Friday, November 30, 2012

Successful marketing FTW

Today Alli* and I ventured out to the St. Margarets section of Twickenham to Mrs. Moon, a lovely little yarn and haberdashery shop right by the train station. She had been before, but this was my first visit, and it was either very successful or completely disastrous, depending on your point of view.

Mrs. Moon is pretty heavily into alpaca and alpaca blends. This is not a bad thing in any way, shape or form, but as I perused the walls of the shop, I came across these little gems.
Blue Sky Alpacas Royal Petits
Spectacularly soft, 25 gr balls of 100% Royal alpaca, in the most gorgeous subtley muted colors. I fondled, sighed, and moved on, determined to resist their siren call. Because really, more yarn is not what I need, amirit?

But then I noticed the patterns. And it was game over...
Successful marketing ploy
Blue Sky Alpacas have released a set of accessory patterns to go with the Royal Petites, and the package is completely irresistable. The cover of the pattern has a vintage style drawing of the accessory, and when you open it up,
Successful marketing ploy
there are two pockets. On the left side is a photo of the fiber sources,
Successful marketing ploy
while on the right is a gorgeous, wallpaper-y shot of color peeking out which,
Successful marketing ploy
when unfolded, reveals a picture of the finished accessory on one side, and the pattern on the other.
Successful marketing ploy
There was no way I was escaping unscathed, no way. It's almost too over the top, but I couldn't resist.
Successful marketing ploy
However, this purchase has firmly put the nails in the coffin of my theoretical attempts to not knit presents for Christmas. Currently, the list has ballooned to the following:

One hat (already done)
One scarf (weaving)
A set of felted clogs (which will be delivered unfelted)
Another cowl (already done)
Two kid-sized sweaters (now swatched - Hooray!)
A Color Affection (done)

Also in the works are a handspun shawl (for me), a laceweight cardigan (also for me), and some gloves (yet again, for me, but they may end up as a Christmas present instead). So adding one more cowl to the list isn't so crazy, right?

We will ignore the fact that I have not yet cast on either of the sweaters or the felted clogs. Apparantly I'm counting on our 8 hour flight home ballooning into something like a week and a half, given all the knitting I think I'm getting done on the plane. To be fair, if I prioritize, I need to do the sweaters and the cowl first, because they need to be done by Christmas day. The clogs can be a few days late.

Shit. I guess this means I have a plan? Oy!

* I'm getting a bit concerned that this is the second Friday in a row Alli has dragged me to a yarn store, and the second Friday in a row I've purchased something. Since we're scheduled to do another outing next Friday, I'm thinking I should leave my credit card at home...

2 comments:

StitchyAlli said...

I think I object to this post in principal mainly because I succumbed to the whimsy and cuteness of the BSA Royal Petites too! But have you cast on yet? It is really, REALLY divine to knit with...

porpoise said...

No judgement on succumbing! You are clearly not alone (although I would argue that you were something of an instigator/enabler in the whole mess)... I have not yet cast on - I'm holding this out as a reward for casting on/finishing at least one girl sweater.