Orders

We make every effort to ship orders within 3 business days. But keep in mind we must also abide by the frequent US postal holidays.

Shipping

Within the US we ship using the US Post Office, priority mail with delivery confirmation. Priority mail goes by air (unlike first class which no longer does), and a package should generally arrive anywhere in the US within 2-3 days, depending how far you are from a distribution center. Note that it takes longer during December, often up to a week, so we recommend Express mail for prompt holiday delivery. International orders are shipped insured, by air.

Rates for shipping and handling are as follow:
$1-$49.99: $5.00
$50 and over: FREE
International, insured or express: separately negotiable.

Meanwhile, here is a button so you can order a $10 charge toward (overnight) express mail at the same time as other things if you want it:

Don't worry too much if your package arrives marked 'fragile', even though it may seem insane. We haven't had any trouble with broken yarn :-), but we have had a few problems with some items, particularly buttons, arriving melted from an irradiation overdose. So we try to over-label...

Note that Paypal has had for months a bug where they charge shipping correctly (ie charge it or not in the right amount) but the item line for it doesn't show up. The net result is that if you're being charged the total is correct, but there is not hint that the reason the total is higher than the subtotal is because of shipping, which could be unnerving. This used to work, but since they have no mechanism for reporting bugs we've never had any luck getting one fixed. Sigh. At least they aren't stiffing people with that one, like with the shipping weight one which we've suffered from for at least as much time...

International orders

If you're in Canada or Mexico, we treat your order almost like a domestic one. We can't send you regular Priority Mail, but an air letter post is just as fast (2-3 days even to the East Coast of Canada) and costs about the same.

If you're an international customer not in Canada or Mexico, the most sensible is to use Global Priority Mail which takes less than a week to most corners of the globe. Note that maximum package size is 4lb (a bit under 2kg), and we can help you determine how much can be crammed into a single regulation box if you wish. Here is a button so you can order a $10 charge toward international shipping:

If you're ordering a small amount of merchandise, Paypal will have already charged you $5 for shipping. In that case, here is a $5 button as a supplement instead:

Returns

We of course take returns, and will send back any available substitute you might like if you prefer that to a refund. But we reserve to right to charge a 15% restocking fee, and real shipping charges, minimum $5, for the second package (the returned merchandise postage is your responsibility). And we'd like you to write us before sending anything back, and to initiate returns within 30 days of our shipping your order.

We're happy to send you a color card in advance if you need a specific color match, or are having trouble with your monitor. We routinely send single dye lots for orders of multiple items, you don't have to worry about getting 3 different kinds of blacks for instance, and we're also happy to try and match a specific dye lot if you give us its number in the comments. But for mail order it's a lot more efficient on both sides if you ask questions in advance rather than plan on returning a large order.

Payment

Payment is processed by Paypal.com. One of the reasons for using them is that they already have millions of registered users, especially since they've been bought by eBay, so there's a fair chance that you might not have to go through any separate registration process to order from this site. Another major reason is that they process international payments without fuss, so we can take orders from outside the US. They also don't require a credit card, they can transfer money out of your checking account instead (although be aware that they don't let us ship a package till the check has cleared, which can take up to a week). And they can now take a payment without formal registration if you'd prefer not to.

Your information stays only with Paypal, so you have some better degree of privacy, we never know how you paid, much less any specific account number, your information can't be waylaid. And finally, they're huge, they're used to dealing with fraud and hackers, they have full-time staff dealing with any problems, going through them will minimize potential hassles with your financial info. This is not at all meant to be an infomercial :-).

If you don't want to use Paypal, don't want to transfer money over the net, or for whatever reason, we're happy to take checks by mail. We just can't take your credit card over the phone yet.

Contact info

Another thing is we don't particularly care whether you're using someone else's Paypal account, with another email for that matter. Not everybody has reliable net access all the time. But let us simply point out that the info Paypal provides is the only one we have to get in touch with you should there be any problem with your order. If you aren't going to be reading email at that address, please provide an alternative in the comments, or a phone number or something, OK? You should expect to receive an email when Paypal processes your order, and another when we ship the package. An address that's not current also means you won't get these confirmations.

In general, it's a good idea to check your email a few days after you place an order with any company. We won't sell your info to spammers or anyone else... we just want to be able to let you know if there's a problem. You wouldn't believe how often we get angry requests for status update when a letter or refund has been languishing unread in a seldom-used account...