Sunday, March 13, 2011

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

I knew that once I started bragging about keeping my resolutions (of using up stash yarn) I would take a serious tumble into yarn-buying oblivion. It is not entirely my fault: It was a couple weeks ago. I was on a pleasant Saturday outing with the girls. We visited a local, genuine yarn store that I didn't know existed. It's all a blur now, but I remember getting out of the car with the sun pouring down on my unsuspecting head. The wind blew through my hair as I opened the door of the little shop, the tiny bell above me tinkling merrily. It took a second for my eyes to become accustomed to the light. When they did I saw that I had walked into heaven! The luxurious yarns sat blinking innocently at me from their shelves in an array of colors and textures that joyously overwhelmed me. Everywhere I turned were beautiful yarns that I have tried to ignore ever since I started knitting. Gorgeous, high-quality yarns that were made from diamond-encrusted alpacas that graze on Mt. Olympus, and spun into gold by Rumpelstiltskin. Yes, they were that beautiful.

I felt myself spinning around, my senses overloaded. I couldn't resist touching the soft, silky ball of mohair sitting right in front of me. I could have sworn that the yarn purred lovingly under my hand. Everywhere I looked was another wonder. There was no way I was walking out of there without something. I knew it. The yarn knew it. The store clerks knew it.

Despite losing my senses, I did manage to keep my cool enough to buy a good value yarn--220 yards of washable wool. This is very necessary and practical for a child's garment. I somehow came away with buying a pattern, however, that I didn't ever expect to make? Also, because I had to hold the yarn double-stranded for the pattern, I needed to buy double the yarn amount, which was not a good economical choice. Again, I was overwhelmed.


I have justified my resolution-breaking guilt by telling myself that this is a special gift for Little C. His birthday is coming up soon. This sweater vest is pretty versatile and the color looks so handsome on him; it's close to the color of his eyes.  All parents know that it's much easier on the conscience to splurge on your child than it is on yourself. I am still looking for an appropriate zipper. I can't find a color match, so I'm still considering my options. I'm hoping to sew one in sometime in the next week or so.



The "pattern that I did not intend to buy" turned out to be really enjoyable, fast, and a pleasure to use. I would definitely recommend it. It's called Bulky Hooded Vest for Children from Knitting Pure & Simple. It also has instructions for a variety of sizes, so I can see myself revisiting this again. The vest is also unisex, which is handy in case I ever have a little girl.


In spite of my guilt, it was a wonderful experience. I am left with some problems now, though.
1. I have almost 2 whole skeins left of this yarn and I have no idea what to do with it
2. I have become mercilessly spoiled by working with this yarn
3. I can't stop thinking about some of the luxury yarns I saw at the yarn store, like Rowan Lima (so soft and squishy!), and Aslan Trends del Sur (slubby, thick and thin) among others.

Since I don't even know what I would make with those yarns if I had them, it's back to stash-busting and some stripey sweaters for Little C.

3 comments:

  1. Or you could make something for your nieces for spring? LOL! That hooded vest is AWESOME! Love it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. maybe make some more quilt sqaures for the Japanese tsunami victims!

    ReplyDelete
  3. MK, the girls would look cute in those...we'll have to see once my guilt lets up.

    K, Crochet a Rainbow blankets are going to be sent to Japan now as well as Christchurch. Those poor people--I can't even imagine how devastating it is for them.

    ReplyDelete

 
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Generic License.