Yarn in, Yarn out

I've been catching up on my blog reading and have seen the many posts about guilt and yarn acquisition. I've kind of been thinking about this in general, so I'll just give my personal 2 cents.

I try not to feel guilty about accumulating a stash. It's a nice resource, there's a plan for (almost) everything, so I figure I can sort of justify new purchases. When I buy yarn, I feel like I need to have a plan for it. This also allays my great fear that when I find a project for it, I might have way too much -- or worse, too little! And this way I'm not just accumulating stuff, it all has a Purpose.

However, I am also an impulse buyer, and I've been trying to curb my bad habit, which is even worse with yummy yarn temptations. Two days ago I would have said that I was getting better, being restrained. And then...

The two on the left are hand-dyed merino/tencel blends that I picked up at Minds Eye Yarns in Porter Square. (I don't know why I was drawn to the lime and bubble-gum pink one, but it called to me.) I really wanted to make a tank out of the teal one, but I'd need two hanks, and someone had already taken this one's mate home. They're nominally sock yarn, but I think the teal one is too good for socks. I don't know what will become of it, but the color was so fabulous that I had to have it. Green-and-pink, however, seems great for socks. Something with a cable, I think. I'll just.... put it in the pile with the rest of the sock yarn that's come to me on multiple occasions. The yarn on the right (dark teal varying almost to black) is Anne by Schaefer. I acquired this the other night when a friend was over winding yarn. She was going to trade this in for a purple one, but I decided to, uh, save her the trouble of returning it. Conveniently, I had cash on hand. It's even darker green/teal than the merino/tencel. Maybe I could put them together? I think I'd have to use two strands of the Anne... But what the hell am I going to make out of 60% merino wool superwash, 25% mohair, 15% nylon and (presumably) 50/50 merino/tencel?

And while I'm confessing, I also picked up three magazines in the past few days. InKnitters at Mind's Eye (horrendous patterns but good technical articles), Sandra (found it at Out of Town News in Harvard Square) and, shockingly, Family Circle Easy Knitting, because it actually had cute stuff. So much for curbing my impulse spending...

So if that's yarn in...

...this is yarn out!

May I present to you, the complete Debbie Bliss Dress with Fair Isle Border! I got one sleeve in on Thursday and finished up the rest on Friday night. It's darling, and the photos don't do it justice. You can also see close-ups of the fair isle border and of the collar and the darling button. I'll have the dress with me at Knitsmiths this week.

The only thing that bugs me about finishing this project is that I haven't finished the purple sweater for my other coworker, who had her baby this week. Since the sweater is plenty big, I don't have to be in any rush, but it seems kind nice to hand them out in order, don't you think? Just gotta put the sleeves in; hopefully that will be my Knitsmiths project.

Mist continues. Still in seed stitch. I'm almost done with the first sleeve and should finish that off in the morning. I picked up the button for the front, so I'll figure out the right size for the buttonhole and finish up the last front soon. One more sleeve and I'll hopefully get a couple days of wear out of this thing before it gets too hot!

(After all that, I forgot to respond to Ingrid's comment about grad school! I'll do it tomorrow, I promise, after I'm better rested. :)