Hello. It is I, your internet grandma.
This is what I was talking about in my last post. This is The Most Expensive Thing I've Ever Made & I'm So Glad I Love It.
I'm the sort of person who cringes at spending more than $5 on a skein of yarn. I'm a Red Heart, Lion Brand, Walmart yarn shopper. Then something changed in me last year. Might have been that I was feeling my age, or going through an existential crisis, something like that. I stopped thinking in terms of cost and started thinking in terms of value. I think it was back in October, I saw a pattern for a scarf/shawl object while surfing yarn porn on Pinterest. I wanted to make it. I mean, I really wanted to make this. It became a moral imperative. I found the pattern on Ravelry and bought it. (https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/prismatique-wrap). The next month I bought my first skein of hand dyed yarn. I budgeted things out, and over the next few months I bought three more. $24 a skein may seem like nothing to some crafters out there, but for me it was a huge chunk out of my monthly income. Malabrigo Mechita sock yarn. Last month I started work on it, after practicing the pattern on some cotton yarn I found in a thrift store. It felt like it took me forever to work up the wherewithall to get going. It turned out I didn't need that fourth skein, but I've got plans for it now (a knitted slouch beanie).
But here's the thing. This was the most amazing experience for me. The yarn is so stinkin' soft, beautiful, and smooth, it was a revelation working with it. I was in fucking HEAVEN for the weeks it took to complete. You know the tired old saying, "It's the journey, not the destination"? Well, when it's both it can be ecstatic.
Like my blocking table? That's an old yoga mat, repurposed. The scarf as I made it measures 14" wide by 60" at the longest, crocheted in linen stitch (my favorite) with a 4 mm hook. The colorways are Fairy Tale, Legend, and Desert. Now, the lighting in the basement ain't great, but the images are good enough that you get the idea.
When you fold it in half lengthwise to drape around your neck, it forms lapels. I've never made a scarf with fucking lapels before, and I love it.
Now that I'm over that "am I really good enough to work with $$$ yarn" mindset, I'm looking to go absolutely nuts in the future. I'm lookin' at you, Hue Loco . . .
