The Old Flame and I had to pop into K-Mart to get a digital set top box (cheaper than getting the outside aerial and wiring fixed). We got to within a few metres of the security gate when I spotted it - a trolley half-full of yarn and a sign indicating all balls 10c. I may have leapt like a cheetah on her prey at that moment.
Seconds later, as the balls were flying and I was muttering "wool, ack, ick" the Old Flame caught up with me, took one look and declared he would get a basket. He brought the basket, left again, and returned with a trolley and helped me sort through the piles for the wool. He has a good hand and could tell the wool from the ack without looking at the ball bands.
Time lost all meaning as the yarn frenzy escalated, so not only did I not question what happened next, I immediately complied.
A heavily accented voice murmured urgently in my ear, "Quick, you come with me!" and the woman who belonged to the voice tugged my arm. The Old Flame said "Go, I'll find you" and the next thing I know I'm chasing after the sprinting woman. It did occur to me that this was perhaps a little odd, but by then we were near her destination - the partially denuded faux-Feathers/Ostrich section of the yarn aisle where she began thrusting the garishly printed stuff into my arms. Turns out that although it was marked 70c a ball, the register was charging 10c. She'd already bought 50 balls and was going back for more, but having witnessed the onset of my yarn frenzy, was generously sharing. It took a little while to assure her that as grateful as I was, the yarn was all hers.
The Old Flame found me in the yarn aisle assaying for the Patons Jet and Cleckheaton Vintage Hues (all $3 a ball). Not as cheap as others had got it for on the other side of town, but roughly half price and cheap enough for socks for the Jean Colvin Hospital. Some of the yarn was out of reach so my Old Flame found a large metal trolley, climbed up on it and began tossing down balls of yarn.
Here he is grabbing the last of the Vintage Hues.
And that is how I came to buy 73 balls of yarn this week, more than half of it balls of pure wool for 10c a ball, and how our relationship survived its first yarn frenzy and the post-frenzy gleeful giggles every time I looked at the trolley. I know it wasn't a pretty sight.
11 comments:
He looks pretty happy with himself, and you must be stoked! Mind you, I would have been the same...
This has to be your Best Post Ever on so many levels.
Well done!
And forgive me if I'm wrong but isn't that the first Old Flame photo we've had?
O, you are a Super Shopper, and it's not an accident, it is Serendipity.
I love the old lady sharing her bounty with you. Knitters are (k)nice!!
Why, no, TSS, the Old Flame's leg featured in May, but he isn't as camera shy as me.
Wow! And I'll say it again backwards I'm so flabbergasted - wow!
LOL,well done and such a great wool hunter partner too!!
Wow! What a great find (and I don't mean just the bargain yarn...)
Yep, he's a keeper!
What a haul! I wouldn't be able to resist 10 cents a ball either. And what a sweet old lady! I'm not sure I would be as nice.
If you're having frenzy episode concerns, just ask Georgie where she got her post-frenzy counselling last year! Well done, a brilliant score :)
Ah Taph, when the universe sends these few and blissful moments, the only respeckful thing to do is Ezackly what you did! (I once found quilter's flannel for $1/metre - good quality stuff, which can teeter between $20 and $30/metre. I had no shame in teetering back to the car with oh, at least 30m of it. Or it might have been 40m. I'm not sure what I'll admit to, except that I, too, respecketed the moment!).
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