Hi Jazzer I use and collect knitting machines, and like your wife had problems with yarn stocks, to be honest I found the best and cheapest way to get yarn was to visit the uk via car and buy from knitting machine shows like Bournemouth in Feb/March. Recently I struck lucky - via the local charity place in Morlaix ie Emmaus, I noticed in their window a large amount of industrial cones of yarn - I raced in and was enthusiastically raking through when the old guy beckoned me to come with him and he then showed me a more yarn through the back of the place (obviously some factory outlet had donated the yarn) and offered me the lot for the princely sum of 70 euroes, it took me all of 2 seconds to say yes, then my poor old other half had to go back home to get the trailer - it filled all the back of our hatchback and the trailer with tall sides on and was a mix of wool, cotton, linen and industrial acrylics which suit me fine, as I have every make of machine known to man. I love machine knitting and spend most of my time, keeping my substantial collection of vintage and modern knitting machines and gadgets in working order, besides knitting - I did advertise for like minded people here in on the border of dept 29/ ie dept 22 (Brittany) but only received a small response. I think of machine knitting as an art - and spend everyday working on them. Many people do not appreciate just what knitting machines can do, ie lace, weaving, tuck, slip, pile, intarsia, rib to name but a few techniques and they can operate and download through computers via designaknit. Seriously though, I maintain the very best way to buy yarn is to arrange a trip to the knitting show in Bournemouth and stockpile - the price of yarn in France is very high. I thankfully now have enough to keep me going for many years to come. I did intiially send for around 15 cones of the good old Acrylic from a company in the uk but boy was it expensive and I can no longer afford to do that now. Kind regards, Maggi .