Tuesday, August 28, 2007

I'm Blaming it all on Paypal

I tend to be a rather logical (note that this doesn't necessarily have to mean rational... although I am good at rationalizing), linear thinker. While this may sound practical, it can often lead me down a path that I wasn't quite expecting or prepared for. For example, the following selection of patterns came in the mail yesterday...






Both of the Lana Grossa booklets are full of cotton patterns (which is not necessarily great for knitting but good for our climate) and I happen to have quite a collection of cotton yarns. Cool.

So as I peruse the patterns, I hop on my laptop and begin to check out the specs on the suggested yarns and begin a mental search through my stash, checking out specs on yarndex and various websites, and even begin to make a list. At some point as I travelled down this path, it occurs to me that supposedly stash can be photographed and recorded on Ravelry. A couple of clicks later I find that, yes, it can... and not only that, it can be downloaded in spreadsheet form into Excel. I'm not even going to get into my love affair with spreadsheets. Suffice it to say that before I started knitting and discovered the vast time-sucking black hole we call the internet, I was certain that computers were invented solely for the delight of creating spreadsheets. Think what you will, but I am immune to your criticism on this point.


Anyway, I tend to avoid such large (possibly insane) tasks because I usually approach things with an all or nothing attitude (my still yellow kitchen would be an example of the nothing side), so this led to untold (not unknown, I'm just not willing to tell) hours photographing and recording my stash on Ravelry because once I started I couldn't walk away.


However, now that I am almost done (Flickr has limits on uploads so I need to wait until next month to finish the sock yarn), I can look at a glance and see which yarns I own might be potential subs for any pattern... and if I have enough of it. Whew! But I'm too tired to think about it tonight so I'll save the cool patterns for another day and another post and just get to the yarn from yesterday's mail.



Some Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport in Denim and Natural for the IK Snowflake Socks...





A pleasant variety of mostly solids from The Loopy Ewe (hey, I had a gift certificate after all)...

L to R: Nature's Palette in Ripe Wheat, Lorna's Laces Sock in Old Rose, J.Knits in Pueblo, and Misty Mountain Farm Jubilee in Rainforest.



And, my biggest pure indulgence...


Duets Skinny in Chocolate Fantasy from A Swell Yarn Shop. And a close-up...


Oooooooohhhhhhh!


Personally, I'd like to take advantage of the opportunity we have as Americans today to be free from the responsibility of our own actions and blame my late night yarn binge on Paypal. I mean, what's with an online bank that offers me access to my own money at any hour of the day without any sort of field sobriety or fatigue test? Shouldn't they have some sort of trick questions to assess my ability to shop. You know... something like, "Is it a good idea to spend $5 on shipping for a single hank of yarn?" or "Are you feeling pressured to buy more yarn simply in order to meet the free shipping minimum?" Then, based on my answers they would be able to evaulate my emotional stability and restrict access to my funds as necessary, thereby assuming all responsibility for how I spend my own money.


While we're at... maybe Ravelry should impose a time limit on each user... bloglines too for that matter. Of course that would still leave me with sites like this where I found this too cool bumper sticker...


ETA: Lest you think I'm a horrible person, this is, of course, in reference to House.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love the House sticker. I am such a House junkie. :)

I'm so jealous you're on Ravelry. I have like 15,000 people ahead of me. Sigh.

sophanne said...

I'm not usually drawn to blue or cream colors but that Lorna's Lace's was begging me to find some of my own on the screen. Must be living vicariously through your paypal expedition.

km said...

The snowflake socks are great. My MIL commented on those when she flipped through my Fall 2007 IK. Let us know if they're easier than they look. I'm sure she wants those for Chanukkah.

Charity said...

I've just started on Ravely, and am intimidated by the hugeness of putting everything on there. Maybe I'll just start with new stuff, and go from there...

Your yarns are completely lovely! :0)

Good Yarns said...

"It's never Lupus!" Hooray for sarcasm and wit.

When do you start the snowflakes?

Sarah said...

Of course it is all the fault of PayPal.

I want to knit those snowflake socks too, they're on my list.

Yarnhog said...

I, too, am a bit overwhelmed by Ravelry. I like being able to record all my projects in one place, but I just can't imagine that having to keep track of all my yarn on a spreadsheet could ever be a good thing.

Angelika said...

If you feel so bad about the stuff you bought you always have a taker here. Nice yarn. Hmmmm. And your top looks great too. I wish I had a photografer on hand.

Auntie Pudentaine said...

I figure it costs me about 12-15 bucks in gas these days to drive the 90 miles (round trip)to the yarn shop. Obviously I try to fit more into the trip errand wise, but it sure makes the 4.00 flat rate shipping sound reasonable....especially when I get my stuff the next day! Not to mention all that touching makes you buy more since you drove all that way.

Does that help with the guilt in any way? :-)

Olga said...

Ooh, I love your taste in yarn! All of it looks good to me.