Do you need a ball winder?

My birthday was last week and I got to do some celebrating with my family when I went up to Cincinnati for another job interview. I am lucky because even though no one else in my family knits, they are all super supportive of my obsession. My brother-in-law is the cutest- he has found out all kinds of things about knitting (like he knows that heels on socks require a series of short rows) and he even goes into yarn stores by himself to pick out gifts for me. So for my birthday he went to Knit On, a yarn store in Bellevue, KY, and picked out some lovely gifts.

Rio de la Plata Sock Yarn in Sparkling Grape


Peruvian Tweed- 100% Superfine Alpaca


He also got me a ball winder, not knowing that I already had one. Luckily, he had talked to the salesperson when he bought it and she told him that I could take it back for store credit. So we all went to Knit On so that we could exchange the ball winder for yarn.

Here's where the trouble started. As soon as we walked in, the salesperson said that we could not exchange the ball winder, even for store credit and even with a receipt. Jason explained that he had spoken to the salesperson and was assured that an exchange would be no problem. The woman finally agreed to do the exchange. We started looking around the store to find yarn (and I was getting pretty excited because they did have a really nice selection) when the woman came back and told us that she could not exchange the ball winder because it was "all dirty".

Huh? All dirty? I had just opened the present the night before and hadn't even taken the ball winder out of the box. What the heck was she talking about? Well it turned out that one side of the box had something on it- flecks of dirt or something. The BOX- not the ball winder itself. And honestly, the box was not "all dirty"...here, look for yourself:



See those spots on one side of the box? I swear to you that this is the reason that the woman refused to exchange the gift for store credit. It's really a shame because everyone loses in this situation. I lose because I get no new yarn, my sister and brother in law lose because they went to so much trouble to pick out something nice for me and it didn't work out, and the store loses because they will no longer have our business (which between myself and my family ends up being quite a chunk of change).

I found myself getting kind of upset with all of this losing, so I decided that there needed to be a winner in this situation. And the winner is going to be one of you! Leave a comment if you need a ball winder or know someone who needs a ball winder. Make sure you leave your email, website, or some other way to contact you. I will randomly pick from all the commenters one week from today and send my old ball winder to you for absolutely free- I'll even pay to ship it to you.

Here's to winning!