Yarn rant

Last month's rant made me feel a bit better, so I figured another one might be in order after this afternoon's outing. Sylvia and I headed to our local yarn shop (about a fifteen- or twenty-minute drive from my house) to pick up a birthday gift for our friend Gina, a fellow knitter (she's recently taken up crocheting, too). My first thought was to get her some ridiculously luxurious yarn that she would probably never buy for herself, but then I remembered that she already has an amazing (and extensive) yarn stash, so I nixed that plan and got her some nifty knitting accessories, which I won't describe here in case she reads this before she gets her present.

While I was in the shop, I took a look at some of the ridiculously luxurious yarns there, thinking maybe I'd splurge and get something for myself. This shop is beautifully laid out and well organized, but one thing I dislike about it is that it stocks only high-end yarns--nothing for the budget conscious among us. I nearly gagged when I saw some of the price tags. Twenty bucks? Thirty-seven dollars? For one skein of yarn--and an amount that's not even enough to make a short, skinny scarf? Holy cow. Don't get me wrong: this stuff was beautiful. But I just can't imagine spending something like two hundred dollars on enough yarn to make a sweater. If I were filthy stinking rich, yeah, sure, I'd buy oodles of that stuff and knit ridiculously luxurious sweaters for everyone I know. Alas, I'm not filthy stinking rich.