Secret Shopping

I've been under a self-imposed regime of yarn rationing for the past couple of months: I'm determined to not buy any yarn until I've finished a significant chunk of the projects I have. At the very least, I want to finish all of the socks that were on the needles when I made this vow. This might be possible; the only two left are my Bavarian Strolling Socks and my Bulgarian Rose Socks. I don't know how many other projects I'll start and complete before I buy some new ones.

Sweaters don't count, of course. There's no telling when I'll get the sweaters finished. But I'm trying very hard to avoid starting any new ones - although the Cascade Fixation Disaster may require a small exception there.

There are, naturally, exceptions to my no-yarn-buying rule. Yarn for Sock Club doesn't count. If River Knits ever gets anymore "Baltic Sea" Shepherd Sport yarn from Lorna's Laces, I'll grab 2 skeins as quickly as I can. And I wouldn't pass up any exceptionally great deal that came my way - that would be silly.

Yarn for someone else is also an exception, and a fun one. So lately I've been shopping for my Secret Pal, and for the Sock Day Club. I have the yarn and pattern picked out for the first set of socks, and now I'm trying to come up with an appropriate design for the second.

I'd love to write about all the goodies I'm collecting for my Secret Pal, but what if she should stumble across this? So I'll just say that it's loads of fun to shop for someone else. When I signed up for Secret Pal 8, the $60 spending requirement seemed kind of high. But I'm already almost there!