I sit out on my porch a lot, especially when the weather is nice (and many times even when it’s not—one of the down-sides of being a smoker, though thankfully my porch is covered, so at least I don’t get wet when it rains). My co-worker, AK, knows this and gave me one of the bird houses she’s been making out of hollowed-out gourds.

The one she gave me was a prototype, and I was the perfect recipient for it. The way the hole is positioned, it allows any rain that falls on it to pour into the gourd, which probably isn’t ideal for any birds that happen to be residing inside. So, knowing that I had a covered porch that would protect from rain, she gave the prototype to me. No birds have moved in yet, but it’s only been up since Friday, so we’ll see what happens as we get closer to spring. :)

In economic matters, I yet again bought more yarn. I really need to stop doing this. But there’s this indy dyer whose work I’ve been lusting after for some time now. And when I saw her latest shop update (a little after midnight—the most dangerous time to start poking around Etsy), I just couldn’t resist any longer. I clicked, and clicked again, and after a few more clicks, I had $60 worth of hand-dyed sock yarn on its way to me. I should feel some buyers’ remorse, especially given that they just announced a company-wide salary cut at work this past week, but I don’t. I’ve wanted her sock yarn for a long time, and soon I’ll have it. And if it means giving up Starbucks for a few weeks, then so be it. Totally worth it, IMHO.

And you, too, can be the happy owner of such lovely wares. Just head over to her Etsy shop and splurge to your heart’s delight. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

Ordering more sock yarn had me thinking about my huge stash. Granted, it’s not huge compared to some people’s (*cough*mom*cough*), but it’s pretty big. And it’s grown exponentially in the last few months, what with shopping at mom’s store over Christmas and all the sock yarn purchases I’ve made at Great Yarns recently. I hadn’t gotten a lot of my newer stash put away — it was all sitting in boxes and bags. I thought perhaps one of the best ways to make myself stop buying new yarn was to have all my current stash on display so that I can really appreciate just how much of it there actually is.

So this weekend, I went out and bought another addition to my modular yarn display and got everything put away. It’s mind-boggling how much there really is.

That top box is almost entirely sock yarn. There’s a bit of laceweight up there, too, but about 95% of it is sock yarn. Intellectually, I knew how much sock yarn I had, but it wasn’t until I got it all put up on display that it really hit home. There’s over 70 socks worth of sock yarn up there. And that doesn’t even include the new stuff from Fiberphile that’s on its way here.

I posted this sentiment to Twitter immediately after I finished putting it all away.

17:32 Whoohoo, I just reorganized my stash! And holy crap, I have a lot of sock yarn. Where’d all that come from??

My SIL’s response?

you can make your sister-in-law some socks!

All in good time, my dear. :) All in good time.

Meanwhile, I’m still plugging away at the Nantucket Jacket. I’m bound and determined to finish this sweater before I cast on for any new large projects. And it’s coming along nicely. I’m happy to report that my continental-knitting gauge is identical to my english-knitting gauge, so I’m knitting away speedily on the rest of this in continental. (Makes it so much easier, since I don’t have to unkink the yarn every 2 rows, which was made all the more tedious by the fact that I’m alternating skeins with this sweater, as I’m using hand-dyed yarn for it.)

Mom helped me pick out buttons for the sweater while I was home for Christmas. They’re so pretty, and they work perfectly with the color and style of the sweater. I can’t wait til I’m ready to sew them on! :)

And speaking of hand-dyed yarn, I was really hoping to dye some of my own this weekend. But unfortunately, housework and errands just got in the way. So, my new plan is to play with myPANTONE this afternoon to come up with some palettes, and then I’ll set aside next Sunday afternoon to dye. That is, if I still have any energy after Franklin’s photography class. :)

If you haven’t been to myPANTONE, and you love colors, I highly suggest visiting the site. It’s entirely too much fun — you can view other users’ color palettes and create ones of your own. I think it’s an especially useful tool for dyers who need some color inspiration. There are thousands of user-created palettes to browse through, such as these:

And on that note, it’s time for me to go. I’m going to see Australia (finally) at the dollar theater with friends this afternoon, and there’s still tons of work to be done around the house before I can leave! So, I’m off for now. If I can get these chores done today, perhaps I will actually find time in the semi-near future to actually get some dyeing done! Wish me luck.