Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Bad Companion, Good Yarn


You know how your Mom warned you against listening to bad companions?  Well, I ignored that advice last night.  My Friday Knitting pal, Mitch, called just before supper to say that there was a treasure trove of yarn at Goodwill and I should come look.  Now, most of the time I can resist that lure because most of the time Goodwill has acrylic and novelty yarns or yarn that's so old even the moths don't want it.  Then he said the magic word--silk.  Silk and merino and RED.  I'm not sure I hung up the phone before my keys were in my hand.  Durwood put the supper-making on hold while I zoomed the 3 blocks to Goodwill.

I met Mitch in the café and we walked over, him giggling all the way he was that excited about it.  He was right to be excited.  It was a treasure trove.  A haul.  A budget-busting amount of very good, not very expensive yarn.  I fondled and thought, piled some in my bag and took some out, mentally added up what I had against how much money was in my wallet.  Then he said, "Tuesday's senior discount day, 10% off."  That did it, I was lost.  I piled 10 skeins of the red Prairie Silks, the Plymouth Encore Colorspun, and 3 colors of Cascade Cloud 9 into my bag.  I spent almost all my "mad" money. 

Once I was home I kept thinking about that silk/merino yarn.  Thinking that if I had it all I might be able to knit a sweater for myself.  Durwood, the prince, offered me some money from his stash but I declined.  Why should he pay for my manias?  After supper I went back to Goodwill and scarfed up the rest of that Ruble Red yarn, 11 more skeins... and a couple skeins of Shetland wool, and more of that Cloud 9 in 2 other colors, an unmarked skein of red wool, and a couple balls of random creamy softness.  That took care of all of my yarn buying money for the year.  Maybe two years.  Maybe FIVE years.


That loud crash you heard last night was me breaking my yarn diet.

Later today there will be searching for a pattern for a me-sized sweater and probably a baby blankie or hat or sweater or booties or softie or all of the above.  Good thing I have a lot of zipper plastic bags and lots of needles in lots of sizes. 

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