Dear Knitter,
This month we have a new design in our patterncard kits collection. The Greeta Cardigan is a circular-yoked design in six sizes, with a beautiful autumnal colour palette. This patterncard kit design also comes with access to a focused video class taking you through the unique shaping of the upper body in preparation for fitting the circular yoke. Also included in the class are how to assemble the garment pieces for working the yoke; how to set and follow the yoke pattern; how to decrease the yoke within the pattern; how to finish the neckband steek; how to finish the short armhole seams and graft the underarms. This design is an intermediate project which assumes you already have the required skills for working stranded knitting in the round with a steek. You can see it here worn by Rebecca in the Scottish hills. You can find the Greeta Cardigan patterncard kit here.
The Greeta is also available in a full set option, with both the Greeta Cardigan and Hat Set. You can see Eve here wearing the full set along with a matching Oiseabhal woven wrap and a Sporran Bag. You can find the Greeta Full Set here.
We have some very important news for our customers in the USA. This does not affect customers in any other country. While we implement the required changes detailed below for our customers in the USA we will be temporarily pausing orders from the USA from 21st of August and hopefully reopening to USA orders on the 29th of August:
Starting from 29th August the US Government is imposing a tariff on packages entering the USA and is abolishing the current de minimis.
A tariff is an import tax which must be paid to the US Treasury by the importer (the recipient of the package).
The tariff will be charged on ALL packages (with the exception of gifts under $100) landing from outside the USA, and it must be paid by ALL importers, both business and private individuals. ie. Even private customers will have to pay the tariff.
Until the tariffs come into effect on the 29th of August it is hard to tell what the final tariff and duty percentage will be. At present it appears our UK origin products will attract a total tariff of between 13% and 19%. Once the tariffs are in effect the landing tax calculator we plan on adding to the website checkout will give you the duty and tariff in your shopping cart so you can see the total before you buy.
US Customs has also just announced that the tariff MUST be prepaid by the customer through the package mail carrier (in our case Royal Mail).
This means that if you are based in the USA, when you order from our website after 29th August you will pay the tariff through our checkout. This will look similar to how you pay the shipping charge. The tariff will be shown underneath your item subtotal. We will then pass your tariff payment on to our carrier Royal Mail, who will then pay it to US Customs when your package begins its transit journey. This means that your package should go through Customs in the US without any further charges on landing as you will already have paid the tariff at point of sale.
We have just received notice of these changes so we will be working hard to get our website ready. Royal Mail are also currently working on implementing a new system to deal with these changes.
As the Royal Mail payment portal will not be available until at least 29th August we will need to temporarily suspend orders from the USA from 21st August until the Royal Mail tariff pre-payment portal is available. Packages sent after that date could land in the USA after the 29th and would be returned to sender as the tariff had not been prepaid. We are hoping to have the system for the prepayment of tariffs up and running on the 29th, but it will depend on how quickly Royal Mail set up their portal.
At present the information we have been given is that our pure wool yarns and patterncards, which originate in GB (Great Britain), will be subject to a total tariff of betwen 13% and 19%. Our books (A Collector’s Item, The Children’s Collection and Road Movies) are printed in China and may be subject to a higher tariff.
We will keep you informed as we get our website ready for this change and as more information becomes available. We will be open to orders from the USA until 9am (BST) on 21st August. At this point we will close down US orders.
We will resume sending to the USA as soon as the Royal Mail tariff payment portal is available.
Our digital only Creative Course 1, 2 & 3, the Infinite Cable Class and the Weaving Class and Weaving Design Plans are unaffected by this change as they are not physical products. These will not be subject to the tariff and there will be no change to the www.steek.scot website where these are purchased.
The information above is accurate as of 16th August. We will update our statement if any further changes are announced by the US Government. You can keep updated on our website here.
Some designs are back in stock with new patterncards arriving this month. The Sulaire Shawl, Queen Anne's Lace and Herald Pullover are all available again. You can see them all here.
We have also had some emails about our Henrietta design. This is made in a main colour of Tormentil 3 Ply which will not be available for at least two years. We are able to make up kits on request with a Red Deer 3 Ply main colour. If you would like a Henrietta kit in a main colour of Red Deer you can email in to us and we will arrange that for you.
