nicole made me do it

I've ordered a lot of yarn recently.  The Lichen and Lace package started a slow domino of yarn purchases.  My project queue is miles long, my yarn storage is maxed out, I have very little knitting time, and yet, in a fit of spring fever the other night, I ordered yarn to finish a scrap busting project (hence defeating the object of "stash busting").  And then I added several more skeins to the cart.  And visited two more online shops.  Is it wrong that my disaster planning includes how to pack up all of my yarn? 

My only defense is that Nicole, who puts out The Gentle Knitter podcast, made me do it. 

She has been singing the praises of Viola Yarns for years, and so several mini-skeins winged their way to me (to make a pair of socks and have leftovers for my sock yarn blanket).  The shop's customer service was great, the yarn arrived before I expected, and it's gorgeous. The socks will be color-block and very vanilla, probably my own pattern? 

Since watching Stephen West's Shawlography 2021 videos, I have been wanting to make a Stephen West pattern.  He is a fantastic teacher.  His designs are creative, over-the-top, and works of art, things that I can admire while knowing that I would never wear most of them.  But! Nicole showed a stash busting version of the Briogarter Split and I thought, "Yes! A Stephen West design I would wear!" I followed her lead with sport weight alpaca and Rowan Felted Tweed,  and chose the low contrast silver heather and granite colors.  I’m casting it on as soon as I finish my current shawl WiP, the Nowaki shawl.  One can never have too many gray shawls. 

 Sidenote: The Nowaki shawl may be my favorite thing I've ever knitted.  The short stitch repeat, yarn, design...all just singing on my needles.  It's simple, but not boring, so I'm eager to work on each row.  I don't want it to end; I can't wait to be finished so I can wear it.  To make the whole project more portable, I photocopied the chart and "laminated" it with packaging tape.  I take it everywhere. 

The only thing Nicole hasn't influenced is crochet.  My Sunshine Day Afghan is 60% finished.  My goal is a 10 square x 10 square throw, and I've got 60 squares sewn together.  I ordered several more mini-skeins of O-Wash Worsted for the little center sunshines and a whole skein in mustard seed for the edging.  If I really put my mind to it, I could finish the whole thing in a week or two.  I drape what I've finished over my lap as I work on squares and it's so very, very cozy.