Ignore that ugly yellow 70s era linoleum that is still in my kitchen and I manage to rationalize by telling myself it's really "retro"......not that I'm all that wicked, I don't think. Unless I'm PMSing, then all bets are off. Or, is it considered wicked to have signed up to be part of a stash knit-down for 2008 -- part of which is to abstain from buying new yarn as much as possible -- and yet go and purchase a boxful of fibery goodness two days before said knit-down begins? Seems rather like the binge the day before you're planning to join Weight Watchers, doesn't it?
Ok, so...I have worked every day since Christmas except Friday. Mind you, this is not a complaint, as I love my job. I just usually only work on Saturdays, which works out well for many reasons, not the least of which is that it keeps my yarn-buying opportunities to a reasonable weekly minimum. However, I offered to work extra over the holidays, and I was taken up on it, which worked out fine because -- unbeknownst to moi -- it is INVENTORY TIME! Yeay! It hadn't occurred to me that a yarn store would have to physically count each and every item in the store once a year. I figured there was software to keep track of these things...and there is...but it seems to make the accountant happy to have those figures physically verified once a year.
So, I counted. And counted and counted and counted. I dragged the step stool and the cardboard box (the one I appointed as my "official inventory box" and quietly named her "Boxy") around the shop for four days, during which time I managed to count virtually every ball of open stock yarn in the whole store. Do you realize what this means? This means I personally touched EVERY BALL/SKEIN/HANK of yarn we have out on the shelves! Hundreds and hundreds of them! And they all felt so gooooood. I love my job.
The whole process was oddly relaxing to me, because I am a geek who loves to make lists and catalog things and count things. I must have a little OCD in me somewhere too, because I came to realize that I could not count without actually touching each ball as I counted it, and if I failed to do so, I had to go back and do it again -- the right way.
Today...today I got to the 50% off bins. On most days I work, I try hard to avoid these bins as much as possible, because they are dangerous. They act like a big, black hole, sucking away all manner of reason that would otherwise keep me from being able to rationalize the temptation of purchasing 10 hanks of the most putrid color of Cascade 220 ever created. It's this drab dirt color, and so far I have still managed to resist buying it, though the more I think of it, the more I'm convinced that it is so ugly that it HAS to have the potential to be turned into something beautiful and that, my friends, would result in a personal challenge that would have me buy those hanks and set out to prove the ugliness wrong. Thus...the effect of the 50% off black hole.
Anyway, as I excavated those bins today, I found the most beautious yarns that I didn't know were there because I've been good and have been avoiding them as much as possible. But there was the most captivating color of blue Debbie Bliss Merino DK -- enough balls to make a sweater for me. To die for purple DB wool/cotton -- enough for something for my daughter. Various Sirdar Snuggly skeins in different shades of purples, which will be perfect for some baby gifts I will need this spring. Some brand (can't remember which) of this brownish, kid mohair fuzzy yarn that just said "buy me and figure out what to do with me later because I feel so nice to touch." And a couple other odd balls that just jumped into my arms.
So, I filled up Boxy (her inventory career now at an end) and brought home the goods. And considering how much yarn I touched this week, I think I was pretty well restrained.
Truth be told, though, I may have to withdraw from this stash knit-down before it even truly begins. Who am I kidding...buying no new yarn? Inventory might be behind me, but the winter sale is just weeks away! Ahhhhhh.... :}
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