More is More, or is it Less is More?

I still need to get you all caught up on my October going-ons!

As mentioned yesterday, there were some acquisitions - Wollmeise in Kurbis Colorway. It's a bit darker than this in person.

Wollmeise again, in Arlene.

Claudie hat. Whipped up while on a road trip in Shepherds wool. It's a little pointy on top, but fits my big ol' head just fine. I purchased the yarn and pattern at the Blazing Needles in Salt Lake City when I was there in February and promptly set it aside until road trip knitting was required. I've overlooked this yarn before, but it's beautiful and would definitely like to knit with it again.

When Jessica was here for Knitting Camp she really encouraged me (read: strong armed me) into finishing some of those UFO's that have been hovering around. This is one. It's called Claudia, by Black Purl (it's strange that both knitted items I'm showing you today have very similar names - purely coincidence). It's knit in Organik, which is definitely not my favorite yarn - won't be knitting with it again - too splitty. It felt like the black hole of knitting projects but really didn't take that long in actual knitting time. I've just got to sew it together (this could cause major stalling for a few months if I didn't think that Jessica would hunt me down and beat me silly with alpaca). I'm a little worried about it fitting. I knew my gauge was a little off, but felt like blocking would fix it. However, I've gained a few pounds and am nervous the "Hi June" arms might not fit in the armholes. More to come....

Finally, we end with a quick glimpse of how the wrong yarn can really suck the joy out of a project. This is the Socktober Mystery sock which I started in this Trekking yarn. Yuck, it looked terrible. The color variation hid the pattern and I just wasn't having any fun. I set it aside to decide whether to plug on and see if it grew on me, but then my Bugga arrived and the naughty little skein just begged me to be the Mystery Sock. I'm a sucker to a begging bugga yarn, so cast on I did and it was Love, pure love. Too tired to take pics of those socks tonight, will get them posted soon.

Do you ever feel guilty about yarn acquisitions? Do you get caught up in the fun of snagging a wanted yarn and then fret later over whether you really need to have piles of sock yarns stashed around your house? or are you a frugal franny and only buy exactly what you need for that moment? How do you keep your yarn wants and needs balanced?