Tuesday, December 19, 2006

 

What In Yarnation ... ?


As many of you know, Wendy has decided to go on a yarn diet.




Of sorts. There are rules, regulations, exceptions (well duh), and many invitations to divert, subvert and pervert the rules to suit your own ... well, your own diverse, subversive perversions, I suppose.

I wasn't going to join in.

As many of you may remember, the last time I tried this -- and that wasn't even a DIET, but a yarn FOCUS, with a "free day" every month and bla bla bla ... well, I went three months without buying so much as dental floss, and then all hell let loose:




Yeah, the spoils of one afternoon. Couple hours, really.

By no means has all of this been used up, and it's but a tiny peek into the corner of the fibre obscenity that is this studio. The pink varigated has been knat into a hat for my daughter (gorgeous stuff, and allegedly discontinued, which is steaming my sphincter but I digress), the blue in the bottom centre has been made into fingerless mitts for me, a couple of hats for my drunken hat challenge, and one mitten (hopefully soon to be two) for my mother unless she pisses me off again and then they'll go to someone else (I'm nothing but tidings of comfort and joy around this time of year, hmm?). And ooh! I'd forgotten about those Romney locks. Dude. How could I forget that?

The brown C220 is a sweater for my husband. I'm thinking of just gluing the yarn to him instead of knitting it. What was I thinking, marrying a man with a 54" chest? Clearly crack was free that week.

I can't even begin to tally what's around here. I may not live long enough to use it all. Hell, nobody READING this right now may live long enough to use it all. (no, this is not an offer to come and start raiding my stash, although i do intend to have a fairly extensive stash-fondling experience with a couple of you in the very near future. trust me, you will go home with stuff, not all of which will require medical intervention.)

But I still wasn't going to join because, when finances permit, I like buying yarn, roving, dyes, going into all of the local stores, fondling the fibres, sniffing bags of wool and deciding which ones need to come home with me, etc. I take my kid and we both have just a hoot. I've trained her well.

I support a couple of local stores, there are some online places I like, bla dee bla.

No, it was all just too much. Or so I thought.

And then I followed a comment from Wendy's blog. A comment left by someone who thought this was a Very Bad Idea. A comment linked to a brand-new blog whose author is starting out by swiping other people's graphics and then using them in a post dissing that person. Also a Very Bad Idea, or at least an appallingly tacky one.

Dissing that person because the commentor owns a yarn store and if Wendy, who clearly controls the Yarniverse, tells people to stop buying yarn then she'll go out of business.

Now the cranky comment was one thing but then the bullshit on the blog? Quite another. So we who have far more wool than anyone with sense should possess should buy more, rather than using up the beauty we've collected over the years? We should spend money that could go instead to all sorts of wonderful causes like, oh, people and animals who wouldn't mind maybe eating now and again, that sort of thing?

If, for a business to survive, it is required that people who have far too much of something purchase more of it, is that business even required in that location? I mean, if you had two gas stations in town and there was really only enough business for one ... would everyone think it made sense to drive around for an extra three hours a day out of charity?

I think not. In fact if one were to do such a thing one would be castigated for wanton excess. But it somehow makes sense that out of a sense of charity towards someone who is clearly a completly selfish twat (as well as being tacky ... please don't forget the tacky) we should commit the same sort of act with relation to yarn?

Bullshit.

If there is a market for her business in her area, her business will survive (if she modifies her damned attitude perhaps). If there isn't, it won't. It's called commerce.

And I love me some commerce.

I really don't think that my business (or lack thereof) is going to cause some chick in Va. to go out of business -- mostly because I have never purchased anything from her and likely never will. I do think that she's pissed me off enough that I'm joining Wendy.

I don't care that it may well affect the fact that I dye and sell wool and the like. I'm willing to take my chances. Commerce, and all.

Many fine yarns that have been languishing in my stash lo' these many years will shortly see the light of day.

I may not do the whole nine months. I'll come up with some "rules" and exceptions of my own tomorrow. For now, I've just realized my babysitter arrives in 15 minutes and I'm thinking she won't want to catch me in the shower so I should run.

I said in an email earlier today to Carol that I wasn't going to share this story, but I lied. And are you surprised?

A couple of weeks ago I was in the shower and Missy Moo came into the room, looking for me. I said I was in the shower and she hauled the curtain back, took one look at me and then ran through the house screaming "The Horror" and giggling uncontrollably. I got my own back by pointing out that in 38 years she's gonna look just like this.

This was amusing as hell, to both of us, but quite frankly I don't want to have to pay for the babysitter's therapy as well as for Eleanor's.

I don't need therapy. I have beer.

Carry on.


