The yarn sale debriefing.

My initial reconnaissance of the yarn sale indicated that there was little in the way of wool, or indeed, Rowan, on offer at the sweet, sweet price of 50% off. A few odd balls of Big Wool, 4 ply soft, and some remarkably ugly fruit-punch-plus-glitter Kidsilk Night did it for the animal fibres, and there was plenty of Cotton Rope and that squiggly-looking cotton tape stuff, neither of which appealed to me, so I turned from the Rowan shelves with mild regret. Not a good Rowan day.

It was, however, a good day for fans of Debbie Bliss. It was such a good day that it made me wonder if JL is ditching Bliss, but many of her books were still at full price, and it looks as if they just moved the non-sale Bliss off the shop floor for the duration of the sale, so probably not. Huge amounts of Pure Silk, Stella, Pure Cotton, Cathay, Cotton Cashmere, Denim Aran, Alpaca Silk, Cashmerino Superchunky (aka the Pilly-est Fucking Yarn in the World) and a fair amount of Cotton DK were available, plus some smaller amounts of stuff I can't remember right now. Debbie Bliss has terrible, shitty, chintzy yardage, and this pisses me off so much that I have to REALLY want the yarn to buy it at full retail. At 50% off, however, I am filled with wild glee, and totally lose my self-control.

The (uh, first, because I'm already wanting to go back for more silk and some Pure Cotton) haul: 14 balls of Stella in a rather lovely emerald, with faint hints of blue, 9 skeins of Pure Silk (chocolate brown, rose, black), 4 balls of Cotton DK in various colours (more washcloths, which, with bars of fancy soap picked up for a song at TK Maxx will be my 'oh, right, I need to give you an Xmas pressie, don't I, temporary girlfriend of random cousin?' gifts this year), the Stella/Pure Cotton pattern book, and some different beads for my Mystery Stole, in case I don't like the beads I've already got.

The Stella will be a 3/4 sleeve cardi for my mum's Xmas present, and the Pure Silk is going straight into my hoard, except for the rose, which, added to my already huge stash of it, is going to be something for MEEEEEE. I'm actually tempted to go back and get even more rose silk and made a twinset, instead of just a cardi, as I had planned, since it's all the same dyelot. Looking through the Pure Cotton section of the book, I'm thinking I might just go ahead and get enough for one of the projects, since I'll be able to make something pretty nice for less than £20, and my mum, blast her, will not be convinced that there is such a thing as completely non-scratchy wool. So I kill my hands knitting a lot of cotton and silk blends for her, although I am getting a lot better with the non-bouncy fibres than I used to be. I think I also need to get a couple more balls of Stella, since she'll whine if I don't lengthen the cardi enough to cover her ass. (I routinely lengthen things by, like, four to six inches for her, figuring the extra yarn and knitting time is nowhere near as irritating as the thought of her not wearing it because "it doesn't cover my butt!")

In all, a pretty good sale, and I wish to god I could control myself from going back, but dudes: 50% off!