Homespun: a "gateway" yarn

I'll get to all that soon. You can skip down if you like. But first, some bidness. . .

I told ya I'd get you some pictures, and I gots them. First, some news about me being a doofus. See that post about The Yarn Store that Time Forgot? Well, I was just about to post something here, lamenting the loss of that post, when I realized that I posted it to the wrong blog. The kind folks at the Mason-Dixon Knit-a-long site were either too polite to comment, or found it amusing. Either way, I'm glad I found the post because the memory of Pops made me feel warm and fuzzy the rest of the day.

And could someone please tell me the proprietress' name? I forgot it. And I'd like to think of her as someone other than "Really Old Woman with Dowager Hump Who Called Me 'Francisco' All the Time."

Preemie Hats
and
Boy Scout Scarves

Homespun: The "gateway" yarn
I know there are strong feelings on the Homespun issue. You can barely get a group of knitters together without someone causing trouble by bring it up. But allow me bear witness: if there were no Homespun, then I'd still be knitting with Caron Wintuk. Not that there's anything wrong with it.

I went to college just down the street from Knits Incredible on Lex b/t 70 & 71. Probably 3x in 4 years, I wandered into the store and what just SHOCKED at what I saw. Where else but on the Upper Freakin' East Side of NYC would anyone spend $5 on a ball of freakin' yarn (okay, stop laughing at me). I backed out of the store as quickly as I could without upsetting any of the spun gold on the shelves. I didn't even try to "pass" as a browser.

Fast forward a few years, I'm employed and I'm starting to knit again. I buy me some buck-a-skein yarn on sale at my local craft-o-rama. It is fun. Then, I splurge on the $3.69 (on sale) Homespun. It is fluffy. It knits up fast. It feels different from those other yarns. I buy more. Then, I wander into a yarn store. . .

Well, you can see where this is going right? Next thing I know, I've got a room full of yarn that I'll never finish knitting. My maximum price point is around $10, but I'll go higher for 1 or 2 skeins of something special. For me, it's like they found a way to spin crack. And it's all thanks to Homespun.