*Bump*

Ouch! Did you hear that? That was the sound of me falling off the wagon.

The yarn purchasing wagon, that is.

I have been very good since before Christmas, I have only bought a couple of balls of sock yarn, and they were for a project for someone else which is now finished. Instead I have been very diligently knitting from my stash.

I can't say it has got much smaller, but I've definitely seen some reduction in the number of balls of yarn that are crammed into those two large plastic boxes in the cupboard upstairs!

But today, Something Happened. I think the thrill of getting my request for part-time work approved, went to my head. I started worrying about running out of sock yarn (ha!) and then I realised my dad's birthday is coming up soon and it would be nice to knit some socks for him too.

Of course I always think first of the Yarn Yard when it comes to sock yarn, and I knew that Natalie had recently introduced some nice lines of 'manly' tones, so I was straight over there to pop a few in my basket (and one or two others for good measure, you know).

But Ravelry has got a lot to answer for. Browsing around for sock patterns I came across a really nice example of Clapotis, made in a plain yarn. I've already got one made in the Bittersweet colourway of Lorna's Laces Lion & Lamb, as per the original pattern, which I use at work to protect my forearms from the cold desk.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a plain one, perhaps a little smaller? Ooh, and looky looky - Get Knitted has a sale on its Rowan Classic silk & wool DK; before I knew it 8 balls of the Sorrel colourway had jumped in my cart, and I was checking them out, along with a couple of balls of Rowan Classic cashsoft 4-ply!
Oops and double oops, or as Pixl Kitten would probably say, 'Penis wrinkle deluxe'!

Ah well, it had to happen some time I suppose. I just didn't realise I would lose control so completely!

My mission now is to stay on the wagon until the end of May, when I am going to the USA. The rules for this trip will be: plan in advance, only buy what I can't get easily in the UK, and I am going to try and set a budget, ahem.