More Yarn Gluttony

Oy Vey am I in trouble.  

So I now have not one, but two really, really good yarn stores within walking distance of my home, even worse, within biking distance (I have a basket on my bike, double the carrying capacity!)

So after dropping close to $400 at Wolseley Wardrobe, I went down to check out Ram Wools new worker owned co-op store.   Ouch my wallet.  It's all for Xmas, I keep reminding myself.  Except it's not, not by a long shot.

But c'mon, 750yds of Fleece Artist Nyoni for $20? Like you'd say no!  And yes, I'm crazy, I'm planning to make sweaters from this sock yarn.  I'm planning on something really loose and drapey for summer and early fall/spring.  I bought 2 skeins each of two different colourways.  One a very summery blue/green/red close to the skein on the right in that link above (it's darker irl) and one a very bright orange/red/yellow/rust that will be for fall.  Maybe I'll make stoles and shawls out of that one instead, I'll see how I feel in October or so when I get around to it.

And yes, there was more.  They have a bargain yarn wall.  A whole WALL, divided by colourway.  I tried not to go nuts.  Bought some Diamond Luxury Baby Alpaca Lace in Fern to make this, which I'm hoping to have done for Folk Fest in July.  I also bought an Addi Turbo Lace circ and this is making the Clapotis go much, much faster.  Not only the needle itself, but the fact that I need it to make Muir and I can't start on my shawl until I'm done that millstone around my neck, I mean, lovely scarf for my lovely sister...

WIP

Getting some nice progress going on the Clapotis, finally, and have settled down on a plan for The Boy's hat--use up the 2nd skein of dark green Cascade with a light green heather biohazard symbol from this chart. The Boy likes this plan.

Since I have a deep, chthonic, primal need for list making, I'm wanting to write out the knitting skills I want to learn this year:

1) short rows, what are they and how do I get me some?

2) socks--see #1--they seem to be required for socks

3) make a sweater, any sweater, something really basic, this one, probably. I have made a sweater in the past, but that was over a decade ago, for a toddler, and never completely finished, so I feel like I'm missing out on some basic garment construction knowledge

4) lace--damn you lace, I will be your master, someday

5) Magic Sock Cast-On--I feel like I'm not really a complete person if I don't know all of the possible cast-ons, or at least most. Apparently I'm one of those kind of knitters.

6) Kitchener stitch and other grafting techniques. I don't know any. That ain't good.

Yarn gluttony

So I went yarn shopping today.  So I went shopping for yarn for all the Xmas presents I want to make for The Hand Made Xmas Project (it's always in caps in my mind now, and it's always Xmas, not Christmas.)  So I went to my LYS during their spring sale.  

So I went a little crazy, hehe.

19 skeins of Cascade 220 (mostly in heathers), 4 of Malabrigo Worsted, 8 of Manos Silk Blend (yummy yum yum), 2 Araucania Ranco sock yarn, 3 skeins of Miski that I just fell in love with, 2 of Diamond Luxury Alpaca Primo, and 2 of Mirasol Chirapa.  Most of the presents will be made with the Cascade, Malabrigo and Manos.  The rest was just indulgence on my part.  1 skein of Malabrigo, in Lime Blue, was bought just to see how it would look knit up.

And I want to go back for more.  I'm starting to understand the stash collection I've seen on other blogs.  I'm starting to envy and crave those stashes.  There's is so much yarn out there, and I have bought so little of it.  Must... get... yarn...

Pics tomorrow, when the sun is up and I'm knot knocked on my ass with this damn cold again.