HE started it . . .

Posted on Posted in book reviews/events, Uncategorized

now, maybe i am slow on the uptake, or just slow to anger, or just . . . slow.

i didn’t get away from my desk last night til almost 12:30, and i went upstairs to knit, but decided to detour to my workroom to take out the noro yarn i have and see if i could sort out some knots to show mr. denecke, from KFI (see yesteraday’s post below for background). i started rollong some balls while david made us a snack (in lieu of the dinner we didn’t eat). and as i rolled, my blood began to percolate.

who do they think they are, trying to take my yarn—why, them’s fightin’ words!, i muttered.
no, really, who DO they think they are??, i exploded (inside my head, still messy).
what if i send these discontinued colors back and they aren’t returned?, i worried.
even if they offer to replace them, i really like these (discontinued) colors!!, i whined.
and who is gonna pay the postage??, i growled.
hey, this old silk garden yarn is MUCH softer than this newer one!!, i wept.
anyway, LOOK at all these balls that have knots! i’m gonna have to send a BOX, for heaven’s sake!, i spat, stamping my feet.

i stopped. i just couldn’t do this in such a tired state.

i’ll go knit, i thought, and do the rest of this tomorrow.

and as i sat knitting, all those thoughts continued to storm through my head. jeffrey denecke slowly morphed into jeffrey dahmer in my pointystix quicktime horror movie, out to get me and my precious stash of noro. i was really getting worked up. my main issues are:

  1. they are trying to get me to do all their work and research (and take on the cost), instead of investigating the issue on their end, which is what they are supposed to do. no, actually, what they are SUPPOSED to do is have good quality control in place from the get-go.
  2. they are insisting that i physically prove my complaint, instead of striving to prove that i am wrong, which would then equire them to come up with consistent examples of a high-quality, blemish-free product (which we all know they cannot do).
  3. they were not yet offering any compensation or reparation for the complaints voiced, or the “research” they are asking me to do, even after several email exchanges
  4. by demanding that i send them proof, they are suggesting that i am not being truthful, or at least, exaggerating my claims; after all, they could just as easily check their own stock for the problems i voiced—the problems are common enough!
  5. and, finally, they are asking me to spend valuable knitting time to do their footwork, which i reiterate could easily be accomplished in their own warehouse, if they would just get off their patooties to do it. i am a professional who has a career as well as 2 other jobs. i do NOT have a ton of extra time. the main reason i am even considering putting so much into this “project” is so that it might finally STOP!!

ok, well tomorrow is here, i’m rested, and feeling really agitated (but in a positive way!!). i went to my workroom with my coffee to continue the rolling.
first, i am going to show you the whole picture. now, NOTE, oh loyal readers, this series of photos is (K)NOT about my stash, or how funny it is that i have a little extra yarn laying around. no comments from someone whose initials are D-E-B-B-I-E about the amount of noro that lives at my house.

got that?? this is all about research. that’s it. basta!
ok, now, here is the total amount of noro i found—the portion with knots in is on the right; the portion without knots is on the left.

now we will go through the offenders one-by-one; the orange tags denote the knots:

five hanks of big kureyon—color #7, lot b—four of them with knots.

i didn’t even have to wind these to find the knots; there they were right on the outside of each hank. now i am afraid to use them! how many more knots will i find inside??

three balls of kureyon—color 95 lot J—two of them with knots

one remaining ball of kureyon from a set of 6 (many others had knots)—color 32 lotB

starting to sound like a list of the wounded? read on.

three balls of silk garden—color 65 lot C—one of them with knots

three balls of discontinued silk garden—color 34 lot F—two with knots

another interesting note: these are about 5 years old and they are very soft and beautiful. they are completely free of that white, scratchy, curly fibrous crap that seems to be in all the silk garden nowadays. when winding them, there was a VERY noticeable difference in softness between these older skeins and the newer silk garden i have.

twelve skeins of silk garden—color 84 lot C—six have knots

and several have so much dry vegetation that i would need to cut those portions out if i were knitting a shawl or sweater from them.

so there, mr. denecke and the noro folks.
now, i know that jeffrey denecke is just the messenger, so to speak, but i’m sorry—in his case, i think the messenger has a right to dispute the message and try to mediate the situation better. also, since the noro staff themselves has NOT contaced me, and mr. denecke is who i DO get to talk to, well, he’s gonna get an earful.

10 thoughts on “HE started it . . .

  1. I think you’re right, and I also think Sr. Deneke is giving you the ostrich with his head in the sand routine… I’ve never bought any Noro but know about the knots b/c its been reported SO often on the knitting forums and blogs– just *googling* noro knots brings PAGES of reports about noro and knotting, breaking, splices (and more often than not, knots between 2 color breaks that aren’t even close– so they’re not real breaks in the yarn continuity but ends of yarn tied together!). I also have read a blog of someone who had their noro replaced b/c of the knots… though I can’t place who it was (it was a while back… sorry!)

