I suppose I’m lucky- I don’t have that many craftastrophies in my past.  In my knitting and crochet life, as far as Ravelry and my memory are concerned, there are only 2- the pocketbook slippers, and the licorice thong.

Until now.

🙂

I’m a longtime reader of Faith’s blog The Needle and the Damage Done.  (Some of you may remember her from the sadly-defunct Knitting Cook podcast).  A while ago Faith knit a Lace Ribbed Bolero.  And another one.  And another one.

I suddenly decided that I needed one too.  I stash-dove (the advantages of having 85% of my stash in Ravelry) and realized I didn’t have anything in the proper weight for what I wanted.  While I was at it I looked through my queue and found a tank/vest/thing I’d liked for a while, the Deep V Top, and figured I’d look around for yarn and would knit/crochet whichever one worked out.

This all took place in March, back when I was supposed to have my surgery.  It was postponed because I’d injured my belly muscles in an incredibly non-accident car accident, but I was still home for a week to recuperate- home with time to kill.

I don’t know why I went to Zellers instead of my LYS.  I guess I figured that I’d score some cheap yarn and make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear…I dunno.  All I know is that I was somehow roped into the allure of cheap yarn.  I don’t even mean “inexpensive” yarn- I really mean cheap yarn.

1 lb of “lovely” bright teal blue acrylic, worsted/bulky weight.  I guess I thought it would be summery?

2 days is all it took.  Less, even.  I cast March 9 and finished attaching the loooooong border March 10.  6mm and 6.5mm crochet hooks.

It was thick, huge and stiff.  (heh).  It looked and felt like wearing a cardboard vest.

I put it on twice, once to see if it fit, and once for this photo (where I’m making my best “catwalk pout” face).  On the 3rd day, before I could change my mind and convince myself it was “fashion” or that “I’d actually wear it”, I ripped.

On the 4th day I went back to Zellers and bought ANOTHER bag of the %&*( stuff!  I’m going to blame stress, pain, and boredom.  I knew I couldn’t return the open bag, so somehow I told myself that meant I needed MORE of it so that when I was ready to use it for something, I’d have enough.

 

Argh.  It’s not bad yarn, it’s a perfectly good bulky-ish acrylic, and there is totally place in my stash for acrylic yarn.  I know when I have a need for it I’ll be glad it’s there.  (Maybe I’ll knit some giant toys for the boys?)

Still, there’s a small part of me that wishes, back on that March morning when I impulsively stopped at Zellers after dropping the kids off at daycare, that I’d kept on driving.  My LYS is 3 minutes south of Zellers.  For the price of the two bags I could very possibly be wearing a Deep V Top right now.  It would be too big, ‘cus I lost another 10 lbs or so after the latest surgery, but that’s not exactly the point.

The project is here on Ravelry, if for any reason you feel the need to revisit.