Preface: I've been thinking about money, which is something new. My approach to simoleons has pretty much been "if you have 'em, use 'em; if you don't, find something else to do." I'm realizing that this may not have been the best strategy (Savings? Was ist das?); although in its defense it does have one great advantage: I am very rarely stressed over a lack of it greenbacks. Om....
In the past few months I've been purchasing vintage Lion Brand Jamie yarns (mostly pompadour) online. I like the old warm colorways with peach and aqua added to the regular pink/white/blue/yellow variegation, and even the yarns without them are generally warmer in tone than today's. As each package came in I wound the skeins into cakes, using some right away to make wee hat & bootie sets, tiny dresses, and shirts for the Tripler AMC NICU & L&D units, and future-iffing the rest into clear plastic yarn boxes for as yet unknown projects.
In my search I discovered some vintage Kresge's (Kresge's!!) 100% WOOL pompadour. Three skeins in a very 1950s greyed aqua and one cream with lovely warm undertones. Cool, right? I didn't cake this up right away, leaving it until I thought of something special.
I decided this past week on the something and got the Kresge's out to cake up. After about 10 cranks it broke. I think, "Hmm, ok, it's dry & needs a little soaking in water to moisturize (it is over 60, after all...)," tie up the ends and start turning again much more gently. After about 10 spins, it breaks again. Now, those of you with wool experience (vintage or otherwise) probably felt the "Uh-oh" after the first break. I'm still at Hmm, because I have lived in warm (mostly island) climates since I was 28 & the M-creatures I'm familiar with have not evolved to the same diet as their colder weather continental clansmen.
I keep winding & it keeps breaking. I'm still in denial & think I'll try the second skein. Then I try the third. Then I try the creamy one. FINALLY the M word comes rising up out of the soup like some long lost Nessie & enters my consciousness. For those of you reading this who don't know me, I am generally a good thinker (tangential, true, but mostly good). Really, I am -- no, *really*, it's just that I can be a little bit s-l-o-w to lift my head above the water occasionally. I am giggling right now because I just remembered that someone once told me I wouldn't recognize reality if it jumped up and bit me in the ass (hey, Kermit). Yes, I had a boyfriend named Kermit. Now you're giggling...
Anywho, sitting there staring at these lengths of useless wool that I had been so thrilled to find, it dawned on me I'd been trying to buy something other than just yarn with these pompadour purchases. The Kresge's label had sealed the deal for me on that "find" and if I'd come up for air I'd have thought of the possibility of Moths & passed it by. But I didn't because it was Kresge's in 1958 at Hallowe'en and they gave out sponge toffee for trick or treat. All you had to do was sing a little song or do a little tap dance & a whole sponge toffee was yours.
Is it a bad thing that I didn't foresee the moths? It was a pretty cheap wake up (at around $10) and how often does that happen?
The crux of modern living. My theory is we get so much crap in there that some of it just has to go. If we're not diligent the grey matter will choose which parts, perhaps to our later chagrin.
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