Background info first:  Less than four years ago I learned to knit socks.  Thanks Susan!  Almost as soon as I learned to knit socks, I realized that sock yarn was as addicting for the knitter as is fabric for the quilter.  We can just sit at the computer and poke buttons .. and like magic, the yarn is delivered to my front door. The honest to goodness truth is that part of the 2010 commitment was to lay off the yarn buying.  I really have plenty!

While this isn’t a HUGE supply of yarn, it’s enough to keep me busy for several years.  And the beauty of sock yarn, as opposed to fabric, is that I don’t have to come up with colors that match or work together.  Mostly, 1 skein of yarn makes 1 pair of socks and that’s it . . move on to the next one.  So I’m all set for a while with sock yarn.

Then . . really, it was after the first of the year, like maybe on January 1, I began reading about this yarn called Wollmeise.  It sounded like everyone was saying this is THE sock yarn to use! It was like everywhere I turned, people were talking about Wollmeise yarn!  I had to have some!  To make matters worse, it’s a German yarn and from what I’ve read, there’s one lady doing all the work and this yarn is very hard to find.  Some reported that it had sold on ebay for more than 3 times its original cost (and it ain’t cheap!).  I didn’t spend a lot of time looking for it because I read on Ravelry that it’s just one of those things you sometimes get lucky and stumble upon but otherwise . . well, just dream about owning it.

Tuesday I had just finished loading Chad’s quilt on the longarm and sat down at the computer to see what was happening in my little world.  For some reason, I clicked on my favorite yarn shop, The Loopy Ewe.  Don’t ask me why . . I’m not buying any more yarn.  I wasn’t even thinking about the much worshiped Wollmeise yarn.  And guess what they had!  Wollmeise yarn!  I clicked to put three or four skeins in my cart . . I was so excited!  It was like I’d just won the lottery!  I was clicking so fast, I didn’t even know what I got but I managed to get a couple of skeins.

Tuesday evening on Ravelry, someone finagled out of Sheri, the owner of The Loopy Ewe, that she had more Wollmeise to put up later.  Here’s where the insanity began.

Twice during the night I got up to check to see if she had put it up.  The thermostat is set on 60° at night.  Getting out of the warm bed and waiting for the computer to boot up . . insanity!  Only to find nothing new on The Loopy Ewe site.

I brought the laptop into the bedroom so I could keep checking it while getting dressed.  Nothing!

I brought the laundry into the bedroom and folded it while watching the computer.  Nothing!

But, at some point, there was little more I could do upstairs and I needed to go down and sew.  Running back and forth across the sewing room to the desktop was just taking too long so I brought the laptop and set it next to me at the sewing machine.

10:32 a.m. and no Wollmeise has appeared on the website.

There were dozens and dozens of refreshes and F5 hits and finally, at 3:05 p.m.  . .

More Wollmeise yarn appeared on The Loopy Ewe‘s website.  And, I was quick enough to snag a few more skeins.  I’m not sure how  much of the yarn she had.  Maybe 15 or 16 colors were posted but within 10 minutes, it was all gone!

I think a whole bunch of knitters spent a lot of time hitting the F5 (refresh) button at The Loopy Ewe!  All I have to say about all this is . . I sure hope I love Wollmeise sock yarn!  And, short of something really outstanding, I’m finished buying yarn for a while.