Two More Days For Free Shipping This Season

 If you haven't ordered online from us yet, then you may not realize that shipping is one option to receiving your products.  The other is pickup. During the Community and Farmer's market season, a third option is available: free 'shipping'.

When ordering online, I encourage everyone to choose PICKUP and then tell me what they really want in the notes section. Why? After all this time, I still haven't managed to get the program to calculate reasonable shipping rates. For instance, did you know that it costs over $300 to ship eight skeins of DMC floss from my address in Lacombe to another address in Lacombe?! In reality, eight skeins of floss fit into an envelope and can be sent at regular letter rates - but my program doesn't believe that. Hence, you must choose pickup or die from a heart attack because of sticker shock. I promise, waiting a day or two longer for me to visit the post office and email you the options is the healthier choice.

If you live in the Lacombe area or know you will be visiting it, pickup is a great option. Place your order, wait for the confirmation email, then follow the instructions in the email. Sometimes those instructions include calling ahead so that multiple customers don't show up at the same time. Since physical distancing is still a thing, I strive to help keep my customers healthy and only place one order in the dropbox at a time.

Now these two options are available year round. The third option is the one alluded to in the title of this blog. During this market season, the pop up store has been in six different communities, one of them twice a week (in two different locations). If you order something online and you know you are going to be at one of the markets, you can let me know to bring your prepaid product(s) to the market of your choice. Many people have already taken advantage of this option and you only have until Thursday of this week to take advantage of it for the last time this year! (Lacombe and Red Deer locations only) Why is it the last chance, you ask? Because market season is over Thanksgiving weekend and my pop up store is too big to fit indoors at any of the Christmas markets that will be taking place.

So remember, online ordering is available year round but free shipping comes to an end this weekend!

written by Lori, happy TCL owner, who is looking forward to being kept busy this winter with your help :)

The Next Big Project

 Just in time for the cold weather, my winter projects turn to the computer. If you ask anybody, I do not mind repetitive work. To a point. The next few projects I have lined up may break me of that habit.

Do you know how many individual colours of DMC floss there are? Especially when you add in Coloris and Effects? And Gutermann thread? And DMC tapestry yarn? And Mill Hill beads? I may no longer have full stock of the latter two but that doesn't mean they should be hard to navigate on my website. I really wish I had been properly informed how to input my information the first time around because the next few weeks (months) are going to result in people thinking I have gone out of a few products because I have to remove them completely in order to re-install them into the website properly. And - there is no way I have figured out to tell them except here and on Facebook.

So be forewarned - and tell everyone you know - that I still carry floss but it will not be on the website (in it's entirety, anyway) for a while. Same with the other aforementioned items - in sequence.

In the meantime, here are some of the socks (complete with a cameo of Myles the cat) I have been working on for Christmas/birthday presents these past few months. All but one of them has been machine cranked with afterthought heels, toes and ribbing. (Bet you can't tell which one was hand knit. Haha.)  I'm taking a break from these and creating some mitts and small sweaters just to work with some of the new yarns that have come in (when I'm not re-entering data).

written by Lori, happy TCL owner, who obviously needs to keep her fingers busy!