I fell off the wagon - thrice!

I really do need help! Over the past couple of months, I have ordered way too much yarn from sites like Elann.com, Royal yarns, and Discontinued Name Brand yarns - not to mention the treasures found at the Salvation Army, JoAnns, and Walmarts clearance bins. I am running out of space to store this stuff, and I knit every day! I realize that I was becoming obsessive and way out of control, so last week I vowed that I wouldn't buy any more yarn until after the holidays. Well that didn't last long. After one of you helpful souls posted about the "jogless" jog, I decided that I really wanted a black stripe in my pink sweater. So the following day after work, I stopped by JoAnns to see if they had any black sport weight wool. To my delight, I found they had Bellezza collection Stellina on clearance for the amazing price of $1.49 a ball! Not only did I get 2 in black for my sweater, but they also had a lovely red (for the upcoming holidays, of course), lavendar (my daughter's favorite color), and fushia! Being the frugal knitter that I am, I couldn't pass it by! I justified the purchase by telling myself that everyone on my Christmas list would receive a handmade gift from me instead of a purchased one.

That was last Monday, and I was so good about not buying any more yarn for almost 2 weeks! I didn't even try to get in on any of the wonderful bargais that Elann.com was offering this week (yeah!), but then today I got sucker punched! It all started innocently enough; I had planned on taking my daughter to a movie this afternoon, as today was the first Saturday in a long while that we were both free. She suggested we leave early so that she could treat me to a late breakfast at I-hop for their streusel pancakes - they were great by the way. After breakfast, we still had about an hour and a half to kill before the start of the movie. No problem; across the I-Hop parking lot was a little shopping center with a Big Lots and a Dollar Tree. We could easily kill the time browsing those stores harmlessly - WRONG!

First we entered Dollar Tree and as I wandered the aisles aimlessly looking at Christmas decorations put out way to early for my taste, I swear I detected the faint smell of yarn in the air! My daughter thought I was crazy, but I just sensed it! I mean really, the fine hairs on the back of my neck stood up as we rounded the aisle where the scrapbook supplies were! Then I spied it - several plastic bins of yarn! I still thought I was safe because at first all I saw was those funky, novelty yarns with all the glitz and eyelash fibers - not my thing, but then, just as I was about to walk away, something told me to take a closer look. I should have ignored the little voice that was speaking to me, but I just couldn't. There on the very bottom bid were several balls of Paton's Divine! A lovely chunky blend of wool, mohair and acrylic in icycle white, a lovely pastel shade of blue, and charcoal grey. Dayum, dayum, dayum! Where was my yarnaholic sponsor when I needed her! I scooped up 6 balls of each color and ran to the checkout before my daughter could stop me! I was fresh out of justifications, but was grateful to have gotten such a lovely fix for under $20!

Next stop was Big Lots. I have read posts about how some of you have found yarn there, but I have never seen much in our local store, so again I thought I was pretty safe - not this time! I was innocently browsing the stationary aisle for colorful gel pens - yeah, that's another one of my quirky obsessions along with printed post-it notes, but that's another story. At any rate, I really was just looking for gel pens, when once again my senses were assaulted with the presence of yarn. Once again, plastic bins - almost hidden, contained more of those funky, glitzy fiber yarn, but underneath was the holy grail - Premier Yarns Pure - very fine, viscose yarn in a gorgeous pastel peach, dove grey, and a varigated blue! I didn't much care for the blue, but the peach and the grey literally jumped in my arms! These were unopened bags of 10 balls, so I bought 1 bag of each. I literally skipped to the register while my daughter just stood there shaking her head.

On the way to the movie theater, my daughter thought she would chastise me by reminding me of my vow not to buy any more yarn until after the holdays. I told her that I never specified which holday and since Halloween was over, I pretty much kept my promise!

She neither knits or crochets, so who can blame her for a lack of understanding.....