I've been knitting a beaded yarn project, in between other things. It's a scarf made from Artyarns beaded silk that I got on my little roadtrip to Comfort a couple weeks ago. The yarn is a very beautiful 2 ply silk, with one of the plies having little silver seed beads.
The yarn was an exceptional indulgence for me... at only 100 yds per skein at a luxury price. The scarf I'm making takes 2. Given that I no longer have a disposable income, it was more than over my budget. But I absolutely love the yarn, the color, the feel, the shimmer. and it was an impulse I couldn't resist. To be honest, when I grabbed the yarn, I thought 2 scarves, one for me, one for gifting (can you hear the justification?)... the 100 yd skein did not really hit me full throttle. Once it did, c'est la vie! And I don't really believe in buyer's remorse... if I love it, I love it. So a 2-skein scarf it is.
I have spend time thinking about this, though, as I've been knitting with it. I have thought of every justification that comes to mind for why this scarf makes sense...about all the sale yarn I've purchased that sits in personal bins and baskets and will probably end up being donated to someone else's project or will be just stash that outlives me ... yarn that, over my lifetime, has amounted to many times more than the cost of this scarf . I've thought about how much I envy this scarf for it's sheer beauty and anyone else who might wear it, I've thought about why I feel the need to justify this to myself, especially since I already own it and, finally, how much I embrace this scarf and how I long to wear it.
Which has brought me to thinking about wearing this scarf... I'm about 3/4 done with it now and it has hit me that it is remarkably heavy with all the beads. There are loads of beads. And this little 2 skeins of 50 grams of silk with beads feels so much heavier than that.
Really, think about it... skein of cotton/tencel is 50 grams and feels light and airy. 2 of them feels light, still. Yet 2 skeins of this yarn feels like there are weights on it (aka heavy glass beads). Is the yarn really 50 grams? is it the weight of the fibers without the beads? or is it a perception issue that transcends our norm? I'm so curious, now, I can hardly wait to find the answer, but have my perfecto scale at the shop, so will have to wait until tomorrow to actually weight the scarf and see what's what...
Interesting how a simple scarf out of yarns that I have lusted for, could lead to all kinds of interesting questions about life and science.
I'm hoping I can solve this final scarf mystery tomorrow.
I would think the weight of the yarn without beads. This whole stash issue has been plaguing me recently as well. On a recent visit to my mother, the hoarder, I was so uncomfortable. I edge toward minimalist in comparison and the visit gave me motivation to toss my stash. # large bins worth are going to the guild meeting on Monday night and it will be a free for all. I am considering it part of the Gratitude Project ( and will be grateful it is gone to a happy new home).
ReplyDeleteIf you are feeling the weight of your stash against the pleasure of this new yarn, maybe you can stash dive and come up with some beauties to make a lot on ebay that can sell for what you paid for the new yarn, thus balancing the budget, or create a shop raffle basket with the proceeds going to charity, thus balancing the karma budget.
Regardless, enjoy fully the new yarn! No apologies!
I'll post about what I found about the yarn... it was quite the eye opener.
ReplyDeleteAnd I came to the same conclusion about all that stash that seemed to have a purpose at the time, but that I know I'll never use (or ever have enough time to use). Into the charity bin it goes for the chemo hats and scarves. I don't want the money to offset the budget or make up for my buying of this yarn... as I see it, the stash yarn is really sunken $'s and it would feel bad to take any money for it, if that makes any sense. I got pleasure out of buying it, and will get pleasure seeing someone else use it to do good.
Love your Gratitude project contribution!