yarn is just too expensive

01 Nov 2004 in journal

hi there ~ i had a fun halloween, and carved at the last minute a very nice pumpkin, i’ll try and post some pics later tonight.

but now, a rant: how can anyone out there afford to make rowan after rowan knitted-things?! and throw in rebecca, debbie bliss and phildar stuff too. it’s all just way too expensive! there’s this truly beautiful debbie bliss cardigan over at yummy yarn and so, feeing overly optimistic about my knitting skills, i looked around for how much it would cost to buy the recommended yarn, debbie bliss’ cotton angora. at about $7.50 a skein, with 16 skeins needed, it would cost $120 just to buy the yarn, let alone the pattern, needles, and shipping! !!! really i just can’t type enough exclamation marks in there, those prices are just so outrageous! $120 for a cardigan, a beautiful high-quality one, but still just a cardigan! and the thing is, i see blog after blog of people knitting not only one rowan-caliber (price) project but several at a time, with galleries, archives and finished knit-a-longs filled with such projects! how do people do it?

this so sucks. knitting is starting to feel like something just for the uber-rich. i know, i could just knit with acrylics or basic wool (not even koigu or organic wool) and use patterns from <a href=:http://knitty.com”>knitty</a> and magknits (and i do use them, and they’re great, don’t get me wrong) and stick to kintting stuff that doesn’t need more than 3 or 4 skeins at a time, but i don’t want to! and as much as i like bags and scarfs and hats, i want to knit some pretty, warm, double-digit-skein-requirement sweaters. and all the above mentioned companies have the prettiest, really truly the prettiest, patterns and yarn. argh.

rant finished, promise. now, i’m just sighing. silly me.

btw, good voting links:

• ~ don’t know where to vote? mypollingplace.com
• ~ michael moore’s 10 point checklist, including: bring ID and proof of address!
• ~ the league of women voters’ democracy net has tons of info on candidates, propositions for your state, and more
• ~ and if you have problems voting, call 1-866-Our-Vote