I know, I know, hate is a really strong word. But I was feeling really strongly about it, so there. A couple of weeks ago I was buying thread for Sink or Swim when I saw this spool of eggplant purple and pale avocado green variegated embroidery thread. KABLAM! I was in love. No, not with thread, though I did buy the spool, but with the color combination. I instantly had this absolutely effusive picture of a purple and green explosion of a bag.
It was hard not to pull the colors from my stash the instant I got home, but I'm pretty good about finishing one freeform project before starting the next one, mainly because I don't have room to spread multiple baskets around. Anyway, It took me another week to finish Sink or Swim and I frantically put the blues away and started pulling purples. It took all of about three minutes. Not only didn't I really have purple yarn, but what I had was just plain BLECCCHHH!
I put the basket together anyway, and my greens made up for the sad state of the purples just a bit, but this was supposed to be a PURPLE bag with green, not a green bag with purple. SO I went to the LYS and dropped some cash. I came home, thrilled with my acquisitions, arranged them int the basket and.... nothing. Not only wasn't I moved to pick up the hook, but the first thing that came out of my mouth was ICK! Anthony looked at me sideways. "What's wrong honey - aren't you happy with your new yarn?"'
"NO. It's awful"
"It's not awful", he carefully replied, "You just need to rearrange it". He dumped the contents on the bed and artistically placed each and every ball and bit back in. It was better, but I was still feeling a noticeable lack of enthusiasm. I started a scrumble anyway, frowning the whole time and then got stuck. I couldn't hook another stitch.
"So buy more", he said. See, this is one of the reasons I love this man.
So I did. And this is what I found. First, Carolyn at Pink Peppercorns hand dyes the most incredible silk ribbons. They're expensive but so gorgeous they're worth every penny. And she'll negotiate prices for longer than her standard 2 yd lengths. She's a doll and I WILL be buying ribbon from her! Oh, and she also spins novelty yarn! I've included one of her "scraplets" in the photo
Then I stumbled across Artfibers. Whoo Hoo! You can indulge you desire for gorgeous fancy yarns with their Yarn Tasting! I ordered sample lengths of purple yarns that struck my fancy for $2.50 each. The lengths vary with each yarn, 6-15 yarns. And what customer service! They shipped the day after I ordered, and with USPS priority, I had my samples in two days. I tore the bag open, dumped the contents in the best light spot (the front steps) and took this photo. Then I tucked them around my basket along with Carolyn's ribbon, and guess what...
I LOVE MY YARN! A few small bits of gorgeous things, not a bagful of mediocre things was all it took. Whew, that was close. I'm going to Stitch and Bitch tonight at Knitting Nation in Nyack, one of my LYS, and now be much better behaved at the cash register. Thank you Carolyn, thank you Artyarns - you've saved by budget.
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