Online Shopping, or how my hopes were dashed by a box of yarn and a dress

(Crappy late night photos of my clothing purchases)

I received both a box from Modcloth and an order from Knitpicks, all in the same day. Happy mail day for sure. I’d been waiting with ridiculous enthusiasm for these packages to arrive (as you might be able to tell by reviewing posts from a week ago). I was so excited to try out my new dress and cardigan, I could hardly set my bag and keys down before I was ripping open the package. I dropped the skirt and sweater I was wearing faster than you can say, “Fancy new clothes” and was zipping up the dress before I made it to the full-length mirror in the bedroom.

(You can see where this is going, right? That much excitement about anything is bound to result in major disappointment, right? That’s where you would be correct.)

The dress just didn’t fit at all. Too long in the torso, too loose in the bust, a bit snug in the waist. It kind of bulged along the side zip becase there was more fabric in the mid-section than I have in the middle. So. so. Disappointed.

I sulked over to the sweater. Such a pretty shade of aqua. Please fit!! I slipped it on over the dress thinking, “Maybe if I wear it with a sweater it will look better.” Sweater cute. Phew! Fits perfectly and the color is delectable but my overall mood had been dashed. I should have tried the cardigan first!

The last item I got was a pencil case with a camera graphic on the front. I love the screenprint vintage camera design and the clear peek-through lens/window, but I was a little disappointed that it was a soft plastic case (not vinyl or fabric) and the zipper is like those slide-lok zips on kitchen Ziploc bags. It just seemed a little cheap for the $12 I paid for it.

Once I accepted the fact that not even if I returned the dress for a different size would the situation be remedied, I put my old skirt and sweater back on and started to dig into the Knit Picks box. Surely that would cheer me up.

(Again, this is where you would know this was not going to turn out well.)

First, I pulled out the package of cotton/modal yarn I bought to knit up a Pinwheel blanket for my sister- and brother-in-law. It was shown on the website as a lovely aqua blue which I planned to trim with a Granny Smith green edging. It came out of the box as acid blue toxicity and green slime green. These are the kind of colors you expect to stain your hands when handled too much. This is the kind of yarn that would get me blamed if the baby develops early eye strain and retina issues from staring at these colors too long. Failure Number One.

“Okay,” I thought, “maybe the City Tweed I bought to knit up Olivia by Kim Hargreaves will be a luscious midnight blue.” Nope. Its dark, dirty denim blue. It is amazingly soft yarn for the price but the color is much more suited to a manly fisherman sweater than to a charming little swing coat. Ooof. Failure Number Two.

Then I reached into the box again, dread slowly enveloping the whole stinking postal affair. “Please,” I pleaded to no one in particular, “let the next lot be yummy”. Out came the rich blue Gloss DK for my future Merenge. It was not as vivid as I had hoped but its a lovely ocean blue color with a gorgeous silky sheen so I think it will be good. Sadly, though, I think I’m going to need another skein because I underestimated how much I was going to need. Grrrr.

The last thing out of the Knit Picks box was my replacement Knit Picks Nickel-Plated needle set which I had to re-buy after I foolishly sold my original pair. Why, you ask? I sold my original Options because I discovered that HiyaHiya was selling interchangeable needle sets and I love their basic circulars so much I thought, “I must have the HiyaHiyas. To hell with the the KnitPicks.” Of course, I had to eat my words when the HiyaHiyas arrived and then only went up to a size 8 and the needles were only 4″ long. For some things they will be perfect but for larger knitting like sweaters, they are sadly lacking.

So there it is. The whole good mail day gone bad. Or at least a bit off. Of everything I bought, I kept the replacement needle set, the pencil case and cardigan and four balls of Gloss DK. Pfft.

Popularity: 1% [?]