Confessions of a shopoholic.
The very last of my gratuitous, impulse, online purchases arrived yesterday. The pink La Gran Mohair that I ordered from Herrschners to replace some nasty ugly dark dark purple mohair is now here and ready for sweater-making. It’s beautiful, soft stuff and I can just imagine how nice it will be to wear…. eventually.
And the pi?¬Æce de r?¬©sistance … the blocking board! It was 11 o’clock last night when I pinned up all the pieces of my pistachio Zara sweater. So tired, I could barely haul myself to the kitchen for a pair of scissors, but somehow I was able to get these pieces down and sprayed. I suppose I should have woven in the ends first, but I prefer to use the long strands to sew up the pieces. I don’t really know what my rush is to get this sweater done, since it’s still to warm in Vancouver to actually wear it but it would be nice to get these things out of my “in progress” pile.
Now that I’m at the end of my shopping spree, I realize that I have enough yarn to knit for a year (at least). Does anybody budget? How do you do this without going broke? Everytime I’m in Urban Yarns, I’ll get one thing — one magazine or one pair of Addi’s… and the ladies there always remark, “Oh! What self-control!”. Really??? These little buys add up! $20 today, $50 tomorrow, $150 on the weekend. Before I left for Toronto in September, I had tallied my yarn/needles spending to something like $1,500 (accumulated in about a month and a half). That’s insane…it’s like a flat tire….my wallet is leaking. If I had an extra $1,500 lying around I’d save it to buy this or this. Obviously, I have a problem.
Oooh, I wish I had a blocking board. But I will resist - for now.
The mohair looks yummy.
And I love the colour of the Zara sweater. Is it Zara yarn?
Ooh, ignore me. I just saw the yarn info under your ‘In Progress’ area.
lovely yarn and that’s a cool blocking board!
What a lovely site you have! Your photos are awesome…what kind of camera do you use?
Thanks Niki! It’s a Nikon D100, digital SLR. I never thought I’d say it, but I love digital! I can shoot and post within minutes. Crazy. No more going to the photo lab with film, waiting three days and driving back to the lab to pick up the prints. Oh! Then there’s scanning!
Argh… now I want a blocking board. You bad, bad girl! Gosh, your yarn buys are all so gorgeous. I can definitely relate to how you feel. I was going on a crazy yarn spree from August to September and had to stop after I quit my job. Now, I’m keeping everything to a minimum like a magazine each week. Those Japanese designers are sneaky and churn out the most beautiful knitting books/mags. I can’t help myself!
Japanese knitting magazines! Doh! Evil marketers…
How about Japanese cooking magazines! Now those are fun!
Ooooo, I’ve had some LaGran in the stash for a couple of years now. I’ll be looking forward to seeing what you knit up with it. I don’t dare tally my purchases!
Hey Kerstin! You just reminded me… I have a stash from when I was still in high school. It’s at my parents’ place. I wonder what I left in there… Being the ex-pharmacist that I am, I have to ask: Does old yarn go bad? I mean, expire? I assume, only if you store it in a yucky place… Hmm…
Hi Felicia,
I was looking for fellow Zara knitters and came across your blog! I’ve had the yarn and pattern for Zara for about a year now but (apparently) had some gauge problems when I tried to knit it up. Did you follow the size guide in the pattern and knit the sweater at your usual size, or did you find that you needed to knit it in a larger size? Probably it’s just me not checking gauge carefully enough… but any tips on making this sweater would be appreciated! Thanks! (Great blog, by the way!)
Karen