After months of seeing signs at our local Michael's store boasting about the remodeled yarn section that was coming soon, I have to admit I was disappointed with the end result. It turned out to consist of the rearranging of the current yarn selection and the introduction of Michael's personal brand, Loops & Threads. I'm not crazy about Michael's creating their own brand of wool. I long ago gave up hope of seeing anything in a big box craft store that wasn't made with at least some portion of acrylic and manufactured by one of the major yarn companies (Bernat, Lion Brand, Patons, etc.), but I worry that the amount of shelf space dedicated to these companies may start to shrink as Michael's jumps into the game of selling their own product. Keeping an open mind, I figured I'd give the new Loops & Threads a try. Selling in 3.5 oz. skeins for just over $3, it's certainly not a bad deal. I was drawn to this colour, which is Loops & Threads Impeccable Worsted Weight yarn in Luxury Ombre. It's bin is always nearly empty so I'm guessing it's also the favourite of many other local crafters.
The verdict? I like it, but conditionally. It's a great wool for amigurumi, easy to work with and doesn't split or fray. It's ideal for someone who is just learning how to knit or crochet or for kids who are learning to craft and would become easily frustrated by a yarn that catches or breaks. I've also made a market bag with it, which I'll show in another post. It was a good choice for that project too, not too stretchy, but easy to work with.
The downside, it's not that soft. Imagine all the colours of Vanna's Choice with the texture of Bernat Handicrafter Cotton. While I'd be perfectly content to use Loops & Threads for an amigurumi, market bag or dish cloth, I don't want to use it to make anything that's going to be touching my skin, like an afghan or clothing. Yet a quick look at the free patterns available for Impeccable on Michael's website, shows that they feel this yarn is perfectly suitable for those kinds of projects. Loops & Threads also has a sport weight baby line that they've named Snuggly Wuggly. I'd hope that it would be softer, but overall I wasn't that impressed with the colours. They looked like duller versions of many of the shades already available from other companies.
Which I guess leads to the main problem I'm having with Loops & Threads, it's just so unnecessary. With colours and a texture that's already available from other companies, why bother? I've made afghans with Vanna's Choice before and considering it's a softer yarn, I'm going to opt for it when it's time to make another afghan rather than picking up the marginally less expensive similar colour in Loops & Threads.
Anyone else care to weigh in? Have you tried Loops & Threads? Are you feeling a bit anxious about Michael's producing it's own line of products? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section.
(My model is the elephant pattern available in Tammie Snow's Tiny Yarn Animals.)
9 comments:
Strange. I didn't notice a lot of "Loops" yarn in the local branches (Edmonton). I had to follow the link and look at the labals to recognise that I'd seen any at all, and I do remember seeing the Impeccable lable. What I definately noticed was a lot of Lion Brand yarns (there were no Lion Brand yarns before), especially Homespon, and lots of "green" and "eco" yarns.
I thought the stores were all the same across the country.
I purchased some with the idea that I would make amigurumi. I like the texture for that purpose. Might also make some hats. I wish they had more cottons and wool at Mike's.
While all the Michael's stores carry products from the same companies, I think that individual stores have some say over the quantity they bring in. There's a Michael's store 5 min. from my house and another one about 30 min. away. The further away one always has more Vanna's Choice than my local one.
From what I've seen on a couple of threads in yarn forums, there can also be differences if the section manager is actually a fan of that particular craft. So if you have a yarn section manager who is a knitter or crocheter, it will generally be well stocked compared to at a store where the manager doesn't know much about the craft.
I'm also into cross stitching and I've had problems with that at Michael's. I pointed out they were out of a particular shade of red (and had been for about 3 weeks). The section manager just said, "Well can't you just use a different one, there are five other shades of red over there." If she was a cross stitcher herself, she'd know that you have to use the DMC colour that's specified by the pattern, or it just won't look right.
I work for a Michael's and the department and store manager have no say over what we get. The buyers decide on product depending on whether or not their is a good sales trend for the district and the size of the store. Some store have flex space and may become "test" stores for certain products. The amount ordered in depends on how accurate the store keeps up its quantity on hand.
As for the yarn, yeah I wasn't too thrilled with the reset either, not that I was expecting much. I KNEW we wouldn't be enlarging our section or anything especially being one of the smaller Michael's. I personally just liked some new colors being brought in, but I don't make much besides amigurumis so Vanna and Red Heart were always fine. Only part of the reset I enjoyed was attacking the clearance yarn :). (Yay first pick since I'm the price change girl)
Hi Danielle, thanks for the info. It's cool to hear from someone who's actually worked there.
Thanks from me as well, Danielle. I've actually considered getting a job at Michael's, just for the first dips and employee discount. LOL
The discounts are dangerous, heh. I practically never bought anything crafty before I got the job there but since then I swear I've spent a good month worth of paychecks at least.
A day doesn't go by where I don't get a new idea or a new product comes in that I just want to play with. I've started scrapbooking, playing with perlers, and got into rubber stamping all since I got the job and I just ordered Joy of Beading to learn how to make seed bead items like flowers and such. (We have the at Michael's but Amazon was cheaper.
But in general, this is definately my favorite job so far since I actually enjoy what I'm selling. If you really are a big crafter, they may be willing to hire you on even for a few hours just because you can share your expertise with customers.
I just bought some Loops & Threads and noticed it's made in Canada. Anyone know if it's made at the Bernat factory in Listowel, ON? I'm not aware we have any other big yarn factories left in the country and I like supporting local stuff. Just curious!
As someone who works at a Michael's, I can tell you that not all the stores across the country are the same. You might find items in a California store that will never be in a New York store, and vice versa. No, the individual stores do not have a say in what they stock: Warehouses send out stock without informing stores of what they'll be receiving.
Consequently the managers of each individual store have to figure out how best to work with the pre-designed floor plan in order to fit as much of the stock as is necessary.
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