18 December 2005

Warning: Graphic Content Ahead


I know it may be difficult to see this picture without cringing, but yes, folks, that's yarn in the trash can. I just couldn't take it any more. Life is too short for shitty yarn.

See, sometimes I shock myself with my brilliance. It's one week before Christmas. Take a guess as to how many unfinished projects I still have to tackle. And Friday, I decide that I need to crochet an afghan for my grandmother, the grandmother that won't use said afghan because it will be too nice for her so she'll put it away in the closet (with my father's elementary school homework papers) and save it for us when she croaks. I gave her a scarf once and even after yelling at her that the yarn was cheap-o acrylic crap from an Ames closeout store and cost me about $.50, she still swore it was too nice to actually use. Now if she said it was too scratchy, fine, I agree. Say that it's an ugly color. Fine. But enough already with things being too nice to actually use.

Anyway, I digress. Although it may seem that I purposely searched for horrible yarn to try and please the woman's matyr status, I actually have an afghan out of what I considered to be trusty Lion Brand Homespun yarn. It's been washed many, many times and despite a few pills, is still nice enough to keep out and use.

But the time has come to part ways with Homespun. I've seen the fallout coming. The stuff splits like nobody business. It breaks after it knots on itself. The ends fuzz out after they're tucked in. Basically, it's crap. But it's often on sale and I have a section of it in the stash. So, in one of those flashes of inspiration, I decide to make an afghan out of crappy yarn simply because I have half the required skeins waiting my nimble fingers.

I did manage to finish the afghan this weekend (thanks to yucky weather and a lack of motivation to do anything else), but after wasting way too much time fighting with tangles, I decided to cut my losses and toss my leftovers. Sometimes even a yarn ho like myself has to know when it's time to walk away from the acrylic.

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