It's Official

Well, it's happened. I've gone off the deep end. Totally lost it. Life as I knew it is truly over. I'm trying to accept my new, recent , long time coming reality. I'm a yarn snob. A yarnie, a fiber junkie, a total geek. On some level I think I knew it was happening, but now I know it's r-e-a-l, REAL.

This weekend is the 5th Annual (Mpls area) yarn hop. I know you're thinking, what's a yarn hop? No, I'm not planning to get any exercise by jumping around on one foot holding piles of yarn - it's not really that heavy anyway. It's a yarn shop hop. So we (that's right, I'm influencing some of my dearest friends as well, it feels better to share this problem) are planning to spend some precious Saturday time away from our families touring Minnesota's best yarn shops. Shops like "Darn Knit Anyway" and "StevenBe" filled with... yarn. All kinds and colors, solids and colorways. And patterns. And knitting needles, even fancy wooden ones that are painted so you feel fancy when you knit with them (I'd imagine, this is not a drug of choice for me ... yet). And more fiber junkies- who won't be any sort of good influence. Plus we're all going to be filling "stamp cards" and entering contests. There are "charms" to be collected and door prizes to be won. All in the name of yarn. Glorious!

Here is how I know I have truly arrived into yarn geekdom. It's the fifth annual yarn shop hop.  That means they've done this before.  For the last five years while I've been knitting away on my perfectly decent, less expensive, easily accessible JoAnn/Micheals yarns I've taken the occasional trip to a fancy yarn shop. I've heard(multiple times) of there being a yarn hop and all the craziness of a weekend of looking at yarn and immediately dismissed(multiple times) the idea as crazy. Who would do that?. I can think of so many better things than a day of yarn.

and now I think it's awesome. Do you, like me, think there might be some sort of additive in my yarn that s-l-o-w-l-y seeps into your skin as you knit (a twisted sort of osmosis) which creates in my brain a barrier against all new ideas that don't revolve around perfect patterns matched with perfect yarns? Or which possibly causes visions and begins lists of friends (neighbors, acquaintances... friends of acquaintances... whoever) who are desperately in NEED of the aforementioned perfect projects. Oy.

Here are my carefully planned excuses reasons for this being a good way to spend a Saturday.
 1. My girlfirends: my bestest buds are coming along, and excited about it, and we'll get to chat all day long
 2. Food shelves: all the yarn shops are collecting food for local food shelves. Yay!
 3. It's a Quest and adventures are good for the soul. (this is truth - it's called  Yarn Quest 2011 - a Fiber Journey. Wow, right?
 4. If  I/we make it to all 9 shops this weekend, one of us could win the $2,000 Grand PRIZE... of yarn and knitting stuff. (HOLY COW. I read a list of SOME of those items and it would be so. much. fun.)
 5. I think someone somewhere is having a baby and needs a new sweater - babies need to be kept warm. 
 6. um... I need more yarn?

So it's official I've gone off the deep end(it's fine, I can swim), BUT I'm taking my friends with me(safety in numbers), AND we are totally OK with it(quite pleased with ourselves actually- we're getting to be really good knitters).