Yielding to Temptation

I’ve surrendered and ordered a bag of Peruvian Highland Silk from Elann. Pumpkin may not be a flattering shade for everyone, but it’s a color I can count on.

I am such a sucker for a full bag sale. When the sale price is by the single skein, even if it’s good, I’m less tempted than I am when I come across a good bag sale. Somehow $2.98 a skein doesn’t set my heart a-racin’ the way A whole bag for under $30! does. I have gotten some great deals this way, but I’ve also been subject to frenzy-driven lapses in judgement.

One example: the bag of lavender bamboo yarn. At the time my logic was something like Bamboo. Hey, a lot of people are knitting with that these days. I should check it out while the price is good. What I failed to remember is Lavender? I hate lavender. It makes me look like a corpse. (If someone wants to offer me a trade, I’m up for it. Those 2,500 yards of bamboo are doing nothing in my hands. Maybe you hate green? Or orange? Maybe you made a purchase that you’ve decided is a mistake, but which would strike me as the exemplar of stash-building acumen?)

I’m the same way about other purchases: I seldom buy one. It’s many or none. Flannel nighties on sale at Mervyn’s for $8 each? I’m taking home four. A flattering skirt at 75% off? I’m getting one in every color. I wait every year for Bath & Body Works‘ January sale then buy enough bubbling, exfoliating, moisturizing, and girly-girl-enhancing products to last me a full twelve months until the sale comes around again. (This year’s big winners? The tomato facial scrub and the orange-mint overnight foot treatment. Also, pretty much everything in the grapefruit fragrance.)

But I can tell you right now, that Peruvian Highland Silk was no mistake. Crunchy, orange wool-silk blend—I’ll be knitting that up within days of its arrival.

Tuesday Mewsday: A Cat Like a Wheel

One of my all-time favorite cat poses is “the wheel.” Every cat does it a bit differently. Some cats do a horizontal wheel. Others go vertical, so that one can almost imagine giving them a shove and watching them roll off like hoops. Then there’s the issue of noses: tucked in or left out? And tails: around or under? Not to mention the cats who wrap an arm across their eyes as if there are far, far too many things in this world they’d prefer not to think about.
Curled up tight
As you can see, Sparky goes for the horizontal, nose-out, tail-around wheel.