| On Thu, 24 Jul 2003 18:52:25 GMT, "SlinkyToy" wrote:

I went to the LYS today to buy a set of DPNs so I can start the sleeves of
my sweater...and I bought ONLY what I went in for!

Well at that point I was ready to be proud of your will power.

I do have to say, the atmosphere in my LYS has changed over the last couple
of years. Until about 3 years ago there was another more knitting-oriented
store. The owner of that store retired, so the erstwhile weaving store has
picked up the slack. Now that handknitting is such a popular hobby she's
really gotten uptight about things. The place is stuffed with yarn, most if
it nothing I care to knit with -- nasty ribbons, eyelash, hairy mohair (yes,
I did buy some last week at a different YS but it was cheap on sale).

Ahem, some of us love nasty ribbons and eyelash, if not hairy mohair.
For one thing these are things I cannot spin at home. My LYS stays in
business because of the popularity of those novelties for scarf knitting.
Otherwise she'd be hard up competing with Michael's and Walmart.

Today she had a knitting group in the front room blocking access to most of
the yarn I was interested in looking at - the sock yarns and the worsted
knitting yarns. Couldn't get there from here, which is probably a good
thing for my checkbook, but was irritating at the time.

Well, that's a bad problem if customers can't get to the displays! But
golly, fingering yarn and worsted DK are what I spin best! I do like the
commercial sock yarns, though, especially the computer-dyed self-patterning
ones made with superwash and that little bit of nylon for strength. I
haven't had to darn any socks since I switched to those.

I guess its a good thing I know how to spin!

It is. It's a joy to make things all the way from fiber to finish, even
without such provocation.


Helen "Halla" Fleischer,
Fantasy & Fiber Artist in Fairland, MD USA
http://home.covad.net/~drgandalf/halla/