Your expensive, or my expensive?

I'm motoring along on the sock, which is good. I have sock yarn on the brain at the moment though, which probably isn't terribly practical, as I really should be either finishing the Noro lace scarf I began back in September (?), or knitting more baby things - I have the rest of the 'Baby Mine' Socks That Rock mediumweight earmarked for a little hat (the 'Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap') to use up the lovely yarn and to have something nice to go with 'Baby Mine'. There are other patterns queued up to be started as well, including several I already have the yarn for... which, when used, would pave the way for more yarn purchases.

Logical, yes? Then why am I still dwelling on socks?

Yesterday, when I had the luxury of a browse through the yarn shelves at Lincraft without WonderBoy in tow, I bought a little something for Santa to deliver in my stocking this Christmas. I was *supposed* to be looking for interesting colour combinations in 100% wool, DK weight to use for a restart on the OpArt blanket but I just didn't feel it, y'know? Nothing was speaking to me.

I had trawled the shelves several times over, and I stopped to look right at the bottom, thinking I might see more colours. What I did find was Lincraft-branded self patterning sock yarn! I have been over those shelves many, many times and never, ever seen sock yarn. EVER. No price tag, around twelve skeins of only five colourways, and all just sitting there!

They aren't the most inspiring, amazing, write home about it colours, but they are attractive and will knit up nicely. I grabbed one of each, disregarding the fact that there was no price listed anywhere, and made my way to the checkout.

The lady attending the till saw how pleased I was, and in response to my saying I'd never seen sock yarn at Lincraft before, remarked "Well, we've always stocked this" (I didn't think you did, but I'm not going to argue over sock yarn), and added as she scanned each skein, "It's expensive, though".

'Oh crap', I thought on one half of my brain, as the other half said 'How expensive could it be? This in Lincraft'. I was informed that each skein was the princely sum of AU$12.95. As the second half of my brain said 'Nyah-nyah, nyah-nyah-nyah' to the chick at the till, the first half did some quick calculations and made the executive decision to ditch two skeins (don't worry, I'll get them next time - I don't think anyone will find them!).

What I found a little interesting was the personal interpretations of the word 'expensive'. When I told this lady that most to all of the sock yarn I've ever bought had been online, and I have paid upwards of AU$30 for a skein before (I didn't tell her it was Hand Maiden and was a cashmere blend, mind you), she looked at me with a half sympathetic ('you poor idiot'), half derisive ('you poor deluded idiot) look on her face as she asked for payment.

THEN, I got the "I'd never knit socks anyway, why would anyone want to do that" comment. I figured I had not met a kindred spirit, to quote the lovely Anne Shirley, so I thanked the lady and moved on.

And now all I want to do is knit more socks!

By the way, I did find two colours I really liked for OpArt this afternoon, a kind of grown-up lime green and a nice winey purple, but since they were Jo Sharp DK, priced at AU$7.50 per ball, and I knew I'd need a minimum of eight balls, and because Pete was with me... I knew it was 'too expensive'.

For me. Today, anyway.