I really do need help! Over the past couple of months, I have ordered way too much yarn from sites like Elann.com, Royal yarns, and Discontinued Name Brand yarns - not to mention the treasures found at the Salvation Army, JoAnns, and Walmarts clearance bins. I am running out of space to store this stuff, and I knit every day! I realize that I was becoming obsessive and way out of control, so last week I vowed that I wouldn't buy any more yarn until after the holidays. Well that didn't last long. After one of you helpful souls posted about the "jogless" jog, I decided that I really wanted a black stripe in my pink sweater. So the following day after work, I stopped by JoAnns to see if they had any black sport weight wool. To my delight, I found they had Bellezza collection Stellina on clearance for the amazing price of $1.49 a ball! Not only did I get 2 in black for my sweater, but they also had a lovely red (for the upcoming holidays, of course), lavendar (my daughter's favorite color), and fushia! Being the frugal knitter that I am, I couldn't pass it by! I justified the purchase by telling myself that everyone on my Christmas list would receive a handmade gift from me instead of a purchased one.
That was last Monday, and I was so good about not buying any more yarn for almost 2 weeks! I didn't even try to get in on any of the wonderful bargais that Elann.com was offering this week (yeah!), but then today I got sucker punched! It all started innocently enough; I had planned on taking my daughter to a movie this afternoon, as today was the first Saturday in a long while that we were both free. She suggested we leave early so that she could treat me to a late breakfast at I-hop for their streusel pancakes - they were great by the way. After breakfast, we still had about an hour and a half to kill before the start of the movie. No problem; across the I-Hop parking lot was a little shopping center with a Big Lots and a Dollar Tree. We could easily kill the time browsing those stores harmlessly - WRONG!
First we entered Dollar Tree and as I wandered the aisles aimlessly looking at Christmas decorations put out way to early for my taste, I swear I detected the faint smell of yarn in the air! My daughter thought I was crazy, but I just sensed it! I mean really, the fine hairs on the back of my neck stood up as we rounded the aisle where the scrapbook supplies were! Then I spied it - several plastic bins of yarn! I still thought I was safe because at first all I saw was those funky, novelty yarns with all the glitz and eyelash fibers - not my thing, but then, just as I was about to walk away, something told me to take a closer look. I should have ignored the little voice that was speaking to me, but I just couldn't. There on the very bottom bid were several balls of Paton's Divine! A lovely chunky blend of wool, mohair and acrylic in icycle white, a lovely pastel shade of blue, and charcoal grey. Dayum, dayum, dayum! Where was my yarnaholic sponsor when I needed her! I scooped up 6 balls of each color and ran to the checkout before my daughter could stop me! I was fresh out of justifications, but was grateful to have gotten such a lovely fix for under $20!
Next stop was Big Lots. I have read posts about how some of you have found yarn there, but I have never seen much in our local store, so again I thought I was pretty safe - not this time! I was innocently browsing the stationary aisle for colorful gel pens - yeah, that's another one of my quirky obsessions along with printed post-it notes, but that's another story. At any rate, I really was just looking for gel pens, when once again my senses were assaulted with the presence of yarn. Once again, plastic bins - almost hidden, contained more of those funky, glitzy fiber yarn, but underneath was the holy grail - Premier Yarns Pure - very fine, viscose yarn in a gorgeous pastel peach, dove grey, and a varigated blue! I didn't much care for the blue, but the peach and the grey literally jumped in my arms! These were unopened bags of 10 balls, so I bought 1 bag of each. I literally skipped to the register while my daughter just stood there shaking her head.
On the way to the movie theater, my daughter thought she would chastise me by reminding me of my vow not to buy any more yarn until after the holdays. I told her that I never specified which holday and since Halloween was over, I pretty much kept my promise!
She neither knits or crochets, so who can blame her for a lack of understanding.....
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Confessions of a Yarn Junkie
Alright, it is time for me to come clean: My name is Squarepeg, and I am a yarn junkie! There, now I have said it. If you are wondering just how I came to this prcarious situation, pull off your shoes, grab a tall, cold glass of sweet tea, or a hot cup of joe. and listen while I tell my story.
It all began innocently enough; I was a precocious 9 year old who always had to be busy doing something. I'm not sure if ADHD was a real disorder back then - 30 years ago, but if it were, I'm sure I would have been diagnosed with it and given a healthy dose of Prozac or something. Any way, on one particularly hot summer day while vacationing in Houston, Tx, my mother, my aunt, my brother, and myself had gone to the Houston Galleria to shop. I should say it was my mother and my aunt who were doing the shopping - my brother and I just went along because we were told to do so. After about 4 hours of being dragged from one department store to another, my brother and I could take it no longer! After our whining and pleading to go home garnered no results, we found ways of amusing ourselves. We played keep away with women's handbags. We tried to skip rope with belts tied together. It was only after we pretended to be a 2-headed creature and tried to use a double D cup bra as a hat that my aunt realized that something must be done with us! She whipped a $10 bill out of her purse and told us to go to the toy store and buy something to keep us busy. (Keep in mind that this was in the 70's when you could actually buy something with ten bucks!)
After browsing the store for maybe 30 minutes, my brother decided on a Star Trek coloring book and colored pencils. I spied a "Learn to Crochet" kit. The kit included a plastic crochet hook, pink rug yarn, different colored felt pieces, and an instruction booklet to teach a young person how to crochet and make these goofy looking, round potholders with faces of felt features. That's what I wanted!
We purchase our loot and went back to the car and busied ourselves until my mother and aunt had finished shopping themselves silly.
