In Which the Pirate Finds It.

April 1, 2010

I wasn’t too happy to hear that one of my favourite yarns, Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed, was being discontinued. It’s the yarn I used to knit the Fleep-Tops, and I just knew that I would want another pair – and my swornbrother Michael kept eyeing them enviously, too. When I was in Canada this past February, I was able to find some in “Cedar,” a deep green colourway, but Michael only wanted black or dark gray. So I happily kept the green for myself, thus ensuring that my next winter coat will have to be something that goes well with dark green, and went on a quest for “Night,” the colourway I’d used for the original pair.

Apparently, the “Night” colourway was discontinued two years ago, but after some serious web-searching, I finally found two skeins for a great price at the Red Bird Knits moving sale. What a deal! Of course I bought them right away, before anyone else could. I will have to size my pattern notes up to fit his larger hands, but that shouldn’t be too difficult at all, and I’m sort of looking forward to the challenge of it.

In looking around the web, it seems as if the yarn isn’t actually being discontinued, just no longer shipped to America and Canada. There are plenty of colourways listed on Jo Sharp’s site and no mention that it’s going out of production. Does anyone have anything further about this?

1 Response

  1. Jen says:
    April 2, 2010 at 02:19

    I work in a yarn store here in Aus and can give you a little info on what’s going on over here.
    Ms Sharp has not only started selling direct to public through her website, but has also opened her own store in Perth, WA. This has put a lot of her stockists on the back foot as she now has the capacity to undercut our prices, sell discontinued colours and yarns at significantly reduced prices and of course creates competition for the stores that allowed the public to feel and see her yarn in the first place.
    I know over here a lot of store owners are reconsidering their position on whether or not to stock her yarns and which yarns to stock, so perhaps the US/Canadian distributor’s discontinuation of her yarn has similar reasons behind it?
    I personally still love her tweeds (am sorry to see her silkroad aran solid yarn discontinued though) but have been disappointed by some of the colours she’s discontinued in her cotton and mohair ranges.

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