Acquisitions

Yay, my new CD arrived today. There is something about knitting to Marilyn Manson that makes me feel so deep and complex. I'm both an angsty 13 year old in 1993 and a grandmother.

I'm making good progress on Dulce De Leche, or, as I'm calling it, Blurple. I don't get this yarn. It was definitely royal blue in the store, but in my house, it's purple. I have absolutely no idea what color it really is. Sometimes I see the blue, sometimes purple. Good thing I like both colors. But I'm near the binding off for the neck, and then it'll just be a matter of getting the armholes and eventually the sleeves. So I'll have an alpaca sweater just in time for... Summer. I'm so awesome at planning these things.

I've been having so much fun turning my floppy partial skeins into tight balls on my swift and winder. It's sad, but I had 450-yard hanks of sock yarn that I bought in February and have been avoiding because the idea of winding that all up by hand was just too painful. Not to mention, I wear a lot of skirts, and there's just so much time I like to spend with my knees up to wind.

The stash has evolved into "taking over my room and living room" status thanks to a ridiculous trip to Rosemary's Gift Shop, followed by a "what the hell, we're already here" trip to Korner Knitters. We won't discuss how much I spent, but this is how much I accrued:

Sometimes I scare myself.

But you know what's even scarier? Rosemary's is having a 25% off sale "soon." And I'm on the mailing list.

I don't really need two bathrooms, right? One of them can totally be converted to a stash closet.

I have a lot of yarn.

My stashing is getting sort of ridiculous. I was on a "no yarn until my birthday" kick, then I got invited for a yarn crawl with two women I knit with. I initially declined but realised what an idiot I was being. I ended up buying 10 hanks of alpaca yarn to make a Dulce Du Leche. Which I haven't started yet. Then we went to another store, where I bought some yarn for 2 pairs of socks and a Clapotis (I KNOW. I'M SORRY.) ... which I haven't started yet. Later, I was out with my grandmother and got lost and somehow ended up at a yarn store I've never been to before. I bought 3 hanks of Kollage corn yarn, for either socks or a hat, which I haven't started yet. I also bought a hank of Maine-made sock yarn. Which.... well, guess.

Then my LYS had a sale after I had an EPICALLY HORRIBLE week and the day before my birthday, and I got invited to go there with friends, which was just part of my incredible pre-birthday extravaganza. I ended up with a bunch of yarn, which I haven't started yet, but I bought it 3 days ago so that's excusable.

Of course, I'm also going on a road trip on Sunday to two new yarn stores. I swear, I have some sort of knitting mental illness. But at least when I go shopping with these two women, I don't end up spending a fourth of what one of them does. And she can't even knit with wool, so her selections are limited.

I have a ballwinder now! And a swift! It was the 10 hanks of alpaca and silk that finally broke me. And since KP has the cheap ballwinder and I've heard good things about it, I was finally comfortable putting one on a birthday list. Oh God, I wound one hank already and it's taking all I have not to wind up every bit of yarn I have.

I'm working on a scarf made with mitred squares of sock yarn scraps. I was tempted by the ubiquitous sock yarn blanket, but have no need for blankets, so I figured out that I'd make it into a scarf. I've got 24 squares done already. Not sure how many I'll need, but I think I'll put it aside for a bit so that I can make more socks and have new colors of scrap yarn to add to it.

This post would be way more interesting if I could find the mini USB for my camera and put up pics of all my awesome new yarns. I'm also thinking of buying a Flickr pro account so I can do more with the account and see all my photos that I've uploaded, but I don't even use my free one to its full potential, so I should really work on doing tags and a few sets and comments and descriptions before I shell out $25.