snb was great last night! it was ramona's birthday and the store was filled with good birthday energy! by the way, Ramona has a Campanula for the Cure KAL, it is very pink, wink!

we took a peek at the new VK and were appalled to find that 10 patterns in the front of the magazine are not included in the issue, they are for sale as pattern downloads on the VK website. it makes my life so difficult when they don't include the patterns in the magazine! customers are going to come in, say "i want to make this one" and i have to tell them that they are going to have to pay extra to download it. so today, i log in to Vogue to give 'em hell, and low and behold, the patterns are FREE! That's more like it!

Publish

my favourite is the Veronique Avery Cabled Jacket.

They are charging for patterns from back issues ... lucky for me i have a pretty good collection of them!

I like this shawl collar jacket form Holiday 2003 VK. I've socked away some Iro to make it.

oooo, look! i just found some more regular freebies ..............

Tahki Stacy Charles also has a fold out with 4 free patterns but they don't seem to be up on their website yet.

oy vey! i just found more! but this set was a bit of tease, they are advertising and hard to hunt down ... you have to start on the main page, then you click on an image and it takes you to that company page. once you are on the company page i wish you luck because it gets tricky there. Classic Elite seems to be well organized, i found the Twinkle Kangaroo Tunic easily and their patterns are FREE. I cant find the Louet socks though ... they get a complaint e-mail. just as an exercise, lets see which companies pass the consumer happiness test (no affiliated with being a yarn retailer) ...

• Skacel ... fail, no sign of a pattern

• String .... fail! Easy to find, but the pattern is NOT free, you have to buy it with a kit that costs $400 to $600 US!

• Jade Sapphire ... fail, no sign of a pattern and i doubt it will be free.

• Art Yarns ... fail. no sign of their pattern and i expect it will not be free (they've already done this cruel tease in VK before in an article where they were discussing a shawl but did not publish the pattern)
• Louet ... fail. nothing, nada, niente. and i expect it will cost you.
• Yarniverse ... PASS! easy to find and free!
  
• Judi & co ... fail. there's no sign of anything there, but the thing is so ugly that i don't really care too much.
• Koigu ... fail. there isn't anything there, and i'm getting used to being disappointed.
• Loop .... fail. no sign that there is anything there.
• Know Knits ... fail! there isn't anything there and they made me look at their little colostomy bags in the process.
  
• Fiber Trends .... marginal pass. The pattern was easy to find, but it is not free and you can't get it directly from them.
  
• Oat Couture ... fail. there isn't anything there, it'll cost you and you won't be able to get it directly.
• Be Sweet .. fail, but i liked browsing their web site, it was very pretty.
  
• Prism ... pass. Had to search in their free patterns, but the pattern was there!
• Alpaca with a Twist ... fail. if there's anything there i can't find it.
  
• Dream Weaver Yarns ... marginal pass. You have to buy it but it was easy to find and you can get it directly from them on the web.
  

So, basically, VK and the majority of their advertisers in this section think it's ok to mislead consumers. Kudos go to Classic Elite Yarns for giving away the good stuff for free! Curses go to Louet for taunting us with a smokin' pair of stockings and leaving us high & dry. Now, I don't want you to think that I take issue with the fact that most of these companies want consumers to pay for their product. I just feel that misleading customers by representing the patterns in this section as something that comes with the magazine, either in the body of the publication or published on the internet, is a very poor marketing choice. You always want your customers to have a positive experience. By setting high expectations in a misleading ad, consumers are liable to lose their trust in the company and feel betrayed ... you don't need a business degree to figure that out!