The Blue Brick has grown beautifully, but with that come the necessary growing pains and we are long overdue for an overhaul to the way our store works. Increasingly long lead times have, completely understandably, led to frustration for folks awaiting their yarn packages. Ombre is not like tonal yarns, and I can only dye so many per day, limited by the size of my basement. We are so busy these days that we have made the extremely difficult decision to back out of Festival Twist this year, one of our largest and most enjoyable events, because we cannot prepare the stock while still looking after online orders. I confess to wanting to roll my eyes at everyone who has told me “it’s a good problem to have” (tell my customers that!).

We’ve talked about an inventory based store before, and I have generally avoided it because I didn’t want to limit what folks could get. However, it’s finally time to reduce our online store to inventory-only. We are not there yet, we’re going colour by colour as we generate sufficient inventory, with the goal of moving almost all yarns to an inventory basis within the next two months.

Special colours, heavy metal, sweater quantities and collection releases will still be dyed to order due to volume.

Ombre:

• All moving to inventory.
• The following colours are still available but when sold out, they’re gone: Maple, Cape Spear, Wheat Kings.

Tonal:

• Sock, lace, and Muskoka luxe are moving to inventory. Escarpment DK and Tobermory worsted are being left as-is; because if you order a sweater or blanket quantity I will need to dye it all in the same batch. These items will still be dyed to order as a result. If you want a sweater quantity of another base please email us, and we’ll be happy to help you place the order.

What does that mean for our customers?

Pros:

• If you were able to order it, it’s already on our racks and ready to be shipped.
• Bases that I have only a few of, but don’t normally carry, such as MCN sock, or worsted gradients, can be added to the inventory.
• My dyeing life will be simplified. Once the colours are all up to date I’ll be dyeing to top up inventory, and not to fulfill orders. This should make for a more streamlined process at our end.

Cons:

• If you order more than one of the same colour you may want to add a note to the order letting me know if they’ll be used in the same project. Otherwise you will get the two skeins on the wall which may or may not be a perfect match.
• If there is a colour you want and it’s not in stock it won’t be available. In that case you can definitely write to us and inquire after either a custom order, or when we plan on restocking.
• During busy times, after festivals, or when our suppliers are backed up, there may be shortages in the online store. We will our best to level these out so they don’t impact the customer.

We hope that this new system will allow us to fulfill more quickly and reliably once it’s in effect. Again, it will take time to fully top up and switch over all the colours, with the goal being two months out.

Thank you everyone, for your patience with us as we get over these growing pains. Hopefully the new system is more comfortable for everyone!