Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Ravelry and Jealousy

I joined Ravelry awhile ago. I had been a little hesitant to join, as I had joined Facebook and I have limits to how much time to 'waste' on the computer. I also don't have a Flickr account so I can't post photos, and I'm not about to bring all my stash upstairs to catalogue it online. I joined a few groups, but I like Yahoo groups better cause all the notifications go to my email. I have found Ravelry great for comparing projects made of different yarns, and for looking at different projects made of the same yarn.

One of the yarns I frequently check out is Noro Kuryeon. I'm hoping to find THE pattern, but haven't yet. I am really surprised at the lack of interesting things people do with this yarn. It would lend itself really nicely to very creative garment structures, but this just isn't happening. Instead, there are a million hats, scarves, mitts, and teacosies. There are even longies and soakers. Now, these are all gorgeous items, due to the Noro, and if I could afford it, and had a local place to get it, perhaps I would make mitts or a Turn a Square hat. But what really gets me, are the things such as felted turtles and baby toys. I can't imagine spending $30 to make a baby sweater out of Noro (although it's gorgeous; it's just I can't spend that sort of money on that sort of item). But to buy Noro to make something like a felted turtle toy? Or a stuffed dinosaur?

On one hand, I am scoffing at their frivolousness. But I think, inside, I am actually jealous. I would love to be frivolous. I'm just too frugal. Lately I was trying to find a yarn in my stash for a special gift. Every yarn that I thought was nice enough for a gift, I wanted to keep to make something for myself. Wow, I'm pretty selfish. Yarn hog.

3 comments:

CatBookMom said...

Noro is lovely, and I have a bit of it - bought at a LYS-closing sale - but I can't imagine felting it into toys either. Or baby clothes.

And the really lovely yarn? Oh, yeah, I want to keep it for me, too. But I've finally got so many pretty scarves and shawls that I'm beginning to feel OK with giving some of them away, having had the pleasure of the knitting.

BTW, getting a Flickr account is no big deal. I just signed up and started uploading pictures when I joined Ravelry.

steel breeze said...

Have you looked at the Lizard Ridge with noro? I love that pattern (I made a massive king size one). Let's not talk about how much it cost, though... *cough*!

smariek said...

I think I'm more of a yarn hoarder than a knitter. I have more yarn than I can knit in my lifetime. I haven't had the pleasure of knitting with Noro yet. I admire the colors though.

Getting a Flickr acct is free, but you don't really need it anymore. Ravelry has a feature now where you can just upload photos directly from your computer, so that bypasses the need for Flickr.