Hobson's Choice

Hobson owned a livery stable. The story goes that, while he kept a lot of horses (since he mostly rented to the vast population of students in Oxford, or maybe Cambridge), he would only rent the horse closest to the stable door. In other words, Hobson's choice is no choice. My way or the highway. A Pig in a poke. Caveat emptor.

It's kind of like joining a yarn club.

Some of you may remember, my first yarn club experience was not happy. I joined one that promised it would be projects other than socks and the first pattern they sent was - yup - socks. Just to add insult to injury, the colors were Barbie clothes color, and not the classy Barbie of the 60's; the slutty Barbie of the 90's. Happily, subsequent shipments were to drool over. But that first shipment taught me a lesson. When you join a yarn club, you puts your money down and you takes your chances.

Which should have prepared me for my second yarn club, but didn't. This time I joined the Malabrigo Yarn Club over at Eat.Sleep.Knit. E.S.K. is one of my favorite online yarn stores. They carry Dream in Color. Lorna's Laces. Shibui. They were my yarn store of choice for the first yarn club. Anyway. Joining a yarn club means a free pattern and treats in every shipment. I figured this was an unloseable proposition. I mean, it's Malabrigo, right? How could I miss with Malabrigo plus treats?

Well.

That's how. The yarn is Malabrigo Chunky. The color is Brisa. According to Wikipedia, Brisa is the northeasterly wind that blows on the coast of South America during the trade wind season. I say it's Barbie all over again.

Which is why I went back to Eat.Sleep.Knit and picked out my own yarn.

This I can make up into a cowl I'll wear.

Sometimes I'll take my chances. Sometimes, yarn club or no yarn club, Mr. Hobson can get stuffed.