About a year ago – when it was last cold and dark and the urge to knit hit hard – I purchased a few balls of Lana Grossa’s “Cool Wool” Merino 2000 Superfein. No, I don’t know which part of that’s the product name, thank you. It’s 100% Merino wool, and, yes, super fine. It appears to have been ringspun or something (not the textile expert), and was a joy to work with, although, being really … fine, it took all of three balls to knit up a hat. While the hat’s beautiful (and monstrously huge), I don’t know that I’d go through that again just to have a hat which will be worn in front of the computer & nowhere else.
All that said, I’ve still lusted after this yarn, and thought that maybe I’d be able to find it online for … well, cheaper than the little yarn store in my neighborhood. Yes, local business, etc., but the stuff is expensive, and I’m feeling frugal with my habit at the moment. It’s probably the coming dark or something, so leave it alone! It’s a disability. When it starts to get light again, I’ll splurge and buy all of their lovely silk ribbon yarns and knit up some ruinously expensive scarves.
So, I went and did a search, and ended up at the manufacturer / importer’s site, which wasn’t much of a help as they’re in Germany & the yarn’s manufactured in Italy. So, I went searching some more, and found a site in the U.S. which sells the stuff for pretty close to a fortune. And then, with a little digging & poking, found a site in the E.U. (search for “Cool Wool”) which appears to sell it for about half of the U.S. price (my Euro / USD conversion being iffy). So, if I were in Europe, I could get a ball of the stuff for €3.95, whereas in the U.S. I’ve got to pay $7.75 if I buy it online, or I’ve got to kick down somewhere on order of $12 if I subsidize the nice grandmotherly Dutch lady a mile down the road.
If it wouldn’t make me feel like I was turning into my father, I’d contact the manufacturer and buy a huge box of the stuff. And then, someday, some relative would wonder at my sanity, as I did at the box of square Ray-Ban eyeglasses frames I happened upon in the garage one day as a kid. I mean, why buy so much yarn / many glasses frames? Creepy.
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Look, when I figure out where else to wear a knit hat of truly Guinan-like proportions, this baby will come out from behind the computer of a poorly-insulated home office, all right?
It might even work during the holidays. You just finished it too late last year.
Ahhh, buying a whole box of yarn to make it better value, even though there’s nothing planned for it – that’s a true knitter’s thinking. Have you looked at KnitPicks yarns? I haven’t tried them but hear very good things, and I love their prices.
I just realize that, after having knit the thing, it was huge. So, I know that its only place is in the home office. Sigh.
I haven’t checked out KnitPicks yarns, but I’m heading there now. Thanks!
Actually, the knitter’s thinking? That’d be the thinking which led me to ask a former history professor of mine to translate some German web-pages so that I’d have some idea if their yarn was available for sale to the U.S. Sad.
Nothing at KnitPicks.
No time with my German-speaking comrade.
Just me and my memory of German from having read Goethe one too many times. Sigh.
I tell you, I AM wearing it in public. Really!
And should you start hoarding other things in the garage, trust me, Knitster, I will tell you that one man of your father’s ilk on this planet is… well enough.
Just buy the yarn. Really.
When the new oven is burned in & I’m able to bake … and to think straight about my obsessive hobbies, I sure will buy the yarn.
I’ll also try to find a home for all of the naff yarn we inherited from your sister … which she, no doubt, inherited from someone else. That old yarn must go, as well as most of the silly nylon circular needles, all in the same size. I mean, who buys more than one of the same thing? Why?
Just a wee update: the Dutch Ladies have come down in price to match the Internet’s prices. Makes the decision more difficult.