Yarn Remembered, Fudge Denied

This weekend was the date Mommy Sheep and I set aside for our annual pilgrimage to the local United Maine Craftsman show.  We've done it for years so you'd think I could manage to make it there on time or remember how to get there without having to think about it and turn myself around twice, but that's not always how these things work out.  In the end, we found one another and the shopping commenced!

I report back on this field trip each year for the blogging community.  Generally, I make a point of telling what I bought and what I paid for it.  You see, it is fairly common to spot people at these events picking up an item, squinting at the price tag then saying to a friend something along the lines of:

What???  I could make ten of these before bedtime and it wouldn't cost me but a nickel for the whole lot of 'em!

Polite people say this in hushed tones.  The less "socially aware" tend to verge on bellowing and always think themselves quite the witty soul for having thought up such humorous dialogue.  The fact of the matter is that it really doesn't matter how much something costs if you need/want/will die if you don't have it.  I don't care if it's a pom-pom with a magnet glued to one end and a pair of google eyes affixed to the other.  If it's something you desire, then it's most likely worth the price.

Furthermore, let's be honest.  Of course we can make google eye magnets.  We can make lots of things if we put our minds to it.  But are we really going to do it?  I could probably set my own broken leg if I wanted to, but I still feel grateful that there are people out there to do it for me.  I feel the same way about craftsmen.  I can't do many of the things they do and the stuff I probably could manage isn't something I'll be getting around to in this lifetime.  I'll proudly announce what I paid for handmade items and I make a point of doing it once per year just to prove it!!!

As I prepared to do that very post this afternoon, I suddenly remembered something.  Almost everything I bought this year is a Christmas gift.  While this makes me a very good person and probably deserving of a medal, it isn't going to help me with the blogging.  It's all Very Secret Stuff That Must Be Cloaked In Mystery.  Worse, saying what I paid becomes kind of tacky if it's a gift and the recipient gets to read all about it.

Well, pooh!  So much for the yearly tradition. The only other thing I bought was some fudge.  And I might be an open book where the crafts are concerned, but I'm going to go to my grave without telling you what I paid for a pound of homemade fudge.  It was good fudge...but not so good that I want the world to know how desperate I am for dessert.  I figured I'd have to take some pictures of the cats for the blog and pretend that the craft fair was attacked by wild ducks and declared off limits by the Fish And Game Commission.

And then, because apparently tonight is the evening for sudden and spontaneous remembrances, I realized that I did have something I could share!  How could I have forgotten???

I bought yarn!!!!!

In fact, Hilltop Handspun was my very first stop, at least the kind where I laid down some cash rather than just peruse.  I always make a point of picking up something from the charming Lucy Rogers because she is talented, the only purveyor of yarn at the show and an all-around nice lady.  I also think that $19.00 per skein (1 laceweight and 1 sockish) is pretty competitive pricing.  Not that it matters.  If you love it and want to support the artist, then you drop the dollars.  Besides, it's been a while since I've been able to hear someone say, "You can never have enough sock yarn in the stash!" At least not in real time as opposed to online.

We had a good time, Mommy 'n Me.  We shopped and lunched and that is always a pleasant way to spend a Saturday.  It might mean having to do all the Saturday chores on Sunday and put off the Sunday chores until November, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.  I spent some money, no doubt about it.  But I'm ahead of the game on Christmas shopping so it's no harm/no foul there either.

As far as the fudge goes, you'll all just have to wonder.  The most I'll say is that I bought two kinds, peanut butter with chocolate and chocolate with walnuts.  I'll also admit that it was very, very good fudge.  I'm not even too proud to say that it was all for me and that I kept it hidden in my purse for the entire day of shopping just to make sure that nothing bad happened to it. (carjackers love fudge, I'm told)  But that's it.  No admissions regarding the amount spent will be forthcoming.

However, I will add that I don't regret a penny of it!

SA