About Us

Why Penelope? 


William Waterhouse: Penelope and her Suitors...


Penelope is a character from Homer's work, 'The Odyssey'. The wife of the errant Odysseus (and a talented weaver), Penelope misguides the suitors who wish to marry her (they are vying for her attention to attain her husband's wealth) and tells them she will choose a husband as soon as she has finished weaving the funeral shroud for her Father-In-Law, Laertes. At night she secretly unravels her work, deceiving her young suitors. 

Her ploy fails only when one of her servants betrays her. Penelope has managed to run a household, keep her son from taking over, keep her suitors at bay, all in a time when most women were completely controlled by men. She is the unofficial Goddess of Weaving and unfinished works...

 

 our original splash page... circa 2004

Our shop opened in January 2004, an extension of my Mother's and my love of spinning, weaving, knitting and fibre arts. We saw a need for high quality and hard-to-find fibre arts supplies and were one of the first local fibre businesses to start a website with an online shop. Mum passed away in 2006 and I decided to plunge in and keep the shop going! It's been a wonderful journey, full of fantastic and creative people, and of course, the pleasure of sourcing wonderful and unique products from Canada, the US and farther afield. 

Brenda


STORE POLICIES

Payment: all prices  are in CDN $. All on-line payments are processed using Paypal. If you have any questions regarding Paypal, please contact us. You can pay via Master Card, Visa, American Express or debit from your personal bank account with Paypal. You do not need a PayPal account to check out. Only one special code or discount can be used per order, at our discretion.

If you wish, you may place your order over the phone and pay with a credit card or e-transfer,  If you have established a relationship with us and live within Canada, you may pay via personal cheque. 

We do not credit or refund transactions if the price difference is $5 or less. 

Shipping: items in stock will be shipped within 24-48 hours of us receiving your order. We will notify you if an item is not in stock and advise you of the approximate delay in shipping. Free shipping codes are valid for purchases from the website for items greater than the $ value stated on the Home Page. 

BC SHIPPING, flat rate $12**

AB, SK SHIPPING, flat rate $15**

MB and East SHIPPING, $18**

We use Canada Post to ship and charge only the actual shipping amount, no handling fees. We are not responsible for extra customs duties or fees incurred if you are in the US or Europe or if your product was drop shipped to you from an International destination. 

Sometimes we can send your small order letter mail with no tracking for less than our minimum, if this is the case we will refund you the difference.

**Large, bulky items are more than our FLAT RATE. Canada Post will charge us more to ship due to your location or the weight of the item. If you have a rural Postal Code such as V0X 1V0, or live East of BC - you may receive an additional fee via PayPal.

SHIPPING TO THE US - can be slow depending on US Customs inspection. Also, you may be charged duty on delivery - this is standard and is levied by the US Post Office. Please be aware that we have NO control of the amount you are charged or the delays with US Customs. 


Taxes: all prices on this site are listed without tax. For customers within Canada - all yarns and fibres add 5% (gst), and equipment add 12% (gst/pst).

 

Gift Cards: as of late 2020 all our Gift Cards have a ONE YEAR from purchase expiry date written on the card. Gift cards can only be used for items in our brick and mortar shop at this time, they cannot be used for classes. OLD Gift Cards with dates before November 2020 have EXPIRED and are no longer valid


Returns: hopefully, you'll be thrilled with our purchase! If you are unhappy for any reason, you MUST contact us within 2 days of receiving your package. Items to be returned must be unused with tags, packaging etc... intact and as they left our shop, ie: re-saleable condition. Your refund will be processed once we receive the item back in the shop. Your refund will be the cost of the item and tax, not shipping. We are not responsible for items lost in transit on their way back to us, we recommend using Canada Post with tracking.  If you made an error in ordering and need to return an item, we will exchange the item but you are responsible for any shipping charges incurred. We do not refund shipping on items that have been returned to us as non-deliverable, refused or abandoned unless the error was ours.

RETURNS/REFUNDS ARE NOT ACCEPTED ON ITEMS THAT HAVE BEEN SPECIAL ORDERED.

If you cancel a special order you are responsible for a minimum re-stocking fee of $15.00. If the item(s) is/are valued greater than $150.00 the re-stocking fee will be 10% of the item(s) value.