Last night I placed my first international yarn order, at Bendigo Woolen Mills. (Kickass yarn. Now that I know how to do it, I may order from them all the time. Oh, and Bells, worry not. I'll swap for this yarn ALWAYS. You just let me know when you're in the mood. I bet 3-ply makes nice lace. Oh, and thanks again for the shade card.)
So, I ordered the yarn for the Christmas knits for the in-laws this year. The blue cable-knit for my father-in-law last year was knit with Bendigo (Rustic 8-ply, color "Midnight Tweed". Lovely color, and not one knot or hinkey spot in the eleventy million yards I knit up). It got many admiring comments and my mother-in-law (a knitter, you recall,) LOVED the yarn. This year it's a pile of Classic 5-ply for some stranded-color sweaters. (Yes. I'm insane. You'd just noticed?) So I filled out my order, and clicked to check out, and, well, there was the total.
I breathed into a paper bag for a while until the dizziness went away. Then I reminded myself that for two sweaters it really wasn't too bad, and the in-laws deserve the best for everything they do for us, and I clicked 'pay' (or whatever), and that's when I saw it. The total, followed by "AU".
Oh, right. Australian dollars. Haha. Silly me. I'm ordering internationally.
The charge just went through our own bank, in USD. It's positively reasonable and almost a third less than what I thought when I clicked 'pay'. Haha. Australian dollars. Righto, then.
Shoulda ordered more yarn.
I'm gonna go feel stupid now.
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10 comments:
I know it!! I was checking out Australian yarns--I'm hoping my mil will bring me some back, although I'm not sure, as she's not one to go off from the tour on her own to explore--and I was shocked at how the prices converted. Same thing on the Australian Red Cross website.
Was the international shipping reasonable? Maybe I should just cut out the middle (wo)man and start ordering from Down Under myself!!
Used to be like that for those of us in the UK, ordering overseas, until the middle of last year. Now, after stout collapse of the pound, it's more likely to be HOW MUCH???? oh. Hit the 'empty basket' box forthwith...
Wow-- and the idea that 'hey, I got this yarn from australia' is always pretty cool:-)
(spamwords: entshess, my precioussss... hates them nasty entsess....)
That really says something about how Americans don't need to do international orders as much as we do. I do so much overseas ordering it just feels automatic to make the conversion now!
Will be interested to see how long it takes to reach you!
I'm with Bells on this one. It becomes an automatic process to convert. Every so often I get a yearning to join a US sock club but no matter how many times I look at them, I just can't justify spending that much money. Of course I didn't have one of those yearnings during the period of time last year when the exchange rate was in our favour. Idiot me!
Aah yes - the sucky AUD - but I am pleased Bendi is in the export market now! I'm with Bells - theres an automatic add 50% which goes on for me. No more US orders for a while.
Love William Morris and his contemporaries - you must have been a Celt in a former life - beauty and utility went hand in hand - beautifully decorated ridge poles in houses and cloaks and or course all that lovely weaving and spinning in plaids and trews!
Take what you felt about the price going down and reverse that feeling and you'll get how it feels to pay for US yarn with AUD!! Ouch.
BWM is all sorts of awesome and there is usually free shipping to Oz if you order more than a few skeins.
I had my sister (she lives in Oz) bring me Bendigo yarn when she visited last summer. I'm in the middle of a 8-ply Rustic Cobblestone, in Damson for DH. Lovely colour and the yarn knits up very nicely. I have a bunch of Colonial for me, can't wait to start knitting with it!
I'm pretty sure I don't need to order more yarn but you made it sound intriguing and so I'll probably peruse the website during my break today. They don't need to advertise, they have bloggers!
btw, the Faux Russian Prime Starf is lovely. The beads don't detract at all but add a small sense of luxury.
meh - lucky you. I wish the conversion would work that way for me when I am ordering stuff in $US and then have to pay in $AU :(
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