Meditation on yarn

Lately I've been thinking, very seriously, of taking up knitting again (click any picture to enlarge). At the Farmers' Market, each week I've been enchanted with beautiful handspun yarns and I've fondled them a little more with each passing week. The Spincycle Yarn Store has been tempting me the most, so last week I actually looked at some of the yarns with the idea of maybe making something as a meditative activity this fall.

This merino wool/silk blend caught my eye, so I actually looked at the price. Well. So much for meditation: I had to spend a little time catching my breath at the price. I want to know, ladies, is this because it's the best that it costs so much?? It is all local. Here's a short excerpt from their website (under "about us"):

Inspired by the rich colors of their surroundings, and using local fibers, they hand-dye every batch and spin every inch in their messy little studio in downtown Bellingham, Washington. They travel to market on very cute bicycles, hauling all their beautiful yarn and display racks on bike trailers. They are committed to spinning yarn that is both fresh and classic, to inspiring your craft with ever-changing textures and colors, and to advancing the knitting revolution!

I know it's more expensive than most, but to make this little "harf" (hat and scarf combo), I would need three skeins at $42/skein! Is this beyond the beyond or should I shop around? Perhaps I should just mention that I fell in love with the feel of this yarn and had a hard time tearing myself away, although once I looked at the price I wondered if I would be better off, if I want to take up some sort of meditative activity, to attend a yoga class.

My mother used to knit a sweater a week. She taught me to change the way I knit from taking my right hand to throw the yarn over the needle to using my left-hand first finger like a shuttle. It took me knitting an entire sweater to learn it, because the tension is not consistent until you get the hang of it. Maybe it's partly because I miss my mom that I want to remember her by taking up her favorite activity again. Or maybe it's the sun coming up later and going down earlier.

The Spincycle people use local yarns whenever they can, and after learning that they haul their stuff to the market every week on bicycles, I'm pretty sure I should support these wonderful people. What do you think?
:-)