Yarn Diet: Fail

It's a proven fact that I already own a lot of yarn. As you can see from my earlier post last month re cleaning my yarn room, I basically have my own little private yarn shop. I love having my own little private yarn shop. However, now that my yarn stash is public, I have to admit that mine is the prototype for STABLE – Stash Accumulated Beyond Life Expectancy. So for New Years I made a resolution to knit exclusively from my stash and go on a yarn diet. No new yarn this year. Hmmppphhh.

...Until mid-January, when I was finishing a project and was running out of the yarn that I was using. Had to make an EMERGENCY purchase. Well, it was all in the service of finishing a project. (You know that last year's theme was perseverance, so I was just continuing that, right?) But really, let's face it, January: FAIL.

Ok, so on to February, which is a short month so I should be able to suppress my yarn addiction for 28 days. All went well throughout the month. Now, I may be on a yarn diet, but I'm not on a fiber diet (got some luscious new wool blend from Janette to spin), a spindle diet (got a gorgeous 20 gram Greensleeves drop spindle made from East Indian rosewood with a walnut shaft), or knitting accessories diet (several new magazines and needles made their way into my life). Nor am I on a paper diet. I spent a lot of time this month making cards, which was super-fun! So here came the last week in February and I was getting ready to dance the happy dance in celebration of making it an entire month without buying any yarn.

Just then, a series of events rattled my diet world. First, I got the new KnitPicks catalog. OMG, really? Right when I was at my most vulnerable, after going through three weeks of yarn buying withdrawal, I go to the mailbox and pull out the catalog filled with vibrant yarn that is so lovely you can see in the pictures how smooshy it is. My resolve weakened a bit, but I didn't order anything from KnitPicks.

Second, a designer on Ravelry, Valerie Johnson, who designed the Elphaba fingerless gloves that I love, emailed me because she saw that I had posted on our Maple City Ravelers discussion board that I was looking for some self-striping yarn to make those mitts. She told me she has some for sale in her Etsy shop, and her yarn looks so luscious. "Wow, what great customer service," I replied, as I drooled and worked hard to remain strong in my yarn diet commitment.

The last straw was getting an email from Jimmy Beans Wool, my all-time favorite online yarn shop. As it turns out, my "Jimmy Beans Bucks" (quarterly rebate) were set to expire on February 28. Did you hear me, I said EXPIRE! I was going to LOSE SEVEN DOLLARS if I didn't buy some yarn by the end of the month. To top it off, when I asked my knitting friends what I should do, they agreed that I needed to buy some yarn. (Thank you, my enabler pretties.)

I put an order in for some Malabrigo and Madelinetosh sock yarn as well as some delicious Arucania cotton in a jade color. March is a long month. Can I make it?