I’m pretty darn local to my LYS. For one thing, I work there. I also happen to both love and respect both the present owner and the past ones, and I consider Cynthia to be a mentor. Sometimes I stray. I feel like we (the LYS and I) have a fairly open relationship. It’s perfectly acceptable that I look and sometimes buy other yarn from other stores when I’m on vacation. If it’s something we don’t carry or can’t get through one of our current vendors, I don’t feel so bad for buying elsewhere either, but for the most part, I’m fiercely loyal.

Well, I got a coupon for Jimmy Beans Wool that expires soon, so I’ve been looking around on their site, mostly at their sock yarns, to see if there is anything I can’t live without. I was seriously considering some Sweet Georgia Tough Love Sock yarn in Botanical. It’s lovely and it’s hard to let a 15% discount go to waste. Matt reminded me that the colors aren’t always what you see online. Yes, I have been burned by this before. I can think of some Malabrigo Sock in Alcaucil that seemed to be a dark green that was actually just black in person.

Alcaucil: You look green to me.

I told myself it would be an upcoming birthday present to myself (ahem, it’s on the 14th). I’ve also been coveting this unbelievably gorgeous sock yarn in the Artisan Sock base in Euphorbia, Saffron, Hoppy Blonde, and Lime Granita, as well as Blue Moon Fiber Socks that Rock mediumweight in Lodestone, Blue Moonstone, and Winter Solstice. Nothing wrong with hoarding single skeins of sock yarn, right? I LOVE socks. He reminded me about the sweater’s worth of teal sock yarn (ONLine Linie 33 Cosmo) that I just purchased and am using for another Featherweight Cardigan. Uh, sure…but I’m already knitting that up…and the colors! Did you see those colors?!

We are having a baby, and I’ll be taking five months off of work to stay home with her. This means I should be more prudent about my yarn purchases, theoretically. She’s due at the end of August. Matt assured me that if I didn’t buy any yarn until the baby comes, he would buy me yarn. At first, I thought he meant any yarn, and I thought, “This sweet and wonderful man is going to keep me in yarn. Lovely, delicious yarn.” Then I realized he meant just that single skein of yarn that I showed from Jimmy Beans and I almost started laughing hysterically. I work in a yarn store one day a week just to be around the wool fumes, and buy the yarn without feeling a shred of guilt. All of the money I make during my time at Hand Held goes directly back into the till fairly soon. I don’t know if I’ve ever gone two whole months without buying yarn. Is that crazy? That yarn isn’t even my first pick on the list! Ha.

Let’s just see what kind of obsession I’ve got going on here. I’ll take you on a very brief tour of my stash:

The bulky weight bin, and some miscellaneous merino fiber.

Let’s start with my least thrilling bin. I don’t really spin, yet that merino fiber is so fluffy and I have a pound, so I’m just going to hold onto it for now… I don’t get very excited about knitting with bulky weight yarns. They tire my hands more easily with the larger needles, but I’m convinced I’ll make some amazing floor cushions if my hands can take the huge yarn one of these days . This isn’t really all bulky stuff. In the bags to the left are some worsted items, but I ran out of space in that bin.

Mostly worsted weights.

I have a sweater’s worth of Sublime hanging out and waiting to be a cardigan this fall (in the ugly plastic bag in the bottom right). That’s a must, even if I end up putting it off until November for a NaKniSweMo project. Yes, the bags are very ugly and don’t allow you to properly inspect my stash, but I didn’t want to take everything out for a quick pic. Most of these are organized into bags because they are all the same brand or all single ply or however my brain organizes these things.

Mostly DK, Sport, and Lace

There are some lovelies in my DK, sportweight, and laceweight bin. I’m definitely stashing some CEY Fresco, a little Malabrigo Silky Merino, a good chunk of Blue Sky Alpacas Sportweight . None of these are sweater amount’s worth, but they will make some luxurious little accessories at some point, and I really enjoy just touching them every now and then in the meantime.

Wouldn’t it make more sense for the lace weight to be in a bin with the fingering weight? Well, it would if I had any room left in my fingering weight bin…

The biggest loves in my stash. The SOCK YARNS!

This is where my heart lies. I can’t bear to put these in bags (except for the partial balls) because I get them out often and dream about fingering weight things.  On the left are two skeins of Opal Hundertwasser is hard to find. I am also hoarding a skein of the Opal Harry Potter yarns in the Ron Weasley colorway. If you’re a fan of Koigu, you might notice the big chunk of Koigu that is front and center. To the right of that are a few skeins of Malabrigo Sock (aka superwash merino heaven). Above that are a couple of skeins of Colinette Jitterbug, another one of my very favorites for the colors and the durability. There are layers here, people. I’m still hiding stuff under this yarn.

I don’t know if I’ll be “dieting,” but at least the cupboard is stocked pretty well in the meantime. I suddenly have the urge to cast on about 4 more pairs of socks…