Mexico: a lazy recap

I'm back from Mexico and one of the first things I did upon returning was tell all my knitter friends what a fabulous time I had. Instead of explaining everything again, I'm going to be a lazy blogger and just cut, copy and paste what I told them. Enjoy!

P.S. I posted this in a thread called THREAD OF HAPPINESS

"i had the greatest time in mexico. i got to see my good friends get married. i caught up with people i haven’t seen since college. i got to zipline. i rode in a jeep through the jungle. i saw really old things in tulum. i ran into the beach with dominic and it was so wonderful and warm and clear, with no sharks in sight. i got to relearn spanish. i bought vanilla and drank my favorite sipping chocolate that i just can’t ever find in america. i ate tripe and cheek and drooled and then pissed myself that our taco dinner cost less than $5. i laughed. i caught up on so much sleep that i’m totally renewed. out of 5 rounds of gin, i totally kicked dominic’s ass in 4 of those rounds (granted i’ve been playing since i was a baby, but still i was happy about this). i took yoga classes every day in a beautiful semi-outdoor studio with lots of spanish people and sweat my ass off - literally. i napped in a hammock. i wore a bathing suit for breakfast, lunch and dinner. i didn’t turn on anything for 6 days. i saw a little girl pee in the sand. i drank margaritas and wine and mojitos. i watched a soccer game and actually enjoyed the whole thing with a bunch of mexicans and americans who decided to live in mexico. i gave my boyfriend lots of kisses. i got a tan. i didn’t want to come home. i was (and am) very, very happy."

lys

I live next to a nice, little yarn store called Hilltop Yarn (in Queen Anne). And a few months back they had the slightest of fires. It barely affected the yarn. There was really no damage at all to the store. But because of the fire and the fact that they are a yarn store, they had to close shop and decide what to do next. With insurance. With restocking. And with all that yarn.

So three weekends ago, on a dreary Saturday morning hundreds of women (and 5 men) formed a very long line awaiting the Hilltop Yarn 50% Yarn Sale.



These women promised to play nice, but once inside it really was a madhouse. Or really a house full of women who couldn’t move because there was simply too many of us (talk about a fire hazard). Shelves were cleared in seconds. Bags were filled and then filled some more. And everyone was stuck, pushed up against the finest, cheapest yarn of the year.



I found myself so confused and lost that I ended up in the knitting/crochet book room and decided not to come out for TWO hours. In that time I really looked over my ravelry queue print out. I found a great book (Style Bags). And even got some yarn, when it was pushed or abandoned to the sidelines.

I’m not a yarn aficionado. So when one woman from my knitting group screamed out, “Who wants Kidd? There’s light orange Kidd over here!” I’m like huh, what? Who would want a kid? They cry and poop.

Then another girl from my knitting group said, “OH MY GOD, grab that NOW!” I just couldn’t. I’m not THAT excited about yarn. I know the basics. I know the Tahki’s and the Lamb’s Pride. But I don’t know the fancy stuff, because why would I ever spend $40 on a skein of really soft yarn. Even at half price a skein I just couldn’t justify the cost.

I am getting better though. I can figure out if this random yarn I like would be good for this random project I want to do. I got the math part kinda figured out. And when I couldn’t, there were about 200 women inside, smooshed against you who could answer your yarn weight questions for you.

After circling around for awhile, and one very quick visit from Dominic (to which he shook his head in total disbelief) I miraculously found the short “paying with a check” line and was out of there in under FOUR HOURS! I did get 3 projects worth of yarn, notions and needles during that first trip for $83.

When I went back the next day, the store was practically empty. When I went back a few days after that, there was only a few too brightly colored yarn (and yet, I convinced myself at $3 a skein I could do something with orange alpaca yarn). I took pictures*. I rubbed the yarn against Dominic’s face saying things like, “See! It’s amazing! It’s soft! It turns into things!” And I’m already 90% done with my first project.



In total, I spent a little over $100. And I think I’m done for the year. Maybe.

*The pictures of yarn is only from my first trip. I got about 6 more skeins after that first day.