Peer Pressure...not just for teenagers

I confess there was a yarn transgression last night...

Our LYS, Creative Fibers in Windsor, CT, was having a "Booth in a Store" party last night, as they are not going to be a Stitches East this year. It was a fun time! There was food, raffles, knitting and crocheting, community, and yes...much yarn purchasing.

My original idea was to spend around $100 (probably a lot less) on some yarn for a baby blanket for yet another pregnant coworker--I'm convinced there is SOMETHING in the water at my workplace. Anyway, I didn't see the Encore colors I was looking for, but just then one of my friends saw a sweater displayed. I confess, I've been looking at the same sweater for months. It's make out of Misti Alpaca Chunky Yarn - very simple, but elegant. 

Before I could say "I'm on a budget!" my friend was summoning someone over to find us the pattern, which turned out to be the Bulky Neckdown Pullover for Women by Knitting Pure and Simple. I kept protesting that I really shouldn't spend this kind of money on a sweater for myself, but one of my friends suggested I try on the display sweater. I looked in the mirror and had to admit it looked good on me. Also, bulky alpaca will probably be just the ticket for surviving yet another winter in ill-heated spaces.

So...I ended up buying the yarn and the pattern. I don't really regret it, as I DID need another easy project as a take-along project, and it WILL make a nice sweater...

Who says peer pressure is only for teens???

Helpful Hint #6: Is this yarn a good deal?

…or, they should really teach this sort of thing in Calculus.


Did you, like me, tear your hair out in school over the following:


“Jimmy is traveling by train, going 80 mph, and Suzie is traveling by car, going 55 mph. Jimmy is 100 miles from their motel and Suzie is 50 miles from the same point. How many minutes will it take each to reach…”


And people wonder why our children have no math skills.


Instead, they should be giving our young entrepreneurs of tomorrow word problems like THIS:


Brand Name Yarn is on sale at your LYS for $5.99 a skein. It is also advertised on your favorite on-line site for $6.99 – this is the cheapest you’ve been able to find on-line.


Shipping for the on-line site, if you buy 10 skeins: $5.99


Your LYS is 10 miles away. Your car is currently getting 24 miles to the gallon, thanks to the A/C, and gas is running at $4 a gallon. So, $.17 * 10 = $1.70. Oh, and tax (if your state taxes yarn at 6%) would be roughly $3.60.


LYS total = $65.20 and the On-line Site = $75.89.


Even if you get some sort of on-line deal to waive shipping, you’d still end up paying $69.90 for the on-line option. So, in this particular instance, the LYS wins out, hands-down.


This is the sort of thing I figure out every time I try to decide where to buy my yarn. Sometimes the LYS wins, sometimes an on-line site wins—depending on the price/shipping/gas/tax combination.


Of course, there are a myriad of other variables to consider:
1) The aggravation of driving vs. getting yarn delivered right to the door.
2) The actual driving cost is actually higher, when you figure wear-and-tear to the car.
3) Do you want the instant gratification of getting your yarn RIGHT AWAY?
4) Do you need a particular color that your LYS may or may not carry, which would necessitate a special order and ANOTHER car trip back again to pick it up?


Of course, there is also the most important issue facing us all (yarnsters and non-yarnsters alike)…do you want to support your local business?


And, also, is Jimmy’s girlfriend Marsha aware that Jimmy and Suzie are messing around behind her back?

The Creep of the Yarn Stash

I know...countless knitting and crocheting aficionados over eons of time have raved about their yarn stash. One must be very careful about telling people one has a “stash.” Tell the wrong person, and you may end up on the wrong side of a police raid. People who are not familiar with the ways of the yarn look extremely taken aback when I talk about my stash, especially when I go on about its size, where it’s hidden, the variety, the quality, etc.

My stash resides in those plastic bins you slide under beds. You’ll notice here I say “beds” – plural. I have some yarn in enough quantities for a project, but a lot of it is in random skeins of ones and twos, which is a little tougher to use, as they tend to all be different textures and thicknesses. I’ve searched through those “one-skein” type books, hunting for suitable projects, but I can’t get excited about making fingerless mitts or tea cozies. I also don’t get the cowls that seem to be all the rage lately. NO...when I put something around my neck in the dead of winter, I want something that I can wind around and around my neck several times and with which I can also cover my chest, because it’s DAMN COLD up in these here parts.

Anyway, I digress... my stash has started to grow again. I’ve been trying to (no pun intended) keep a lid on it by my membership in the Crochetville Forum “Stashbusting” group. This is a group where we make a searching and fearless moral inventory of our weekly yarn usage, and confess our yarn transgressions. For a while there, I was doing pretty well, going through a few skeins a week, or at the very least holding steady. I’m not sure what’s been going on lately. I strongly suspect my skeins are having wild yarn orgies overnight in the bins, because they have started to reproduce – I’m sure of it. All of a sudden, my stash has busted out of the confines of the bed bins and is now residing in random project bags or in plastic bags by the bed.

I also find that I’m frequently a victim of stowaway yarn. I’ll be in Michaels, Wal-Mart, or the LYS, innocently minding my own business. One might say this is like going to the cathouse to hear the piano player, but I convince myself every time that I’m only going there to a) get a pattern book, b) search for the pattern freebies, or c) browse. Sure enough, I’ll go by the skeins and before I know it, they’ve leapt off the shelves and into my cart. You’re going to ask why, if I’m only getting a few things, I have a cart – and you can just hush up right now. This isn’t just limited to the usual haunts, either. I’ve been known to find yarn just about ANYWHERE. I’ve discovered they have yarn at Ocean State Job Lot, of all places (again, it just leapt out at me, before I could defend myself). I’ve even found yarn at True Value stores on Cape Cod.

I feel it’s just only a matter of time until I find yarn at Stop & Shop...