Well, my obsession with Peaches & Creme yarn started when I needed to make my Navy Eagle Dishcloth in December 2007. I wanted to make this out of blue cotton yarn, but I had no blue cotton yarn in my stash at the time (this was in 2007 prior to the Peaches & Creme obsession!). I believe I came to this realization on Friday afternoon at work. By the time I was done with work, the last thing I wanted to do was drive across Appleton to get to Hobby Lobby over on the west side of town. The Joanns in Appleton sucked at the time, and Appleton didn't get their Michaels until 2008. As luck would have it, we needed to pick up some sort of household essential, so we went to the Walmart in DePere. They had lots of Peaches & Creme yarn, which I figured couldn't have been that much worse, and they had a nice light blue which would be perfect. To my amazement, I found that the Peaches & Creme yarn was much nicer than Sugar & Cream. Softer, thicker and easier to work with.
The label on my yarn showed me they had a website where you could order direct, and, as they say, the rest is history.
So why do I like Peaches & Creme yarn better?
1. Made in the USA! Seriously, it seems like everything we buy now is made somewhere else.
2. Customer service from the source is top notch! Flo and her crew are amazing. The very first order I placed with Peaches & Creme was actually a bit screwed up. I had ordered a 4 pack of the burgundy and a 4 pack of the chocolate (along with other things too, of course!). In the order, I received a cone of the burgundy and no chocolate. I emailed customer service and had a reply within a few hours- they saw their error and said they would ship out the chocolate asap, and that I didn't need to return the cone to exchange it for the 4 pack. I had the chocolate within days, too.
3. Shipping is so fast!! If I place an order in the morning, it's usually shipped out that day. If it's afternoon, it might get shipped out that day, but if not, the next day. I've never waited more than a few days for my order (from North Carolina to Wisconsin), and sometimes the delay was because UPS required me to sign for the package and I worked during the day.
4. All of their colors come on cones, not just 5. I hate weaving in ends. I hate weaving in ends on a dishcloth even more. If I use a cone, I only have 2 ends to weave in! Victory!
5. I think the quality of the yarn is better. Cotton yarn is pretty rough on my hands (no give at all compared to wool). Peaches & Creme yarn is softer than S&C, and it's thicker too, so I think the finished product is nicer. I also have noticed that it is dyed better. I have a few balls of S&C in my stash, and it doesn't seem to be as thoroughly dyed, I've noticed on some balls in the store that the dye didn't even saturate through a strand of yarn...can't imagine that will stand up well to being washed.
6. They carry more than just "dishcloth cotton." I'm knitting a mini market bag out of their Article 940, the cabled cotton (mercerized cotton). It is really nice, and due to the mercerizing, it's not going to fade. They also have a double worsted weight (article 980) which is also very nice- I'm working on a market bag out of that too (just ignore the fact it's been sitting OTN for 2 years...that's user error, not yarn error!), and I'm hoping someday to make a bathroom rug out of it.
Yeah, yeah, Lauren...we know all that. What's the problem? Why this PSA??
Well, it has come to my attention that Walmart (one of the biggest carriers of P&C yarn) is discontinuing their stock in about half of their stores. They are going to replace it with Sugar & Cream yarn. What they are doing for this year (not sure when their "test year" began) is remove the Peaches & Creme from about half of the stores, and replace it with Sugar & Cream. Then, they will leave Peaches & Creme in the other half of their stores. They are then going to compare the sales of the two yarns and at the end of their "test run," decide which yarn is going to be carried permanently.
This upsets me a lot and I don't even shop at Walmart anymore (I'm not going to go into it here since I've got a number of reasons, but my main reason is hello, have you seen the Walmart that is nearest me? I doubt you'd go there either). But if one of the largest evil corporations in the county pulls their yarn, it's really going to hurt Pisgah Yarn & Dyeing Co, which is a family owned business that's 100% American. So. Not. Cool.
As for Sugar & Cream, well, in case you didn't notice, you can get it anywhere- Michaels, Joanns and Hobby Lobby all carry it, so if Walmart doesn't, I'm sure they'll be fine...
So what can we do? Well, if you do shop at Walmart and you notice that they have replaced the Peaches & Creme, complain! You can either complain in person, or via the Contact Us link on the Walmart website.
/steps off soapbox, resumes knitting.
Please feel free to link this anywhere, just make sure to give me credit. :) I am trying to spread the word to make sure that we can continue to support this American business!