Comments:
Well, and really aren't we assigning Wendy here some sort of celebrity status and assuming that she'd have the kind of pull to bring down the whole yarn industry single handed? (No offense to Wendy because even though I don't know you, Rabbitch likes you and that's enough for me!) Did that asshat not read all the comments that said "I can't do it"? Jeez people can be so intensely moronic sometimes. I almost commented on her blog but decided she wasn't worth the four seconds of typing "You're an idiot!" I've been on a husband induced Yarn Diet and I have been DYING! I can't buy any until the New Year - boo!
 
Oh, J.
I do look forward to diving into that luscious stash of yours.

with matt?

BWAHAHAHA

*cackles and runs off, hiding from Christmas*
 
Because of this post, I went back to Wendy's site to follow the aforementioned link.

What an idiot.

I, too, almost left a comment, then decided I didn't want to give her the satisfaction of knowing someone out there cared enough to bother to read her blog.

Any LYS-owner who has been in it for awhile knows that we knitters in general have about as much willpower against The Call of The Yarn as we do against the call of food when trying to shed a few pounds. But we are compelled to at least try. If we didn't have that "try" in us, we wouldn't have learned to knit because as we know knitting can be very trying sometimes! LOL!

Besides: with all the exceptions and the ability to cater it to our own needs, there are still loopholes in there for Yarn Crawls. I'm so glad there is an allotment for sock yarn. Since that's all I really want to knit anymore, I can sign up proudly, feel like I'm doing something good for me, then go ahead and invest my inheritance in sock yarn anyway. ;-)
 
And by "idiot", I mean Miss Very Bad Idea, not Wendy. We love Wendy. :-)
 
It's that darned law of unintended consequences again...
 
C'mon, people, aren't we getting a bit carried away? You can still use up some of your stash AND support your LYS: you'll need needles to use up some of those stash yarns (because let's face it, if you're like me, and have fifteen size 6 needles, you'll still be unable to find 2 of them when it's time to cast onto a size 6 needle), stitch holders, maybe some patterns and books to help inspire you....
 
wendy's blog certainly attracts the asshats, doesn't it.

freaks ....

i may go and read the comments because i want to feel like a genius today.
 
Criminy.....honestly...in reading blogs out there, and the comments left...do people not think about what they're reading or writing???
I'm with Wendy's comment. heh.
 
Well, I went in search of 'the very bad idea' comment, found it but it is no longer a 'link'...or am I just an idiot and missing something here? as in the link?
 
Ahh, Rabbitch my glorious friend, thanks for this post. It's my favorite thing in the world when you get all het up about something. And I have no intention of not buying yarn (although I do intend to knit from the stash) and even so, I am off to Wendy's to find out what shop to avoid, and what blog address to sell to the spammers.
Kiss kiss.
 
...sigh... It seems that her link has been removed. Maybe some of Wendy's (and your) readers weren't so restrained and wasted a few seconds to flame her blog. Woe is me, I missed out.
 
Some people...

Doesn't sound like she understands knitters at all.
 
Very edgy this diet thing sounds, got my pulse racing at the very idea...not that I don't have a house full of fibre and fibre goodies, but the very idea of nine months with no new texture or whims...oh, that sounded scary...so my mind leapt for a way around this, and came up with the idea that it wouldn't be tooooo bad if the dieters could swap some of their stash that they would be willing to part with, for someone else's stash then you could at least have the possibility of laying your hands on new fibre and color and still diet....my pulse is starting to slow down ....this could be doable now although, Im not willing to commit quite yet...lol cedar
 
Never mind the beer, I'm going straight for the Screech.
 
And another thing, does that person not have a thinking brain? I mean, if most knitters are like me in needing lots of yarn around (which I think they are) the participants are stocking and hoarding yarn to get through the "lean" times. I mean, there's a slight run on yarn right now. duh
 
Yup. Commerce. Of course, this is also like having a chocolate store in your area and they mail you postcards of their yummy chocolates right after you promised to diet for your new year's resolution.

Sexy Yarn. Mmmmmm. I want me some sexy yarn.
 
I get find the scandal. I found Wendy's blog (well, of course, I know about Wendy's blog) and I found one comment saying she hoped yarn stores don't go out of business, so I went to her blog, but I couldn't find the dissing! How frustrating for moi! Did she take it down? Most recent post was Dec. 16.

Being holed up cuz of illness makes things much more exciting to me than they would otherwise be. Thanks for sharing the story.

Charli
CharlizeenATyaHOOdotCOM
 
Man, I hate that I missed it. I love watching idiots in action (from a distance, anyway). I wouldn't have commented, just laughed!
 
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