Fringe Benefits

One of the benefits of living in the 'Couv that I never counted on is the fact that KnitPicks is headquartered here. 

I am not a KnitPicks consumer in my everyday life.  I've considered purchasing some of their interchangeable needles because they are the bomb, but I much prefer my local yarn stores for the actual purchasing of yarn.  Yes, I pay a hell of a lot more for my yarn because of it, but to me it's worth it.  I can go in, fondle the yarn, compare different brands and such, and have my purchase in hand that day.  The proprietors and employees are a really good resource that you can utilize and get assistance for questions such as how many skeins will I need and will I get the desired effect.  They also remember you and will help celebrate accomplishments and mourn the mistakes.  Plus, there's the whole supporting of local business and it doesn't seem very green to have things individually shipped to every consumer, especially when you consider that a UPS package shipped from Vancouver to Vancouver probably travels through Nashville or somewhere similar along the way.

But, I'm not such a snob that I'm not willing to take advantage of some of what KnitPicks has to offer.  And when you live close to them you sometimes get opportunities like I did yesterday to participate in usability testing for their website.  For an hour of my time I got a $50 gift certificate.  SCORE!

The guy in charge of the testing was not a knitter (as he had to point out when he asked me to explain why I might want to see a swatch of a multi-colored yarn knitted up rather than just a close-up shot of the yarn itself), and I think there were a few points of the test where I frustrated him. 

"What do you like about the KnitPicks website?"
"I can get cheap yarn and awesome needles."
"Yes, but what do you like about the WEBSITE?"
"It allows me to get cheap yarn and awesome needles."

Really, the website they showed me had some real issues with it.  When I came home and decided to start planning how to use my money I noticed a lot of the issues I had with the website they showed me were non-issues in the website as it currently exists.  Makes me really curious as to how it's all going to play out.

I've got some tentative plans for the money, but for now I'm just sitting tight because I have placed myself on a yarn diet until I get a couple of things cleared out of the queue.