Dear Knit Picks,

I love you guys. You know that. You have some awesome support for independent designers and the best sock yarns in the business. However, your needles have gone to heck in a handbasket over the past 18 months. The quality has degraded so rapidly that it's shocking.

What's really shocking, though, is today's email ad.

> Thanks to savvy and subtle
> manufacturing improvements we're now
> able to offer the same beautiful
> product at an even more beautiful
> price.

What a load of crap. The "manufacturing improvement" in question is a move to fabrication in China. It's less expensive, but it's also cheaper. Cheaper as in, cheaping out on materials and workmanship.

They're not the same needles as you claim. They're much, much worse. They weren't worth the old price, but they're not worth the new price, either.

I won't be buying. The frustration isn't worth it. I just feel sorry for all the new knitters who think they're getting a great deal and then have endless problems with their knitting because of these cheap, junky needles.