Yarn, glorious yarn

I hope you all had wonderful Christmases if you celebrate, and if you don't, I hope you at least had a nice day off from work! Thanks for all your holiday wishes over the past month! This blog is being brought to you courtesy of my same trusty old iBook, but now with a bigger (and oh-so-much brighter!) new screen! I have to say, working, blogging, and looking at pictures of yarn will be so much nicer with such a pretty screen. Thanks, Mom!

It's been a yarn-happy holiday month here at chez Lazuli. From my birthday, to Hanukah and Christmas, I've been the very, very happy recipient of plenty of nice yarn.

Take the following, for example, from Coffeeboy and my MIL:

We have 2 balls of Waterlily (a beautiful variegated blue, perhaps almost enough for a hat of some sort?), and then 3 skeins of Brown Sheep Wildfoote sock yarn ( do we see Coffeeboy socks somewhere?), and a turquoise-colored ball of Mega Boots Stretch, all from my wonderful MIL. In front to the left, we see some lovely Lorna's Laces (yay! LL stash enhancement!) in the Gold Hill colorway after which I've been lusting. Next to the LL, finally, is a most wonderful present, from Coffeeboy (with the additional encouragement courtesy of a birthday coupon for my LYS): 3 skeins of sport-weight Claudia Hand Painted yarn in the very Lazuli-like Blue Sky colorway. This last one, my friends, is destined to become that phenom of the knitblog world, Clapotis.

That's right. I've never made one, and I've recently been introduced to the joys of the Clap - o - T by some of the wonderful ladies at my SnB. I'll be starting on that pretty much as soon as I finish my mom's Xmas present, which should be in the next day or so.

Given the yarny happiness that's been happening in my world, I've decided to join Knit From Your Stash 2007.

I've never officially put myself on a yarn diet before, since I've always considered my yarn acquisitiveness to be not bad enough to quite need a diet. But now, with so much wonderful yarn already in my stash, I think it's a good idea to basically make myself use some of it. I have many many pairs of socks in there, several shawls or scarves worth of lace-weight yarn, and even yarn for a sweater hiding in the stash.

What rules will I be following? Let's see:

1. My yarn diet lasts until March 31st, 2007. (It's not *that* long, but it should help me to knit some things I've been planning to knit, but won't exhaust my stash or my patience. It should also give me enough time to breath before, say, the Maryland Sheep and Wool so I don't go totally nuts at the festival.) The deadline may be extended (but not shortened) as willpower permits.
2. Regarding sock yarn: Sock yarn in Lazuli-like colors is not allowed. However, if I find sock yarn that's in a great colorway for Coffeeboy, I may buy it, because with the exception of the Wildfoote pictured above, I'm short on Coffeeboy-colored sock yarn. (If I start using this proviso as an excuse to buy lots of sock yarn, then I'm no longer allowed to buy it.)
3. I am allowed to receive gift yarn. (Going to a yarn store and having Coffeeboy "buy me yarn for a gift" doesn't count.)
   
4. If a need for a gift comes up that my stash really just won't fulfill, then I may buy it.
   
5. If I need yarn to complete a project, then purchasing more is also permitted.
   
6. Finally, like Wendy and L-B, I will allow myself one "oops! I bought it!" moment.
   

Wish me luck and happy knitting from my stash!