Hooray Sock Stash!

I've been trying to be good by concentrating on using the yarn I already own rather than buying new yarn. Especially in light of the central air situation.

But a girl can only be strong for so long. I snapped when I was working the other weekend. I was able to rationalize because I had finally invoiced Cynthia for the sock club pattern and had "found money." (I ignored the fact the money could go to other things, such as gas, or the new condenser.)

First I bought this lovely skein of Colinette Jitterbug in the Mardi Gras colorway. This skein came into the store shortly after I bought that purple skein (Florentina colorway as it turns out) with the intent of making socks and using the leftovers in combination with the leftover blue I already had. (So buying the purple didn't really count since I needed it to use what I had.)

At the time I said "where was this when I needed it?" The colors are just so happy! But I was strong and didn't get it. However it's been hanging around the store, taunting me, for like a month. After my trip to Las Vegas, which meant I was out of the store for like two weeks, I told myself that if the Mardi Gras was still there then I was meant to have it.

Then I bought this skein of Sockina Cotton by Schoeller and Stahl. It sounds like this yarn came in when I was out of town so a lot of the colors had already been bought. When I first saw it I was excited about it being 55 percent cotton, but none of the colors really grabbed me. There was actually one that was a mix of orange and greens which totally reminded me of my Sol Joy yarn so I definitely couldn't get that one. I think I'm going to have to let go of my desire not to have duplicate colors in my sock yarns. After all, there are only so many color combinations available and if I really intend to fill my life with handknit socks, there is going to be some over lap. (wow, that's a long sentence, our copy editor would have a field day with it.) So the next day I bought this blue and white skein. I figure I should buy cotton sock yarn to encourage the manufacturers to keep making it and this colorway should be good with jeans.

I also bought three skeins of Cascade 220 in what I hope are sophisticated Christmas colors. I've already started what will be a felted wine cozy gift bag thing. It is part of building my knitting empire so right now the financial outlay doesn't count since I might potentially get it back. Since I'm hoping to sell the finished item, despite the fact that there are probably plenty of wine bag patterns available (in fact I'm fairly certain I remember seeing one on Knitty.com) I'm making up the pattern as I go along to avoid any infringement issues. Knitting this is, of course, cutting into my sock knitting time. So it's a good thing I'm not gunning for the next bi-weekly raffle. Really, I probably should have been making the wine cozy last week instead of my socks, but I don't technically have a deadline, so I was slacking.

Ok, speaking of slacking, time to go see if Hubby is making my big weekend breakfast yet.