A Long Yarn

Today I had to go to the DMV.  It was really quite quick and, dare I say it, nice.  That's one of the things that I love about living in the country.  When you go to the DMV up here, the people are genuinely nice.  Maybe it's because they aren't ground down by seeing hundreds of people every single day?

But still, let's face it, I had to go to the DMV.  And when you have to go to the DMV (or the dentist, or clean out your septic tank, or any other unpleasant kind of thing) there's really only one thing you can do when you're done - treat yourself to something special!

So I went to the yarn store.

I've been obsessing about those Windsor Mitts.  I may have mentioned them a time or two!

I was thinking that I would check, just look, to see if they had a comparable yarn to the Blue Sky Alpaca Royal Petite yarn that the pattern calls for.  I knew I had a hundred other errands to run, but surely a quick in and out little short tiny visit was in order.  After all - I had just come from the DMV.

So I took a little look around.

First I looked at everything.  Then I looked for the color family that I wanted.  Then I started checking the yarn weights.  In order to avoid doing adjustments on the pattern I wanted to get the recommended fingering weight yarn.  It's pretty thin.

She had some really nice yarns.  There was a Debbie Bliss silk alpaca blend that was the shimmery softness that angel's wings must be made from.  So nice.  Her organic bamboos were dyed in the most subtle of shades.  She even had a yarn made from corn!  (Seriously - corn!  I wasn't sure whether I should put some butter on it or what.)

Well, after an hour of finding a beautiful soft yarn that would look stunning worked into the Windsor Mitts only to discover that it was the wrong weight or there was a color fleck that just wouldn't do or there was no way I would every even consider wearing that scratchy glittery color combination on my hands.  After an hour of referencing and cross-referencing yarns on my handheld with the online Ravelry yarn database, I admitted defeat.

It just wasn't meant to be, I guess.

So I thanked the yarn shop owner for her time and went to leave.  But nothing is ever that simple, is it?

She was convinced she could find the yarn substitute that I was looking for.  We revisited each shelf, each hank and each skein of yarn that I had spent the last hour going over.  She was not to be deterred!

I explained my reason for rejecting each - wrong fiber, wrong color, wrong weight, flecks of green, flecks of orange, too flashy, too plain.  Still, she persisted.

Finally, after going through each selection, she gave it one more try - she would special order the Blue Sky Alpaca Royal Petite yarn for me.  It would take a few weeks, but she would get me that yarn (even if it killed her, I think)!

Such a sweet lady, I hated to disappoint her.  Thanks, but no.

Part of the joy of a new pattern is looking through all of those yarns to find the one that is the perfect fit for the picture of the finished object that I have in my head.  Shopping - without buying anything - is a really fun part of the process for me.

You wouldn't just gobble down the perfect champagne truffle, would you?  (Okay, maybe you would!)

So 2 hours after I walked into the yarn shop, I walked out - wallet intact.

My quest will continue though.  And actually, I think that my DH had the best idea of where to get the yarn - at a local farm about 5 minutes down the road.  The woman is a family friend.  She spins the yarn herself.  The sheep are raised here.  It doesn't get more local than that.

I think that's what I'll do.  Now I just have to figure out how to schedule another DMV day so I can reward myself by going to the farm!