Shop Versus Drop

The Svalbard is almost finished wet-blocking - a state for which I am grateful because knitting it drove me to distraction. In full disclosure, I am at my most compulsive in late winter (just before the spring arrives). Alas, in 2014 this may bode particularly badly as the winter is likely never to end and then I may have to insane-craft forever. My body needs a break, to say nothing of my brain.

On the plus side, I knit up an advanced-design in 3 weeks.

Photos to come, natch, but while I wait for the creature to stitch-set, I'll tell you about a few new purchases. Remember when I got pertussis and all I did for 3 5 months was to online shop by way of making myself feel like I would live to see another year? Well, I'm not quite at that state of shopping to mood alter*, but this winter is so phenomenally demoralizing that it's all I can do to stop myself from buying a new house in an entirely different country. When you consider that kind of damage, buying some yarn and shoes doesn't seem so extreme.

For starters: yarn. Look, I love to buy small-batch hand-dyed yarns at the LYS or at online boutiques but I knit a lot and so I choose to stock the basics. When I purchase for a specific project, I'm apt to buy very specific yarn. But I need sizable stash for when the mood strikes to, say, make a sweater on a whim. I try always to have 1000 yards of fingering and sport/dk on hand, in chic neutrals, for those moments. Since I just knit 2 sweaters, using stash yarn, I'm in the market for a top up.

My go-to yarn, for this purpose, is Quince and Co. - specifically Chickadee (the dk/sport weight) and Finch (the fingering). The yarn is reliable, strong, well-dyed (if not hand-dyed), comes in numerous beautiful colours, does not have a halo, does not tend to pill, recovers to size after blocking and supports a local economy (if not mine). Furthermore, the price is very reasonable. It's the highest-quality yarn at the price-point, IMO. And the shipping charges are reasonable.

Which is why I bought these:

Finch in Petal - when you see this knit, it's a very pale pink...

Finch in Twig

Petal isn't a colour I would generally go for - it's a very cool, ballet pink. But I think it will go perfectly as an accent colour for the Twig - and with these, I can make another version of the yoked Indicum Pullover (a sweater  I love, even though, last time I made it I used the wrong yarn). I can also use the Petal to pair beautifully with the extra skeins I have of Slate and Lichen. And one of these days I'm going to have occasion to knit another baby gift. What colour yarn could be better for that?

I bought the sport/dk weight in Storm, a blue tinged grey (as opposed to Slate - which used for the blocking Svalbard - a grey-tinged blue):

Chickadee in Storm - when you see this knit, it's a grey...

Additionally, and on a whim (since you know I am an online adventurer), after considering the Ferragamo bow flat for a long while, and then seeing it look totally chic on a woman of my age at the coffee shop, I decided to take the plunge with these:

Etsy Vendor: Feelz Like Home

Note: I love buying mega-$ shoes on Etsy, pre-loved (or even vintage), because I can try out a venerable brand (one that's supposed to produce long-lived goods) at a fraction of the cost. Ain't no way I'm spending 600 bucks on a pair of bow flats. (That's how much they sell for here...) I mean, I may not even find a meaningful way to include them in my wardrobe. But at 50 bucks (for a very gently used version), I can experiment with little repercussion.

Having said this, these shoes may not fit me in the end. The label indicates that the shoe is narrow and, though my foot measures a scant 0.2" wider than the shoeprint - and I strongly suspect the soft leather will relent - I might be wrong. Note: The Ferragamos I bought about 18 months ago, also via Etsy, have the exact same width measurement and those shoes do fit. I don't often wear those, however, because the heel is just too high for walking to work.

Finally, since I seem to be on a ballet pink kick, I purchased some more pretty buttons:

Etsy Vendor: Add Vintage

Sure, I hate making clothing with buttonholes, but you can never have too many pretty vintage buttons, right?

So, North Americans compatriots (stuck in a polar vortex): How are you managing not to kill yourselves over the misery of this weather? Are you shopping? Eating? Traveling? All of the above? Are you just made of grit and fortitude? I wanna know!

* To clarify, shopping to mood alter is not stupid shopping. I continue to subscribe to the belief that one should aim to buy the meaningful things. For me, those are craft building-blocks, things that are sustainable or edible (ahem) or things that enrich one's ability to live in the world (books). And lingerie is always fair game.