Sashaying Around!

Does anyone out in my reader's world do any crafting -like say, knitting or crochet?

If so, do you just love to look at, touch and feel, yarns and ok, let's be honest, drool over them? Or am I somewhat of a lone ranger with this fetish of mine?

Odds are though if you are into any kind of crafting you know exactly what kind of reaction I'm talking about here though, don't 'cha? Come on, be honest, you know you do all of the above and also, you know the temptation is there too regardless of how much "stuff" (Yarns, fabrics, kits) you already have on hand in your private little (or large) stash, you know it's difficult to look at these things and walk away without adding oh, just one more piece of material or a couple skeins of this yarn, or whatever the craft is that pulls at you unmercifully!

True confession time here now as I will 'fess up to what constitutes my own "stash."

I used to sew -a lot -lately, not so much but I still have my sewing machine and I have about 3 fairly large boxes filled with patterns I could use and I also have at least 3 large plastic tote containers too, each filled to the brim with fabric pieces I have collected over the years -some probably dating back as far as when my youngest was a toddler I suppose. Yes, I bought fabric like an insane person for many years with big ideas and plans of what I would make from this or that piece for myself, for one of my kids, for some other person or special occasion and of course, kind of like that proverbial child at the dinner table who's eyes are bigger than their stomach, I didn't get around to making a damned thing with the coveted fabric I just had to have!

The same applies too with yarns as I have at least 2 other large tote containers filled with yarns purchased with the same general plans for using that stuff as well. Until of course, I ran out of ideas, energy or time -which ever came first -and then the yarn sits and still waits for me to get a really bright idea, some energy or time -none of which seem to be forthcoming anymore most of the time.

For the past 3 years or better I have expanded my crafting medium over to now include embroidery and I have yet another large tote packed to overflowing with embroidery kits of all different types but mostly they are kits for tabletoppers or table cloths, although I sometimes do venture into doing tea towels or pillowcases and occasionally, even cute little trivets. There are a few kits of the counted cross stitch variety too but not very many of those as much as I love to look at counted cross stitch, it wearies me to do it and usually makes me feel like I am going crosseyed in the process too.

A while back -oh probably about 6 weeks ago now -I ventured into the crafts section over at the local Walmart and what did I see there but some new type yarn along with a display scarf made of this new yarn and that scarf was really intriguing me too!

This yarn is called Sashay and when one works with it -to make the scarf on display -it works up into a creation of ruffles upon ruffles -really pretty (my opinion there anyway) and very feminine. Hmmm. I eyed up the yarns available -the colors -and tried to imagine making one of these scarves, all the while, praying silently to "Please let me walk away without purchasing this stuff!"

On that occasion, my will power held out and I selected then a skein of some other yarn -called "Spirit" yarn, and I got it in two colors (in one skein) that had been part of my alma mater's (high school) colors -red and blue! It was only $3.99 a skein and the Sasay was $4.99 a skein so the base price plus the fact I hadn't a clue as to how to work with the Sashay stuff told me I could make more use out of the Spirit yarn. And I did that too. I made -crocheted -4 hats using that yarn -one was in red and blue and the other three, I added in some white yarn to make those three hats (little beanie type things) into a tri-color striped hat of red, white and blue -our school colors -and at our "night before" event over our class reunion weekend, we raffled off those four hats to some "lucky" classmates.

About a week later, I found myself back over at the good old Walmart and there I was, staring lovingly once again at the display of the Sashay yarns. This time the will power went right down the drain and I came home with a skein of the pink variety of this  yarn,

I tried to figure out from the instructions on the package how to use this yarn, how to knit with it, but to no avail so off I went to the computer and looked for some videos on Youtube showing how to knit with this stuff. Finally, I found one and using that, figured out then how to knit a scarf with this yarn that I thought was just so darned pretty!

Six days later, I finally finished this scarf!

Keep in mind that was six days of working on this item for anywhere from 1 to 3 hours, off and on, daily and it still took me 6 DAYS to finish it! Sheesh! I can take a skein of the Furry boa yarn and in 4-6 hours, tops, whip out a scarf even longer than this ruffly thing is!

My final conclusion then -I've had my fill of the Sashay yarn and never again will I indulge in purchasing that stuff.

Enter here a fellow classmate -who now lives in Colorado and with whom I communicate fairly frequently. She -like me -is one who is a crafter with a stash like you probably wouldn't believe too! And she loves yarns too -just as I do. And she had the nerve to send me a message on Facebook making about my love of crafting and how it led her down the garden path and how she felt compelled to buy and try making something too with this Sashay yarn.

However, in her hands, the yarn apparently just fell into place nicely, easily for her -unlike with me where the needle kept slipping off and away from the yarn causing me to drop stitches, I couldn't find a comfortable way to hold the yarn to make the knitting a trifle more comfortable to my purposes and thus, make the work a little easier.

Where I had come to the conclusion that I would never again be tempted by this yarn, my friend had succumbed and was now the proud possessor of at least 4 skeins of good old Sashay and was merrily working her way through scarf after scarf of this yarn.

My theory there?

My friend has just proved to me that she is, by far and away, totally insane!

But insanity or not, she knows I understand completely how she got sucked in to loving the finished product!