yarn candy
There was a time, dear friends, when “clubbing” meant (to me at least) staying out way too late dancing and drinking and stumbling home at all odd hours. Ahhh what a difference a couple of decades can make. Now when I think of clubs I think of sock yarns arriving at my door on a regular basis. I’m not actually a big sock knitter, I knit socks on occasion, just not regularly. I mostly knit sweaters and sometimes I knit them out of sock yarn but there is still no reason for me to be involved in a “sock-yarn-club”. Especially since the club I currently belong to is also a mini-skein club. The only sweater I can make out of mini-sock-yarn-skeins is either A) sized for a Barbie doll or B) a color abomination the likes of which I have learned not to wear (yes, I have tried it. It wasn’t pretty or even “funky” except in a bad way.)
So why am I participating in this sock-yarn-club thingie? Well, to be fair, I really wanted to get into this designers other yarn club called “When Granny Weatherwax knits socks”. I wanted to be in that group because I know Granny Weatherwax! I would be in on the laugh! Never mind that I would still be stuck with a whole lot of sock yarn for a girl that doesn’t really knit socks! To my dismay the “Granny Weatherwax”club was sold out and so were all her other “club” memberships, all but one, that is: mini-skeins. 7 of them a month. And it’s been going on for over a year now.
I have tried to use these little gems for many other things, primarily crocheted motifs and such, with some degree of success. The real problem here isn’t the yarn or finding the right project or even my ability. The problem is that I like them as “skeins”. I like to look at my (ever-increasing) pile of multi-colored splendor. I wound several of them into tiny little sock-yarn-center-pull-balls and put them in a little bowl on my dining room table and they are adorable!! (Do not say “hexipuff” to me! I am not making hexipuffs no matter how cute I think they are!)
That, however, is the extent of it, And this is where the second problem comes in: I have no desire whatsoever to “do” anything with them. None.
Did I get sidetracked? I was supposed to tell you why I joined this club? Hmmmm, I think it’s a bit like “clubbing” was back in the day when it meant hanging out in smoky bars and dance clubs. I didn’t really want to be there but I didn’t want to miss anything either. I showed up for the simple reason that I didn’t want to “not” show up. Sock-yarn clubs are in abundance over on Ravelry and just about every indie yarn designer has one going. I feel like there must be something there that I will eventually wish I had been a part of .
Twenty years ago I wasn’t self-aware or secure enough to admit that I’d rather be at home on my couch watching horror movies and eating pizza with my BFF than out in a sweaty club with people I didn’t particularly like, trying way too hard to have a good time. But time and experience have served me well. I am now perfectly comfortable admitting that I do not want random sock yarn sitting around my house no matter how appealing it is and I don’t want to try that hard to find a use for it.
I do, however, have a good friend who loves sock yarn, loves knitting socks, is well on her way to completing a hexipuff blanket, has better eyesight than I do and, apparently, more patience as well. I think I’ll pack up my 70 some-odd mini skeins and send them to her. Then I’ll go cancel my subscription to the “club” and get back to the beautiful, cable-y, bulky, cardigan that I will most definitely have a use for, well, for a least a month or so.
For now I’ll leave you with this:
Susie, trying to be good. It’s hard for her, poor thing.
