A Quirk

ColorGazeYarn

When I visit a yarn shop, I have a silly quirk:  I see a gorgeous skein of yarn…and when it’s the only ball of it’s colorway in the cubby of other yarns of it’s type…I buy it. This happened to me while visiting my family in Boone. Mom and I went to a lovely yarn shop in Blowing Rock called Unwound.

It does seem silly to buy only one skein of a particular yarn! But you see, there is method to my madness:

First of all…it keeps the one skein of yarn from being lonely there in the shop.

Secondly…it allows my imagination to run wild with possibilities! If I bought seven or more skeins of the same yarn it would likely be earmarked for a particular sweater. Decision made. Half the fun already over. But if I buy just one, then I’d have to combine it and create a one-of-a-kind garment or shawl and THAT, my friends, is just over-the-top fun!

Thirdly…the one skein gets to sit on my desk for a long while as I gaze at it and mull over it’s future possibilities. I often enjoy the look of a skein of yarn just as it is, almost as much as I do when it gets knitted into something. Is that weird? Perhaps this is another quirk.

And finally…the dent in my pocketbook is not nearly so damaging as seven or more skeins of yummy yarn. This is quite possibly the most important of all the reasons, as I do like to be practical. Um….yes, I need to be practical.  I must say that over and over.

The doubly good thing about this particular skein of yarn is that it has around 300 meters in just the one skein! There are numerous shawls these days that you can knit with that amount of yarn, like this one I made last summer. So I could, quite possibly, knit up something using only this skein. But then again, I could create something else, something infinitely more exciting. We shall see. For now, I’m enjoying looking at the skein sitting there in all it’s Possibility Glory!

*Never mind the fact that I made the mistake of telling the yarn shop clerk of my little quirk. She then informed me that there were 11 more skeins of this Noro yarn “in the back” if I wanted more of them. Nah-nah-nah-nah (fingers in my ears). I’d rather believe I rescued this lovely, lonely gem of yarn. A quirk indeed.

0 thoughts on “A Quirk

  1. lovelaceii says:

    You describe me to a T! I love just looking at and squeezing a soft skein of yarn. Then the fun of thinking & deciding what to knit, and what it will look like when done. I don’t know which is better. Love your blog.

  2. freebirdsings says:

    If I buy yarn, I buy enough for a sweater. If I don’t use it for a sweater, it may be enough as the main part of an afghan. Now if it’s sock weight, then yes, if it will make a pair and not just one sock, I’ll buy one skein without worrying about it too much. Its still fun to dream about the sweater design and I do leave one ball sitting out for sight and touch candy. My practicalness comes in buying the sweater amount as I really have no need for shawls (although I want to make that one with all the sock yarns tied together just for the fun of it) and mittens and hats. I don’t even really need afghans although I am working on one. But I do use sweaters! Most of the winter is spent in sweaters. So although I haven’t knit one in way too long (and I do need some new ones), I don’t feel too guilty about the yarn I recently bought from Romney Ridge Farms online. It’s pure wool from Maine sheep and too expensive but I couldn’t resist. I see her sheep on Facebook!

    • jenpedwards says:

      Ha! I like that: “touch candy”. I so identify with that! The practicalness is completely understandable and so fun to have a stash of yummy yarn just waiting for the right pattern to knit up! I’ll have to check out the Romney Ridge Farms site! Sounds wonderful!

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