Stupid Banks
Many of you know that I knit. I knit a lot. I like to knit and I like to be around knitters. I even like to knit socks.
So, when word reached me about an injustice done to sock knitters and to one company that deals in sock yarn, I decided I must tell you of it.
Blue Moon Fiber Arts, a tiny place in Oregon, makes a yarn called Socks That Rock. It is a fine, hand-painted yarn and it is expensive. I have never bought it, nor have I bought anything from Blue Moon, so I have no affiliation.
Blue Moon had a great idea, to create a club for sock knitters. The Rockin’ Sock Club. Members would sign up for $210 a year and would received several kits for socks over the course of the year. (I said it was expensive sock yarn, didn't I?) So many people signed up for this that the company had to create a waiting list, because they can’t make the yarn and kits fast enough.
A success story, no? No. It seems that the bank that Blue Moon runs its credit card charges through decided that there could not be so many people in the world who want to knit socks. First, they called Blue to Moon to ask about the Sock Club and were told that it was a going enterprise. Then they held a meeting. At the meeting, it was decided that the Blue Moon sock club must be a scam and that all the money collected for the sock club must be refunded immediately. You read that right: The bank refused to take the money.
The bank did this without even thinking to run just a tad of internet research. They would have easily found that many, many people (and not just women) knit in the United States and Canada and that many of them like to knit socks. They would have also seen that the sock club was not some cover story for terrorists, drug dealers, or porn merchants, but was a real and very lucrative idea.
Blue Moon had to zoom around quickly and arrange for a different bank to process the orders. They then sent out an email to all their subscribers about what happened to them. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee got wind of it. Stephanie blogs as the Yarn Harlot (http://www.yarnharlot.ca/). She is also the author of three books about knitting with another on the way and she goes around North America talking to groups of hundreds of knitters. She put the word out on her blog, but declined to name the bank. All hell is breaking loose in the knitting world even as I type this.
Many. many knitters are wondering if a business owned by men would have been hit with this injustice. Others point out that porn sites and illegal weapons merchants seem to have no problem with their banks. But selling sock yarn has to be a scam, right? Many of these knitters are demanding the name of the bank, which Blue Moon has not made public.
You think pissing off knitters is a good thing? Think twice. Stephanie started the Knitting Olympics last winter, which ended up getting mentioned in Time, Newsweek, and Sports Illustrated. You had to pick a knitting project that was a bit hard for you, start knitting when they lit the flame at the Winter Olympics and finish it before they put the flame out. Thousands, and I do mean thousands, too part.
More importantly, she founded Knitters Without Borders (Tricoteuses Sans Frontiere), which raises money for Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontiere). Since the tsunami of 2004, she raised about $120,000. In December, she asked knitters to start donating again and set the goal at raising another $120,000. Knitters hit that target in 73 hours and 36 minutes.
I repeat, you do not give knitters a reason to get on your case. This story is going to hit the national airways by Monday. I am sure of it. And you heard it here almost first.
(Note: Check out Stephanie’s blog, even if you hate knitting. The woman writes severely funny.)
So, when word reached me about an injustice done to sock knitters and to one company that deals in sock yarn, I decided I must tell you of it.
Blue Moon Fiber Arts, a tiny place in Oregon, makes a yarn called Socks That Rock. It is a fine, hand-painted yarn and it is expensive. I have never bought it, nor have I bought anything from Blue Moon, so I have no affiliation.
Blue Moon had a great idea, to create a club for sock knitters. The Rockin’ Sock Club. Members would sign up for $210 a year and would received several kits for socks over the course of the year. (I said it was expensive sock yarn, didn't I?) So many people signed up for this that the company had to create a waiting list, because they can’t make the yarn and kits fast enough.
A success story, no? No. It seems that the bank that Blue Moon runs its credit card charges through decided that there could not be so many people in the world who want to knit socks. First, they called Blue to Moon to ask about the Sock Club and were told that it was a going enterprise. Then they held a meeting. At the meeting, it was decided that the Blue Moon sock club must be a scam and that all the money collected for the sock club must be refunded immediately. You read that right: The bank refused to take the money.
The bank did this without even thinking to run just a tad of internet research. They would have easily found that many, many people (and not just women) knit in the United States and Canada and that many of them like to knit socks. They would have also seen that the sock club was not some cover story for terrorists, drug dealers, or porn merchants, but was a real and very lucrative idea.
Blue Moon had to zoom around quickly and arrange for a different bank to process the orders. They then sent out an email to all their subscribers about what happened to them. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee got wind of it. Stephanie blogs as the Yarn Harlot (http://www.yarnharlot.ca/). She is also the author of three books about knitting with another on the way and she goes around North America talking to groups of hundreds of knitters. She put the word out on her blog, but declined to name the bank. All hell is breaking loose in the knitting world even as I type this.
Many. many knitters are wondering if a business owned by men would have been hit with this injustice. Others point out that porn sites and illegal weapons merchants seem to have no problem with their banks. But selling sock yarn has to be a scam, right? Many of these knitters are demanding the name of the bank, which Blue Moon has not made public.
You think pissing off knitters is a good thing? Think twice. Stephanie started the Knitting Olympics last winter, which ended up getting mentioned in Time, Newsweek, and Sports Illustrated. You had to pick a knitting project that was a bit hard for you, start knitting when they lit the flame at the Winter Olympics and finish it before they put the flame out. Thousands, and I do mean thousands, too part.
More importantly, she founded Knitters Without Borders (Tricoteuses Sans Frontiere), which raises money for Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontiere). Since the tsunami of 2004, she raised about $120,000. In December, she asked knitters to start donating again and set the goal at raising another $120,000. Knitters hit that target in 73 hours and 36 minutes.
I repeat, you do not give knitters a reason to get on your case. This story is going to hit the national airways by Monday. I am sure of it. And you heard it here almost first.
(Note: Check out Stephanie’s blog, even if you hate knitting. The woman writes severely funny.)
posted by Valerie DeBenedette at 1:37 PM
1 Comments:
Well said.
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