I had a little falling down today. You see, several yarn stores were having sales. You'd think that, being on a yarn fast, I'd know better than to even contemplate setting foot in a yarn store, but what can I say, I'm lacking in willpower these days (although I've managed to avoid buying yarn online, even though I nearly succumbed to the virtual sale bin at Purl).
The first store was having a massive moving sale. Everything at least 30% off. I bought an armful of Silk Garden (colourways 245, 247, and 255), a skein of Kureyon (colourway 95), and a skein of Colinette Zanziba (to be knit into a scarf together with any Zanziba leftovers from my mom's Ab Fab throw). The Colinette was 75% off, the Noro 40% off. How could I not?
Aside from the Kureyon and Silk Garden, they also had Blossom and Cash Iroha and Iro and Silver Thaw, it was really really hard not to sweep entire shelves of Noro into my shopping bag (I won't even get into the Rowan and Manos and everything else). I may have to go back there.
Then at knitting group afterwards, we discussed the fact that another yarn store nearby was having a sale, so we packed all our stuff up and took a little walk. This store was selling Tulip Sweater kits, using some of the new Dream in Color colourways.
I know I haven't even started my first Tulip yet, but I figured that this would be the most economical way for me to try out several Dream in Color colourways at once. These colours are mostly different from the ones in the kit I bought from Lettuce Knit.
So, so much for Lent! Ravelry will really be the death of me, that's how I found out about both of these sales. It's an entire community of enablers. =)
I'm not sure that I'm a huge fan of Fair Isle knitting. I've done quite a bit of it lately (my mom's Christmas sweater, the too-large Cheesylove hat, now these Bird in Hand mittens), and I must admit that I'm getting a little tired of it. It's not hard with two colours, but all the stopping to pick up strands (I suppose I could learn to do it with one colour in each hand but that would require work and practice) and all the staring at the pattern and counting stitches is starting to drive me a bit mad.
I've finished both hands and am now starting to work on the thumbs. This should be the climax, where I finally get to make the little birdies, but I just want them to be finished already! It is also even harder to knit fair isle in the round on 22 stitches.
Notice that the right hand (on the right) is noticeably longer than the left hand. I knit the latter first, and got worried that I was knitting too tightly, so loosened up a bit for the second hand. I like the looser tension better, but now I have uneven mittens. Do you think that my right hand could be bigger than my left? I mean, the fingers on the right hand are slightly thicker....maybe I can block them out to be the same size, but I sort of doubt it will work.
On another note, here are my two favourite vices sitting next to me. Chocolate (peanut M&Ms, which I have been craving all day long) and yarn (Patternworks catalog). I've decided to abstain from the yarn shopping this year, which means I can't order any of the Koigu that they've got on sale (but you can! Koigu for $11.99 a skein!). But I'm still free to get fat eating chocolate. Hmm, maybe I picked the wrong thing to give up. =)
Hey, did you know that Ash Wednesday is NEXT week?? That's really really soon. You're wondering why I care, right? Well, every year I give something up for Lent. Yes, I know I'm the furthest thing from Christian or Catholic or whatever, but I do it anyway. Sometimes people give me funny looks when I tell them.
For the past couple of years, it's been chocolate in all its forms. One year it was doughnuts (Dunkin' Donuts = evil. Not to mention not really tasty at all). This year? I'm thinking it should be yarn. Yarn shopping, specifically. Mostly because I'm in one of those moods where I just want to buy up all the yarn in the world, and also because giving up chocolate right now would probably kill me. Not that I'm incredibly stressed out or anything, but you never know how things will go from one day to the next (today I moved from the depths of despair (everything I do turns to crap!) to being super-duper elated (yay! I made purple cells! Pretty purple!) in the span of a couple of hours. I'm glad it wasn't the other way around) and I don't want to be without my coping mechanism. =P
I haven't decided 100% yet, but I guess I should soon. In preparation, maybe I should buy some more yarn as a last hurrah? =)
(A later thought: Hey, do you think that this could be offensive to some people, like they'd think I was trivializing something that was a serious thing for them (i.e. using Lent as an "excuse to diet")? I've never really discussed my Lenten habits with any devout Christians, so I wouldn't really know. On the other hand, I suppose people can choose to be offended by just about anything.)
