Housecleaning, The Closer Marathon, & Yarn Cakes

Hubby and I were remarking upon the fact that this is the first Labor Day in a long time that TNT has done a non-Law & Order marathon. I guess all those Golden Globes and Emmy nominations have pushed The Closer into prime position.

I've been wandering around the apartment, cleaning here, and there. Not very exciting, but it needs to get done. With the marathon on I can take little breaks and watch TNT and work on my scarf for the Red Scarf Project. I've gotten through one ball of the Misti Alpaca.

I broke down and bought a yarn baller a couple of months ago, and I left it set up, so every now and then I make another yarn cake; extremely satisfying.

I wasn't going to buy a ball winder, but after my last trip to Wildfiber, I just broke down and bought one. A couples of months ago I got a gift certificate for my birthday for Wildfiber, so I went down there and bought enough Cascade 220 for the boatneck sweater in Fitted Knits. Now, if you've ever bought Cascade you know that it comes in hanks. Well, since I'd just spent around 60 dollars, I expected full instruction and use of their swift and yarn baller combination. Ideally, they would have balled it for me, especially since it wasn't very busy in the store, but I was informed that they would teach me once, and then it was up to me to ball all eight skeins myself. Fine. That is reasonable.

I admit, I have a bit of a history with their yarn baller, since last time I was there I bought two skeins of alpaca that was very difficult to ball, and was given a lot of attitude since the shop assistants didn't want to take the time to help me with it, and even informed me that "real knitters have a yarn baller at home."

Thankfully, Casacade does a really wonderful job when they put up their hanks, so it was easy to get it one the swift in one piece, and to ball it up. However, I still got attitude for just using their ball winder! They began to give me side glances and impatient sighs, even though no one was waiting to use the device. I said to one of the shop clerks, as she walked by, "this is really fun and it makes such a cool yarn cake," to which she replied, "yeah, it can make any yarn look nice." Whoa, I thought, just because Cascade is a budget yarn doesn't mean it should be looked down upon! Anyway, I was willing to concede that this was all in my head, and I was being overly sensitive, when a woman bought three hanks of expensive hand spun kettle dyed stuff. I was shocked when, at the cash register, the staff unwound her three hanks and told her that I would be off in a minute, and she'd get everything balled up in a jiffy.

The women seemed a little sheepish, and she said to me that she had a yarn baller at home, but not a swift. I laughed and said that I had a swift but not a yarn baller. The shop clerk then chimed in and said that I should give my swift to the other lady so that she could have a full set-up at home. Really, I thought, is that really what I should do?

Anyway, I just left. I had five hanks left to go, but I just left. Later in the week I stopped by Stitches of the Heart to pick up some alpaca. There I saw that they had a yarn baller for sale, and I just bought it, still upset at the folks at Wildfiber.

Anyway, I'm really happy with my set-up at home, and it just makes me more determined to not go back to Wildfiber. To be fair, I've had good experiences there, but whenever the yarn baller is involved, it has gotten rude and snippy. I don't feel that I am taking advantage of their resources by wanting to use the ball winder, especially when I have just bought yarn there. If you go to Compatto or A Manos yarn center, they are totally cool about it. Perhaps they have been taken advantage of in the past? Even if that is the case, I don't deserve the residual angst.