Buying Yarn From Abroad - Pierrot Beauty Silk

There's something exciting about receiving a parcel from abroad, especially if contains yarn!

Buying yarn from abroad can be risky. Can you trust the company you are buying from? What do they do with my credit card details? Will the goods arrive safely? How long will it take? Will the yarn be any good? Will I end up paying import duties that are more than the yarn is worth?

There's always an element of risk that you will need to take if you wish to purchase from abroad.

I have often visited the Japanese site for Pierrot Yarns and looked through their beautiful patterns and enviously browsed their yarn shop but never took the plunge and ordered anything.

But then I saw the beautiful pattern "Ada" by Vicky Chan on Ravelry and fell in love with it. I wanted to make it and wear it! 

With crocheted clothing the yarn is extremely important - this needed something a bit silky, with a nice drape. How could I resist the suggested yarn with a name like "Beauty Silk"? 

I checked the reviews for this yarn on Ravelry, which were all good and noticed quite a few of the reviews were from people outside of Japan, in the US and Europe. This left me feeling a little more confident about buying from the Japanese website. I did a quick conversion in ww.xe.com to find out how much 5 balls of the yarn would cost me ,  ¥1900 + ¥380 Shipping = £14 (could be more or less depending on my credit card conversion rate but from past experience it is never usually wildly out). This was good news because it meant that the order was going to be just under the £15 threshold for paying import VAT and customs fees once it landed in the UK.

I went through with the purchase, choosing the colour-way "Violet Brown", on the 29th Jan and on the 8th February, 10 days later, it arrived. Phew!

I can't wait to make this top - I just have a whole bunch of other projects to finish off first!