    I think its disingenuous to imply these knots are the first they’ve heard of them 🙂 or that they need to have samples to know the source of the problem! Playing word association with knitters, “noro” will elicit “knots” from 4 of every 5 of us 😉

    I’ve heard it bantered that Noro is *about* the knots though… the nature of asymmetry/non-machine produced yarns– but that’s different than, “this is the first we heard of this!”

    Good luck 🙂

  2. UGH I have 4 balls of the Noro Kuryeon color 95 too and 2 of the balls had 3 knots so far (I stopped because I got disgusted) BUT in the same turn I am not willing to pay the postage to send it back to them nor am I willing to part with the balls for fear of not getting any to replace it. After all, I did pay for them, why would I just hand them over to Noro with no compensation. I also have 2 balls og Noro Silk Garden color88 that has 4 knots and is so loaded with vegitation that I cannot use it without picking through it. Why the vegatation? I also have 3 balls of Noro Kuryeon 102 that is LOADED with vegitation that I haven’t checked for knots in yet. I truly believe they KNOW already about the knots. Noro has been around for awhile and we are not the first to complain to them and I am sure we won’t be the last. They are blowing smoke up the preverbial shoot if you ask me. I will only send photos not my yarn unless I have replacements of better quality from them but I also will never purchase them again. there are way to many companies out there that can give much higher quality and customer service. Anne, I agree, how DARE they mess with our stash….it’s time to bare the teeth and gnarl at them!! Anne has done a great job organizing this rant. Thank you Anne for taking the time out of your hectic days to help kick the butts of the Knot Loving Yarn Yutzes!!

  3. Wow, that is appalling. I have zero experience with Noro and your last few posts have made me glad for that! It’s too bad the quality isn’t there, the yarn is so beautiful. Good luck with your response from Noro. I hope they send you a box of (knot-free) yarn, you deserve it!

  4. yeah, you know what? it IS appalling!
    i am starting to really wonder who these noro people are,
    these products keep them in business and support their livlihoods—how can they be so lax about a quality complaint!! after all, there are plenty of beautiful yarns out there, (right debbie)!

    what’s really bad is that, until today, when i lined them all up, i had no idea the problem was so extensive, even though i am a regular Noro user. that looks ike about 60% bad quality to me, which is unacceptable in the consumer product market.

  5. Hey there Anne and KnitSpot friends:

    I started to think about this last night also and it got me riled up too, but this morning I looked back at his quoted note and it does ask if it’s possible to send “one of the balls in question.” Yes, it is a precious ball of Noro, but I think the photos together with just one example is all that’s requested. Now, I do totally agree that there is something outrageous about their feigned ignorance to the problem, but maybe, just maybe we should call off the plan to cut off Mr. Deneke’s balls (I mean, balls of yarn, of course! ooohh … pardon me! oops).

    Anyhow, I’m totally with you all on this. Just don’t want to see you tear your hair out over this or worse yet, send off ALL of that yarn with no promise of replacement or refund!

    – Deb aka Fearless Fibers

  6. yep Anne, your right, there ARE plenty of yarns out there….*looking over my shoulder* I have been accused SEVERAL times of single handedly sustaining specific yarn companies heehee kidding of course. Deb (Fearless Fiber Friend), it would truly be GREAT if all he wanted was a single ball of yarn or one photo but something tells me that isn’t what he wants…we’ll see. Anne, I think what happens is that we use the Noro for something that we think will be GORGEOUS with the yarn, we select it, purchase it and then start the project, then we encounter the KNOTS and then bow to kill it off…we don’t use it for months and months and then that special project comes out and you think of a great Noro color to make it out of, forgetting the terrible trouble you had the LAST time you used it and then the colorway mesmorizes you so you try it again and BOOM knots again…its a vicious cycle I tell ya 😉

  7. Wow! That should be enough details for the Noro rep.

    I’m feeling like a Noro boycott is in order. I really don’t understand how the manufacturing process could mean that there needs to be knots in HALF of their skeins of yarn. Maybe they keep all of the good skeins in Japan and ship us the crappy skeins, knowing we will buy them anyway. Boycott, boycott, boycott!

  8. Hehe, I know it’s not about your yarn, but I thought it was funny that you said in your note to him that you weren’t sure you had any Noro in the house. Heh. Heh heh.

    The photos speak for themselves, though. It’s atrocious. Irresponsible. Crap.

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  10. I’m knitting a sweater out of Noro Cash Iroha now, and it takes 11 skeins. I’m through skein 7 now and EVERY skein has had at least one, and usually two, knots in it. One even had three. We’re talking about 91 meter skeins – not a lot for that kind of knottage.

    Good for you for doing something about it. Mr. Denecke should consider his reputation when dealing with things like this, but if you follow the Cashmerino kerfuffle (among other things he’s been involved with,) apparently he doesn’t give a damn.

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