yarn candy

My favorite yarn store is tiny, just a small room. If it isn't raining or snowing, they put all their on-sale yarn outside in big baskets and they have some rolling shelves they put outside, too. If it is raining or snowing, you can't move around in the shop, because all the yarn outside needs to be stored inside. If there are too many customers (and I always seem to attract them when I go in there), you can't move around either, but that's good for their business. One advantage of the small size is that they really have to do a sale when they change over from summer to winter yarns or from winter to summer yarns, because they simply don't have the storage. And I love sales there, although I definitely pick up enough yarn during the non-sale time, too.

To me, it's like a small, but full to the brim candy shop and since I suffer from the "single ball/hank/skein" affliction common among knitters, it's a dangerous place for me. It isn't so bad with the summer yarns, but when the new winter yarn comes in, I feel the need to get just one ball of every yarn I like. Not a sweater's worth, no, just one ball or maybe two (for mittens, so many mittens on my queue ...). Even worse is the end of winter sale, which starts in January. Single balls aplenty, just waiting for me, sometimes for weeks. All the good intentions and resolutions go right out the window and yarn follows me home.

So when I went to my favorite yarn store to pick up that ball of Latte for my snow bunny, some of the yarns that I've been eyeing since they came in pounced on me. I always rejected them because while they were pretty, they weren't really my colors or I didn't know what to do with them. But how could I say no to this:

No, I don't ever wear orange. It doesn't suit me. But I love the heatheriness of this yarn and its thickness and its bright, beautiful orange orange orange color. What will I knit with it? Pfffff, that's not so important, is it? Maybe a big version of a baby ball ...

I can blame the following on the snow bunny, at least, since the colors are clearly snow bunny-inspired. But apart from that, Nuvola from Lana Grossa is a lovely yarn, soft and squishy and again it has lovely heathery colors, which is a definite improvement as well. For a long time, Lana Grossa yarns were either one single color (lovely colors, I love them) or variegated.

With this yarn I'm definitely thinking mittens. Fairisle mittens with a delicate plant pattern on a white background. They just won't get knitted until next winter I guess.

And the last ball of yarn that followed me home was this one:

This poor bedraggled ball of Dieci had been waiting for me in the single balls sale basket ever since they put out that basket. I had to finally taken pity on it and bring it home. Since it's machine washable, I'm thinking ball for my friend's baby - that way I can test for my orange ball.

I still have a lot of single balls of yarn waiting to be turned into something pretty. I guess I just love the challenge of finding or designing the exact right pattern for them all.