I signed up for the Early Bird Knit Stars 5.0 back in May when it opened up* and one of the Early Bird perks promised what early access to the exclusive yarns and colorways for the classes. I’ll be honest, at the time I didn’t think much about that. I mean, there are loads of gorgeous yarns out there, and I figured maybe one or two of the exclusive ones might be nice, but like, would they be that unique? And with only a dozen or so exclusives likely to be posted, what percentage were likely to be something I wanted all that much? I probably wouldn’t really care all that much about them. Talented indie dyers are constantly doing fundraiser yarns in colorways that aren’t my cup of tea, and I pass them up (and if it’s a cause important to me, donate directly instead when I do).
On Saturday, “sneak peeks” at the yarns started popping up, and well, a couple of them looked pretty cool. Ok, so I knew immediately that some of the LolaBean Yarn Co “Citrus Sunrise” would have to be mine**… And the Kitty Pride “Truest Lavender” looked really lovely.
Anyways, I figured maybe a skein or two of something.
And yet… Sunday I waited impatiently for the secret link to peruse the yarns for offer. Nothing came. The Facebook group chatter started up – people were making their selections. Checked my spam folder – nothing there.
Finally, I figured I’d log into the “student portal” in case they’d put the link there too, et voila! (I never did get the email, and they eventually let everybody know via Facebook to log into the portal if their email didn’t come through)
Well, sh*t… of 13 different yarns, there were at least three must-haves, and several other awfully nice ones. I started sticking things in my cart. And the “Total” column get getting bigger.
“Ok,” I decided, “this is one to sleep on. Maybe I’m just getting carried away by the energy of everybody’s excitement. They won’t look as tempting tomorrow.”
I held off all day today, as I didn’t want to feel rushed to make my decision before my work day started. That seemed a guaranteed way to make the wrong choices. This evening after work, I looked again, decided I still liked a LOT of them. And asked my husband if he’d like to help me out, and he said sure, he could do that. Maybe he’d help me whittle it down. I emptied my cart and we started from scratch.
It did not go as planned. Somehow, while I did avoid buying some of the ones I’d considered, a couple new ones were thrown in. And some grew to sweater quantities…
And I’m pretty sure my total was twice what it was before.
Maybe I should have remembered why I called him “TheEnabler”…
Final list:
- LolaBean Yarn Co “Citrus Sunrise” – 3 skeins
- Kitty Pride Fibers DK “Truest Lavender” – 5 skeins – going to make the lighter weight Ursa which will be part of season 5, but using this DK instead of the Magpie Fibers sport weight suggested. I’m sure I can figure it out.
- Magpie Fibers “Twilight Marl”, a special pale grey version of their Nest Marl – 6 skeins to make TheEnabler the Sandpoint Pullover (guess who added this one to the cart)
- Koigu Pencil Box “Coals and Embers” which is one of their Pencil Boxes going from a fiery pink to a charcoal black – I’m totally keeping this for myself
- Hedgehog Fibres “Unicorn Party” – TheEnabler surprised me by pouncing on this one immediately. It’s a mix of bright blues and pinks, with splashes of yellow, orange and greens. Classic Hedgehog Fibres.
*they have a wait list available if you’d like to be notified when it opens again for registration in the fall.
**and I’m glad I didn’t wait another day – this one is sold out already!
Today’s Charity Tip:
Stretching your Charity Budget
If you work for a middle to large sized company, check if they have a donation matching program. This means that if you provide the receipt for your donation to a supported organization, they match it. The company I work for has such a program, and I just received confirmation today that four of my match requests have finished processing. This means double the money has gone to the non-profits I gave to.
This is also why many non-profits ask you want company you work for – they can check if there’s a matching program and sometimes even provide you with your company’s link for submitting match requests.