Inexplicable
I can't explain why I keep failing to buy anything from Miss Babs in Vlad's, but it happened again this year. There's history here.
The first year that Miss Babs came to Stitches Midwest I saw a worsted weight Blue-faced Leicester yarn called Northumbria Aran in a color called Vlad's (Yes, as in Vlad Dracula. It must have been the first of the big vampire-craze years). It wasn't eye-searing or stop sign-ish, or washed-out or anemic. Put simply, it was, I thought, the best red I had ever seen. I was determined, before that Market closed on the last day, I was going to get that yarn. Except I didn't. I got cold feet, or pre-emptive assumptive buyer's remorse, or something.
I regretted it for a whole year. The next time Miss Babs came to Stitches, I went into the Market with the rock-hard determination that I would get me sweater quantities of that yarn. Except I didn't, again. That might have been the year someone got there ahead of me. Yarn delayed is yarn denied, so I came up with a clever plan. I would order it from the website. I ordered Navy instead. It's a wonderful yarn and a beautiful shade of blue. Admittedly I haven't knit anything out of it yet.
Back to Stitches the following year. I had given up the plan to buy vast quantities of the Northumbria Aran, but I was sure, sure, I would buy something in Vlad's, probably in Yowza! Whatta Skein! That was the year almost every booth had a Color Affection Shawl on display. The designer had used red in one of the pattern samples. This was going to be easy. So what did I end up with? Yummy 3-ply in Denim, Wheaten and Deep Sea Jellyfish. It is my most favorite winter scarf.
This year? Failed again, despite setting my sights a little lower. I wasn't looking for sweater or afghan quantities of Vlad's in any weight this year. This year I decided to finally treat myself to a replacement of the Knitspot Les Abeilles Shawl I knit with one skein of Handmaiden Sea Silk in Ruby. The one that it seems I alluded to only once and that briefly, and which came out approximately the size of a folded cowboy bandana. So yes, pretty much unwearable. I came to Stitches with a really unshakable plan to get two skeins of Vlad's in a wool/silk fingering weight so I could make the largest Les Abeilles that Anne Hanson had included in the pattern (800 yards).
I came away with two skeins of red Shiruku, a lovely 50/50 merino/silk fingering weight, just not in Vlad's. It's called Scarlet Letter (so not my favorite 19th Century American Novel).
And not for Les Abeilles. For that I bought two skeins of Seda Sock (also merino/silk fingering) in Petals from Grinning Gargoyle.
Maybe next year?
