well, but they slip right out without getting caught in the twist. It is buttery soft and so easy to spin. I forgot to tell you where it came from! We got it from http://www.thesheepshedstudio.com/ which is in Wyoming. Carol and her staff were very easy to deal with, and the huge package arrived within 2 weeks. This is quite unheard of here in Canada! We didn’t have any trouble getting it through Customs either. The grey roving is found on this page, http://www.thesheepshedstudio.com/Wooltoprovings.html at the bottom of the page. Unfortunately, this is the last of it – I think I should have purchased more!

Not all online purchases are this easy or as successful. Early this year, in our spinning class, one of the girls brought in the cutest little weigh scale. It is about the size of a pocket calculator, and when the top slides off, there is a fully operational electronic scale underneath! The capacity is not high, but for our purposes in class, this was ideal. The price was right too (about $40) and she found a site in Canada that sold them.

Several of the others in the class wanted scales too, and this company, Digital Scales Canada, had quite a nice selection of different kinds for all sorts of needs (I don’t wish to promote them so won’t post a link). After much consideration, I made my decision, and the others placed their order with me, and I agreed to place one order for them all. The company advertised that there was one price for shipping PER ORDER, and we thought that was a very good deal. We ordered 6 scales for a total sale of $681. They preferred credit card sales, but said they would accept cheques and would ship the order when the cheque cleared. I didn’t mind that, since I don’t have credit cards, and we weren't in a big rush.

Within 3 days of mailing off my order and payment, I received an email from them saying that they cannot accept cheques. Seems they suddenly changed their policy. I cancelled my order and told them to mail my cheque back. It’s now 60 days, and still no sign of it. I guess return mail takes longer.

We looked around locally to get something that we could use, but small scales like that, with a 0.1g accuracy, were selling for about $60 to $120 in the pawn shops!

One of the girls in the class decided she would try and place an order herself using her credit cards. She dutifully placed her order online, and paid with her card – only to be told shortly thereafter that they won’t process the order without photocopies of the front and back of her credit card, AND the front and back of her driver’s license!! Her bank advised her not to do this, and she also cancelled her order. We’re not sure what this company is up to, but selling weigh scales doesn’t seem to be one of them!

Shortly after this experience, we noticed that the company has suddenly started accepting Paypal payments. The same girl still needed a scale (as do the rest of us) and decided to give them one more chance. She placed her order for only one scale this time, with her Paypal account, and they accepted it, and she received her scale in due course! So it seems they don’t want to ship more than ONE item per order, and don’t really uphold their claim of one shipping price PER ORDER. After all, they were about to lose $47.50 in shipping charges on our multiple order!

So the result is that we don’t get our scales, and our homework is now on hold. I suppose I could take my little packages of wool and dye plant material to the post office and get them to weigh them for me. I have a feeling that won’t work very well. Well, there are always the scales at Safeway!