Over the next several months, I lost count of the number of potholders I made. After the yarn that came with the kit was gone, I would make weekly trips to the local TG&Y (remember them?) to buy more rug yarn with my allowance. After awhile, I discovered that there were more things that could be crocheted besides potholders. I soon graduated to making placemats and afghans, and even tackled crocheting doilies out of thread!
As they say: all good things must come to an end, and by the time I hit my teens, crochet no longer held the thrill it once did. I put away my crochet hooks and leftover yarn and forgot about them.
Fast forward a few decades: I am now a fully adult divorced woman with an adult daughter, and too much time on my hands. Well, not really too much time in general, but too much idle time as I commute to work in a van pool. My fellow riders are nice enough, but their conversations are just not interesting enough to satisfy me. I tried reading during the hour long trek each way, but found it difficult because of all the idle chatter surrounding me. As luck would have it, one day I was browsing the hobby and crafts section at my local Barnes and Noble and was amazed at the array of crochet books! I couldn't believe the things that could be made! Oh, and the yarns shown in the books were a far cry from old Aunt Lydias rug yarn of my potholder days! I purchased 'Crochet Me' which had fabulous patterns for crochet wearables and quickly headed off to Michaels craft store to find yarn.
I purchased 6 balls of Patons Grace in a lovely lavender and an appropriate sized hook, and was on my way. Now the frugal part of me thought: "Wow, $25 for an uncooked sweater is a bit pricey!" but I was undaunted. Over the next several days, I managed to finish the summer pullover and was literally hooked! I fell in love with crochet all over again, but this was going to be an expensive hobby!
The light finally came on after a "duh!" moment; As a doll collector, seamstress, and quilter, I had discovered years ago that wonderful supplies could be found more economically on the world wide web. Could reasonably priced yarns be merely a mouse click away? I soon began Googling with a vengance, and found several sites that had wonderful yarns at awesome prices! I'll share some of those in upcoming posts, but for now, just picture what used to be my sewing studio now littered with dozens of bags and shipping boxes full of yarn.....
It all began innocently enough; I was a precocious 9 year old who always had to be busy doing something. I'm not sure if ADHD was a real disorder back then - 30 years ago, but if it were, I'm sure I would have been diagnosed with it and given a healthy dose of Prozac or something. Any way, on one particularly hot summer day while vacationing in Houston, Tx, my mother, my aunt, my brother, and myself had gone to the Houston Galleria to shop. I should say it was my mother and my aunt who were doing the shopping - my brother and I just went along because we were told to do so. After about 4 hours of being dragged from one department store to another, my brother and I could take it no longer! After our whining and pleading to go home garnered no results, we found ways of amusing ourselves. We played keep away with women's handbags. We tried to skip rope with belts tied together. It was only after we pretended to be a 2-headed creature and tried to use a double D cup bra as a hat that my aunt realized that something must be done with us! She whipped a $10 bill out of her purse and told us to go to the toy store and buy something to keep us busy. (Keep in mind that this was in the 70's when you could actually buy something with ten bucks!)
After browsing the store for maybe 30 minutes, my brother decided on a Star Trek coloring book and colored pencils. I spied a "Learn to Crochet" kit. The kit included a plastic crochet hook, pink rug yarn, different colored felt pieces, and an instruction booklet to teach a young person how to crochet and make these goofy looking, round potholders with faces of felt features. That's what I wanted!
We purchase our loot and went back to the car and busied ourselves until my mother and aunt had finished shopping themselves silly.
Over the next several months, I lost count of the number of potholders I made. After the yarn that came with the kit was gone, I would make weekly trips to the local TG&Y (remember them?) to buy more rug yarn with my allowance. After awhile, I discovered that there were more things that could be crocheted besides potholders. I soon graduated to making placemats and afghans, and even tackled crocheting doilies out of thread!
As they say: all good things must come to an end, and by the time I hit my teens, crochet no longer held the thrill it once did. I put away my crochet hooks and leftover yarn and forgot about them.
Fast forward a few decades: I am now a fully adult divorced woman with an adult daughter, and too much time on my hands. Well, not really too much time in general, but too much idle time as I commute to work in a van pool. My fellow riders are nice enough, but their conversations are just not interesting enough to satisfy me. I tried reading during the hour long trek each way, but found it difficult because of all the idle chatter surrounding me. As luck would have it, one day I was browsing the hobby and crafts section at my local Barnes and Noble and was amazed at the array of crochet books! I couldn't believe the things that could be made! Oh, and the yarns shown in the books were a far cry from old Aunt Lydias rug yarn of my potholder days! I purchased 'Crochet Me' which had fabulous patterns for crochet wearables and quickly headed off to Michaels craft store to find yarn.
I purchased 6 balls of Patons Grace in a lovely lavender and an appropriate sized hook, and was on my way. Now the frugal part of me thought: "Wow, $25 for an uncooked sweater is a bit pricey!" but I was undaunted. Over the next several days, I managed to finish the summer pullover and was literally hooked! I fell in love with crochet all over again, but this was going to be an expensive hobby!
The light finally came on after a "duh!" moment; As a doll collector, seamstress, and quilter, I had discovered years ago that wonderful supplies could be found more economically on the world wide web. Could reasonably priced yarns be merely a mouse click away? I soon began Googling with a vengance, and found several sites that had wonderful yarns at awesome prices! I'll share some of those in upcoming posts, but for now, just picture what used to be my sewing studio now littered with dozens of bags and shipping boxes full of yarn.....
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