Saturday, December 29, 2012

Ask Me About My Kneedles

Hey, will you look at this!  My first post not from my desk at work.  (I swear your tax dollars go to employ wonderful, hard-working people, and most of the time I am one of them).  Where am I blogging from this snowy afternoon, you ask?  My newly reorganized craft room!  (My fiance got me a wonderful book Craft, Inc. for Christmas last year , which I finally decided to crack open and read.  It gave me just the boost of inspiration I needed to get it done).

Step 1:  An Inspired Workspace
Speaking of Christmas and inspiration, I made a trip to JoAnn's yesterday to purchase some goodies with my stack of gift cards.  So my question is this, do I have a sign permanently attached to my back which reads "Hey you, got a question about yarn and needles, ask me!"?  Seriously, I do not work for JoAnn's, or Michael's for that matter.  But without fail, Every. Single. Time. I am in the yarn aisle at a craft store, I get asked (and then followed around) by at least one weary customer.  

Last week at Michael's it was a girl with a month off school asking me which yarn craft to take up with her new found free time.  I had to convince this girl that 1. Knitting most definitely trumps Crochet, and 2. Don't wimp out and start loom knitting. In this same visit, I was approached by a frantic mom searching for the perfect gift for her 11 year old daughter who took it upon herself to get on YouTube and start knitting pot holders on chopsticks (seriously, way to go kid).  She wanted to know 1. If there was actually a difference between Crochet and Knitting (probably the number one question I get asked), and 2.What a girl would need to get started on a scarf.  I picked her out the same book that got me started, made a suggestion for the size of needles she should start on, and explained how to determine which yarn goes with what size needles.  I felt like I had performed my civic craft duty for the day, and went home feeling quite accomplished.  But yesterday, at JoAnn's, just when I thought I was going to make it out of the yarn aisle and into the fabric section (where, thank goodness, no one approached me), this woman came up to me with 5 skeins of yarn in her hands and asked my opinion about which would make the most expensive looking cowl.  When I made my selections, she demanded a supporting explanation.  I told her how much I hated working with one of the yarns she had chosen, and for the next 20 minutes she hunted me down in every aisle with another 5 skeins, always holding at least one of skein of said devil yarn.  Really lady, is it that hard to read the label?  When I said Lion Brand Homespun drives me nuts, I didn't mean that just the blue colorway was horrible, or just the red for that that matter.  I meant every single skein labeled Homespun frays exactly the same way, and you would be tearing out your hair by the end of that cowl if you went home with it. She finally left with an assortment of skeins and was sure to thank me on her way out.  Goodness gracious.  I love talking needles and yarn.  But really, give me a break sometimes.  

In the end, my trip to JoAnn's was quite successful.  I spent a whopping 6 bucks of my own money, and still have $45 left to spend!  I was quite pleased with my selections of yarn, notions, buttons, and fabric too!  So I will leave you with a sneak peek at what I think will become my first sale item:

Puppy Ears Anyone?
Disclaimer:  I love you Lion Brand, I really do, and I will continue to support your yarn, and suggest it to the million more people sure to stop me at the store in the future, but Homespun...  not happening.

2 comments:

  1. It's like going to target wearing a red shirt! Bad news! I am so excited to see your etsy site. Let me know when its running. I will pimp you out!

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  2. I feel an odd sense of pride when I'm at Fido and some forlorn student looks at me and asks "when they're going to turn the WiFi on", as if I can will it. The perks of being a regular.

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