A Rant and a Rave

Maybe I better start with the rave since the rant might drive you crazy. While perusing Ravelry, I happened upon someone's project from the new Paton's Spring Style book. When I find something I like it becomes a mission. I went to the Paton's website and found the stores in my area which had the book. My experience hasn't been too good with websites saying certain stores have their products only to find after driving all over town that they don't. So, I phoned, and Michael's had it. I raced over to get it, and I LOVE this pattern book. There are 4 patterns that I fell in love with, and I've already started the first one. Of course, I didn't have the required amount of yarn, so that led me to an online shopping spree. But, all's well that ends well with that mission.

Now, for the rant. Oh my gawd! Do you ever have the most impossible experience locating supplies for that special project? Well, I do, and I just wanted to bang my head against the wall. A year ago, I purchased some beads from a local store. Well, along comes the Spring Style book, and one of the projects is beaded. (I've never knit or crochet with beads before) I dig out the beads I bought, and I don't have enough. Fine, I think, I'll just check their website and find out their store hours. Hmmm...they've moved. No problem. I'll go on my next day off. So, I go to the location listed on their website, and they moved again. I find the new place, but now the name has changed, too. When I went inside , I was extremely disappointed. Their inventory was only about 1/8th of what they used to have. I had to wait 30 minutes to ask if they had these beads.(they don't). While waiting, I watched as a paying customer waited at the register for what seemed like forever, was never acknowledged, and she walked out. Then I go to another bead store in town. They have similar ones, but not enough. The clerk says she'll check their website and see if she can order more. (much better customer service at this store). No, they don't have it anymore. My last resort was to go to Joann's. Amazingly, they had a similar bead and I was able to meet the bead requirement. Now the excitement to start the new project is at an all time high. I thread the yarn on a needle-no easy feat, mind you-and prepare all the beads. The beads from Joann's have a smaller hole!!!! I can't get them threaded at all!!!! I could kill someone...but it wouldn't do me any good. I am back to square one and I can't even return the beads because I unthreaded them all, and mixed them in with the original beads. This is the part where the head banging could have taken place. Now I have the perfect yarn, and not the perfect beads. I could cry.

Ok enough....I will leave you with a pic of one of my latest projects....Lapa from the Caron website. If you want to learn to crochet, I think this a great starting point. Very well written and easy to execute. I probably could have used a smaller hook since this yarn tends to grow, but all in all I'm pretty happy with it. Well, I'm off to crochet some more!