A Near Miss

Today I went to Michael's to pick up some floss for my surface design project. Guess I'd better explain that: we have been dyeing and stamping fat quarters, using a piece of fruit as our inspiration (I chose a pineapple). We had to research the fruit to find out some history and lore.

Did you know that the "eyes" spiraling around the Pineapple's exterior do so in a Fibonacci sequence? TRUE! Starting at the top by the leaves, if you count clockwise and down (which would technically be spiraling to the left), there are 8 eyes; if you count counterclockwise and down (technically spiraling to the right), there are 13. Young pineapples have 5s and 8s. Since I seem to be fascinated with Fibonacci sequencing with regard to color, this was an exciting discovery for me.

Back to the floss. So we dyed/stamped our fat quarters and now we are to embellish them. The finished piece will be a sort of quilt. It will have the artwork layer, then batting, then a backing piece, and the stitching embellishment will go through all three layers. We can use beads, make them 3D, whatever we want. Mine will have all of that. So I went to Mike's because last time I was in there buying regular floss for my latest cross-stitch extravaganza, my eye happened upon some amazing new floss: DMC Color Variations. Basically, it's subtly variegated floss. After I got home that day (of course), it occurred to me that it would work perfectly for the project.

I grabbed about a dozen different colors in the Color Variations. Then I grabbed just as many of the new DMC Light Effects floss—it's reflective! They come in iridescent pearl tones, jewel tones, antiques, metallics, fluorescent, and even—get this—one glow-in-the-dark! What a trip.

Then I got a package of cardboard floss bobbins (I prefer cardboard because I can write on them with pen).

Here's the "near miss" part. Those sneaky rascals at Mike's positioned the clearance Fun Fur bin right next to the entrance door. On my way in, four skeins of atrociously-colored but marked-down-to-two-bucks Fun Fur dove into my basket. They even convinced me to make sure they matched up with the Microspun I have at home. (They are for chemo hats. I have the patterns but can't off top of my head remember whose blog is running the hat party.)

But I already have a stashload of Fun Fur type yarn at home that I'm going to make into chemo hats. I didn't even like the colors they had left! But those four skeins got what they thought was their farewell-tour of the store. Until I arrived at the register and really noticed them for the first time. I held them back while the floss was rung up. The floss itself, well, it's specialty floss therefore not a quarter a hank—it would have been cheaper to buy yarn! That decided it for me. I shoved the Fun Furs aside and said "I've changed my mind about the yarn". The skeins squawked indignantly. But I turned a deaf ear to them. They would be spending yet another night with their littermates in the clearance bins.

It was a near miss, but I managed to escape with only $50 worth of fancy floss. Whew!

I also went to Target and finally found a decent slouchy messenger bag in army green canvas, and to Books-A-Million where I picked up Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way" (so I can return my well-overdue copy to the library and pay my fines) and David Allen's "Getting Things Done" (same). And I'm proud to say that I haven't done a lick of anything remotely homework related all day. I knit, I organized my latest cross-stitch project, and now... I'm off to watch the L-Word!

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Labels: knit from your stash 2007, stash enhancement, yarn diet

posted by Jeanne @ 9:34 PM