I'm a sucker for a mystery box or grab bag. I just can't help myself. Throw a bunch of leftover stuff in a box, slap a question mark on it, and price it under $50, and you're almost sure to get a bite. It's just terrible.
So this week, especially, Craftsy.com has been pimping their "Premium November Mystery Knitting Box" for just $40. It's regularly $100! And in return for two Jacksons and shipping, you get a box of premium knitting needles, notions, yarns, and other miscellany. I can't begin to tell you how many times I've almost ordered myself one or two of these wonders! Yeah, I said "or two." They're discounted sixty percent off, for Pete's sake! I put 'em in my shopping bag then remove 'em at the last second.
I've had mixed success with grab bags and mystery boxes. When Fire Mountain Gems and Beads clean out their bead bins, they throw the leftovers into one-pound bags of "Boss's Bead Bags," and I've come away with a bunch of really great beads and findings I wouldn't have bought, just looking through their catalog. Also, there's something that feeds my creative fire, sitting there sorting a big bag full of beads (because I'd buy multiple BBBs.) I got a lot of really cool things, to be sure, but I also bought a lot of broken bead bits and some beads that looked like they'd spent too much time hanging out at the bottom of the bead bin.
Then I fell for ModCloth's mystery assortment deal earlier this year. For $20, you'd tell them your size and they'd send you a bunch of clothing and accessories they were trying to get rid of. ModCloth is tricky for me. I'm more zaftig than a skinny-ass model, but I'm not really plus-size. Unless I were trying to be a model, in which case, I'm downright corpulent. Anyway, I should have known better. I'm thirty-four, and I think ModCloth caters to the twenty-five and under hipster set. I like their accessories, but the clothing rarely works out for me. So for my money, I came away with a hooded capelet that I might wear, maybe, a seafoam green strapless short dress that's too big for me up top, but almost just right on the bottom, a maroon blouson dress that maybe I'd wear if I were a little thinner, or if I wore maroon dresses, and a black and white short dress. The black's up top, the white's on the bottom. It's my personal way of living never to wear white on the bottom. Too much can go wrong. So in short, Zoe's dress-up box for when she's a little bigger got three, maybe four pieces richer.
Earlier this month, Thirty-One was having their Consultants'-Only Give One, Get One sale, where they sell off the things they've discontinued for really low prices, and then for every one of something I bought, they'd send a thermal tote to a military family. Cool thing, this GOGO sale. Included in the Consultant-Only sale, they had grab-bags for $25. I figured I couldn't go wrong, getting a Thirty-One grab-bag or two. I like everything Thirty-One, as evidenced by my signing on as a consultant. And I think for my $50, I made out pretty well. The only thing that leaves me scratching my head are the packages of Silly Bandz in Thirty-One-Themed Shapes. I never really got into the Silly Bandz craze, because I was over 8 when they were a hit, so I really don't get why Thirty-One had them in the first place, to necessitate discontinuing them and including them in the grab-bag. (They make decent hair-ties in a pinch. That's the nice thing I'll say.)
So back to Craftsy and this November Premium Knitters' Mystery Box of theirs that has me tweaking. There is the siren's call of the Mystery Box, and I admit it's pretty strong. But then. Just a month ago, I went through my ENTIRE yarn stash. It took me ALL DAMN DAY on the Friday after Frankenstorm. I received my first wasp bite, on the ankle, that day, but by the time that happened, I'd already thrown three tantrums at the mountain of yarn my husband carried down into the middle of the living room so I would sort it. The bullet point of this is that I have more than enough yarn. Yarn that I picked out myself, with my own judgement, with my own two hands, with at least an embryonic idea as to what I'd make out of that yarn I bought. And I know exactly which needles I like to use. Addi Turbo circulars, the interchangeable ones if I can, but the regular Addi Turbo circulars as long as I'm not making something huge like an afghan. As for notions, I have a certain kind of stitch marker I like, and the rest just kind of piss me off.
I don't need the damn Premium Knitter's Mystery Box from Craftsy.
The other thing that's stopped me dead in my tracks from buying Crafty's box of wonders (or two) is that in the last half of this year, I've been burnt twice with them and their "Mystery Knitalongs." The idea was you bought into the knit-along for $30, and they gave you access to the month's pattern and sent you enough yarn to complete the project. Disasters, both. The first one, in July, was this washed-out blue fingering weight yarn, meant to make a cowl with a tendril pattern knitted in. The yarn came in a hank, needing to be wound into a ball before I could knit (using both ends of the ball, no less, at once). I've balled many a hank of yarn, so I'm not beginner at that. But I must have pulled the end funny, because I didn't even make one revolution of my winder's handle when my yarn went from neat hank to WTF?! A tangled mess I've yet to sort out. I ended up making my OWN cowl, from a pattern in my head, with some NORO yarn, which was much prettier and more interesting to work than the yarn from Craftsy would have been, even if it hadn't have spontaneously exploded into a spaghetti monster within seconds of being taken out of the mailing envelope.
Then, because I'm thick-skulled, I gave it another go with the Craftsy Knitalong, this time in October. I sent in my $30, they sent me a skein of super-bulky yarn the color of the insides of a sweet potato. I have a lot of affection for the sweet potato, but not much time for super-bulky yarn. I went into the air when I got access to the pattern. It was meant to be a tight-fitting beanie, knit in the round with a cable running up the side.
Really? A whole entire beanie made from super-thick yarn, meant to fit an adult's head? I cast on and then read the reviews from the other unhappy knitalong participators, who'd finished their projects in one night (it was supposed to last the whole month!), and who ran out of yarn before getting to the end of their beanies, and those that did manage to work it out said the beanie was so stretched when worn that it was unattractive. I don't know what kind of pinhead that beanie (one size fits most) was supposed to fit, but I have a big head as adult heads go, so I knew my yarn had no chance as a beanie, so I knitted up a sweet potato-hued short scarf instead. There wasn't really enough yarn for even that, to be honest, and I didn't like the yarn much, working with it, or fiber-wise.
Remembering those incidents, it's easier to walk away from the promise of this November Premium Knitter's Mystery Box. Burn me once, shame on you, burn me twice, shame on me. But then part of me says "but the third time's the charm!" There's a chance that I could wind up with a box of really, really good yarn this time around!
More likely, I'd wind up with fugly, impossible-to-work yarn, and needles I can't stand.
This time, I'm being a grown up and walking away. I'm not biting on the bait Craftsy has dangled in front of me. I'm going to distract myself by knitting up an afghan for the daughter of one of my best friends, hopefully in time to send it for her birthday at the end of the month, and then I have a red throw I promised to knit for another best friend and his partner- way back before I was expecting Zoe. And after that, there's an entire of attic of yarn for me and my Addi Turbos to work through. I don't need a Mystery Box this time around! I don't!
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