January 05, 2005
Today I took my Mum
Today I took my Mum out to our local Spotlight store. I think it's somewhat similar to Hobby Lobby or Jo-Anns in the US.
Every January, Spotlight tosses all the discontinued yarns into a sale rack for $2 a ball. We'd been out there on the weekend, and I noticed a lot of Mum's favourites were on sale. Now taking my Mum shopping is never an easy task. She's on a pension, and generally has cash flow problems. So I called her yesterday and asked "Wanna go to Spotlight?" and of course she says "Maybe later in the month, I'm a bit broke" Fine, but later in the month there'll be no yarn left in the sale bin. So I offer to loan her money, she says no. (No point offering to give her money, she'll refuse, so I just never call in the debt) Finally I convince her to come out just for a drive.
We get there, and they have Angora Supreme for $2 a ball. I paid $7 a ball less than six months ago for the damn stuff. I show her, and she says "I don't like that boring plain stuff!" and heads straight for the fun fur.
I convinced her to borrow ;) some money from me, and she finally left the store with a bag full of fluffy acrylicy scarfy stuff. Sigh. She's more than happy to knit fluffy scarves and little else, although she has branched out into fluffy baby sweaters and jackets. I gave her my stash of fluffy stuff a few months back, and she was in heaven, and couldn't believe I didn't want it. :) She's knitting these scarves to try to make some money, and to try to quit smoking. It makes her happy.
However, I carried around a bag of Angora Supreme the whole time, and then I put it back before we left the store. My guilt got the better of me. Here is my poor mother struggling to buy fluff, and I have enough yarn to outfit her forever, even if she doesn't want it! I played with my stash when I got home instead. I am in awe of what I have collected :)
I have yarn planned for 12 sweater projects, 3 scarves, 25 or so pairs of socks, 6 tanks, 3 pairs of gloves, 3 hats, 2 ponchos and 4 miscellaneous projects. I also have 23 lots of unallocated yarn.
I'm glad I put that yarn back.
Comments
I love to covet yarn! It IS hard to resist! I just keep telling myself that I physically can't knit THAT many projects. By the time I get to that gorgeous yarn, I will be wishing for a new yarn. I'm in need of patterns though. In my 1 year knitting adventure, I've accumulated a large plastic box of yarn but only about 2 books & 2 magazines worth of patterns. Besides, I find that what I love about knitting is playing with yarn and stitch patterns. I'm still amazed that a few stitches can create such wonderfully different patterns!
Posted by: Evelyn at January 6, 2005 04:17 AMYa know, I see a lot of that going around. Don't know if it's the recent world events or what, but isn't it a welcome change? To me, it is. And even though I struggled with myself not to go buy some Cashmerino yesterday, I did what you did -- came home and took stock of my stash. I didn't even have to go very far, and I found that I had some perfectly wonderful yarn for the cover scarf of Knitting On The Edge that I've been wanting to do. True, it's not exactly the color I had originally envisioned, but in the end I may actually like it more! I'm going to make a serious effort to "live within my stash," as Mary Beth put it recently! I think this is a good thing.
Posted by: Norma at January 6, 2005 05:31 AMI think every Spotlight has different yarns for sale. I went to Birkenhead Point today and there was no Angora Supreme. they did have one pack of Merino Supreme and a few bags of Cleckheaton Nature Boucle, though. I was good and left it all on the shelves :D
celia
Posted by: celia at January 6, 2005 10:03 PMWas this Penrith? I was there last week and didn't like any out in the specials bin. Patonyle in some colours was on special and with my members card came to 50% off. Not my favourite wool but it will be good for childrens socks.
Jan
I just found your blog and I love it! Good Job! Oh, and I am glad that you take good care of your mom's yarn 'wants'. Some daughters would not do that...
Posted by: Debby at January 6, 2005 03:16 AMI also am loving hearing about where you live! Keep it up and you have a reader for life! ;-)
Debby