What we do

The things committed crafters do.

So yesterday afternoon, after graduation, I pulled out the long-stalled Queen Chrysalis project and re-started the hair. And I realized at some point, hey, this skein of yarn is getting used up fast. Did I not buy enough? So I looked at the instructions. It called for a skein of Red Heart Super Saver and I had bought, partly because I couldn't find the proper color in RHSS at the store I was at (JoAnn's), Red Heart SOFT, which is a smaller skein by some 100+ yards.

Dangit.

So I thought: okay, they're both Red Heart. I'm pretty sure I have a skein of RHSS on hand, I saw it when I was cleaning (It was originally bought, and then deemed too green for, the Perry the Platypus I made). So I dug it out. Nope. Color slightly off and the sheen was all wrong - Red Heart soft has a shine to it that RHSS does not have.

So I was faced with three choices:

1. Go back and start the mane ALLLLLLL OVER (and probably redo the tail, so they'd match) using RHSS, which is harder on the hands than Red Heart Soft is.

2. Hope I had enough yarn. (I weighed what remained and calculated how many yards I should have left. Eighty. Didn't seem remotely enough)

3. Go and buy another skein, either that day or wait until Monday.

Well, I finally decided to buy the new skein. I briefly considered trying the local Wal-Mart (they sell some yarn but not much). But it was Saturday afternoon, a couple weeks before Christmas - and, well, that's kind of the definition of I Just Can't Even for me. So I decided to brave the hour's round trip to JoAnn's, which I knew FOR SURE carried the yarn, as I bought it there.

(Now just watch, my inner pessimist said. You'll get into some kind of minor fender-bender or your transmission will poop out like on your old car and then you'll be STUCK, and not even able to get to Mineola on Thursday....)

But, nope. Got there and back totally safely. Found the yarn. Not the same dyelot but it's close enough. (I can see a slight difference but I'm going to ignore it).

I also found they had Paton's Classic Wool on sale, $5 a skein, and I can make a very simple pullover (which I had been wanting to do - using the pattern for Brick). I wound up buying a sort of loden green (almost a lichen color); it was the ONLY one they had enough skeins of the same dyelot of. (A pox on those big-box craft stores and their tendency to have three skeins only of each dyelot, but have two or three different dyelots in the bin. It's kind of important to match dyelot!) The color is called Moss Heather and while my first choice probably would have been the grey and white ragg, it's still nice. And $30 for a sweater is a good deal, and I like the Paton's yarn pretty well...

So I'm working away on Chrysalis' hair this afternoon. Haven't had to break into the new skein yet but I predict I will - I have two more "segments" yet to do, then I have to join everything and make a sort of wig-cap so it will sit on the top of her head.

(I will be GLAD to be done with this. This is the hugest and most complex ami I've ever done, and all the "holes" in the pieces are a right pain to crochet. But she will be impressive (and oddly* huggable) when done)

(*"oddly," because she is technically a villain on the show, though in fan art and writing, some fans have taken it upon themselves to reform her, at least a little....and that's an interesting thing about (some of) the fanbase, I think - they want to imagine the villains repenting and learning of the magic of friendship....and I like that. Changeling metanoia.)

Another project for the next few days: wind off all the yarn I'm taking with me to start into projects - the yarn for the "circular scarf," and for the Sockhead hat, and for the pangolin, and I think I'm going to take some "just simple socks" yarn along (probably the Electric Fluttershy I've been referring to).