aquisitions

I've been on a bit of a buying spree recently. Even J, who is normally so accepting/oblivious, has noticed how many knitting-related packages have arrived at the door in the last few weeks and has wondered whether I might think of knitting some of this yarn I keep buying instead of just buying more. Silly boy.
I think this trend might have something to do with the fact that J and I opened a joint bank account a few months ago. Now, it's not so bad as you're thinking, it's not like I'm suddenly spending all of his money on yarn. We have each kept our own separate accounts and deposit half of our paychecks into the joint account and half into our private accounts, and then we pay for all the joint stuff like rent and utilities and food out of the joint account. The end result of this is that I've realized that that stuff is pretty much the majority of the money I spend, except for gas, and so now I've got all this discretionary money piling up (well, slowly trickling up) in the other account, and I'm like wheee! I can spend it on whatever I want!
Anyway in a good stash busting attempt I finally found and cast on for a pattern to use these 6 balls of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky that I've had sitting around for a very long time now. It's from some back issue of Vogue Knitting, I forget which one:

I think I'll probably make it 3/4 sleeved (or maybe even less, since I'm not sure how far 6 balls of this stuff is going to go) and add in some waist shaping. And I changed it to knit on circular needles. I feel like mods like this are things I probably wouldn't have attempted doing not so long ago, but now I feel a little more confident in my knitting abilities. Although the Stich and Bitch Nation book has some complicated formulas with Zs and Xs and Ys and gauge and waist and bust measurements for how to add in waist shaping to a sweater, and I'm like, eh, I'll just throw in some decreases and increases where I deem appropriate. So we'll see how that actually turns out.

Now on to the goodies. I ordered this combo pack of Hill Country sock yarn, which is normally $15-$20/skein (you only need 1 skein per pair of socks), pretty standard for hand-dyed sock yarn I think, BUT they have this combo pack of 3 assorted skeins for $25. What a deal! The drawback is they send you random colors. But I thought I would try my luck. And I absolutely love the colors they sent me, even better since I don't think I would have picked these out myself but now that they are in my grubby little hands I love them.


Aqua Instant Gratification merino sock yarn (knits up on size 5 or 6 needles so it will be a very fast pair of socks):


Yellow Sweet Feet merino sock yarn (standard size 2 needle sock yarn). I love solid color hand-dyed yarn because it has such subtle variations in the color. Both the yellow and aqua skeins have some very slight lighter and darker spots that I think look so pretty. It probably hasn't come out in these pictures.


And a mystery (no-tag) orangey-red and white striped yarn (it looks very similar to the yellow one so I think they're probably the same kind):I also ordered Knitting Nature by Norah Gaughan and Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush from Knitpicks. Knitting Nature has some really kooky but really awesome looking patterns in it. Well, some are awesome, a few are incredibly weird looking.
Speaking of Knitpicks, I've been obsessively flipping through their catalog recently and eyeing different lovely colors of cheap yarn. Despite the fact that I'm really sick of the current Somewhat Cowl I'm making, and can't ever work on it for more than 30 minutes at a time, I still find myself thinking of the 2nd one I want to make in Knitpicks Shine yarn. I'm trying to convince myself that I'm sick of the current one because it's alpaca and the little fuzzies are driving me nuts. Maybe I should let J hold on to my debit card for a while...