cwBlog

Today was the New Hampshire Sheep & Wool Festival. After spending what I did a couple weeks back at Gore Place and the Yarn Harlot's event at Webs, I didn't think it would be wise to risk being that close to that much fiber. But then yesterday I figured - hey, I just had a birthday, I can buy myself yarn as a present!

Oddly enough -- well, perhaps not oddly, as it started a couple weeks back at Webs -- I didn't really feel like buying yarn. Don't get me wrong -- there was a lot of beautiful yarn at the festival. But when I looked at a beautiful handpainted sock yarn, the Little Voice said, "But you already have all that yarn from Knitivity that you haven't knit yet." When I looked at some lovely lace yarn, the Little Voice said, "What about all that 16/2 alpaca/silk you have from Webs that you need to knit this summer?" When I looked at some beautiful Irish yarn from The Irish Ewe, the Little Voice said, "OMG ARAN WEIGHT IRISH WOOL 8 OUNCES FOR $12," and then took a deep breath, and continued, "but we already have enough wool stashed for five sweaters, and it doesn't make sense to stash more." I did run into a vendor selling Bartlett Sport for $15 per cone, and the Little Voice started to comment that we bought 5 pounds of Bartlett Sport at Gore Place. At that point I told the Little Voice to get stuffed, because $15 a cone is more than 50% off, and 50% off is enough to rationalize the purchase even of yarns I don't like. I got a nice rich heathered mulberry purple cone and (finally, you think this would be a staple color) a beautiful rich dark not-quite-navy blue.

Oh, and I got two books. First, I saw a book specifically about knitting ganseys, one that I hadn't seen before. (Of course, once I bought it, I saw it at every vendor, though it wasn't on sale anywhere so I didn't need to kick myself.) And, in an amazing bit of serendipity, this week, someone on Ravelry recommended The Sweater Workshop by Jacqueline Fee. (I can't be more specific than that, because the only record I have is in my little black book, the notation "Sweater Workshop, J. Fee.") Well, in one of the booths, I came face to face with Jacqueline Fee herself, who cheerfully sold me an autographed copy of her book.

But neither of those is risky, or at least it isn't a new risk. I've been known to lose my sense of budget in yarn stores and bookstores before; with yarn in particular, making sure I see my stash at least once a day tends to mitigate meltdowns. There was a lot of beautiful fiber there, in the form of raw fleeces, cleaned and dyed fiber, and roving. And then it jumped out at me: the Learn to Spin Kit from Nancy's Knit Knacks. And whoops! just like that, there was a guardrail near the slippery slope, and I just vaulted over it.

So far I've produced about four yards of yarn. It's nothing to write home about, but the fourth yard is much more even than the first three, so I'm making progress. But I get the scary feeling that by the time Rhinebeck comes around, I'll be shopping for a spinning wheel. But please, no matter how rational I sound -- someone, please, stop me before I buy a sheep, OK?