Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Bead store owners can't be rich

I'm going to start a new knitting project. It shouldn't take very long, but it does include a new skill: knitting with beads! You knit until the chart tells you to add a bead, and so on and so forth. It's a wristwarmer, a good, smallish, beginner project.

However, it did mean going to two different stores 1)the bead store and 2)the yarn store. First, I went to the yarn store to look for yarn (duh) and SIZE 0 needles. Sheesh! didya' even know they made needles in a size 0?? Anyway, I showed the yarn-lady the pattern and she suggested I get the beads first so that we can get the right size yarn, as the specific yarn was not at the store.

No prob. I just walked around the building to the bead place and asked for 172 silver size 8 beads. Sheesh! That was an ordeal! First, they didn't have the right color so I had to wait for the bead-lady to check the stash for something that might work. Actually, the bead-lady was very nice and patient with me as someone who's never really beaded before. Bead-Lady asked to see the project pattern and I showed her. [She gave me a look, one that said I hadn't a clue what I was about to embark on and she is right.] So, she got me some size 8 Japanese beads (said these would be better for my project than the displayed Czech beads). Then, reading from my pattern in my book, I asked for a collapsible beading needle. Sure thing! she said and lead me to the tiniest, thinnest needles I every saw. Man, this project is getting way out there, I tell you what. Then she weighed the beads to guesstimate the number (hence, there is a slight chance I have to go back for more, like, maybe 20).

So, with my 100-200 beads and thick-as-a-hair needle I headed to the register where bead-lady used a calculator (with paper roll) to ring me up. It came to a whopping $3.32. !!!??! I don't know what the heck you gotta sell to cover your overhead in a place like that when one project isn't even 5 bucks! Maybe she sells drugs on the side, I don't know. But I really can't imagine spending big bucks in a place like that.

On the other hand, I dropped $30 at the yarn store for my SIZE 0 needles, black sock yarn (for project), and cool, stripy yarn for a future pair of socks.

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