impulse purchase

Some of you may remember the black laceweight merino that I had chosen to be on my Amazing Lace team, and some of you may remember that I broke the yarn at the cast-on row for my Amazing Lace project, and you may then remember that that was the last you ever heard about it. Guess what! I don't even know where that project is right now. It's not a big house, my room isn't large, but I haven't seen that project in MONTHS.

That hasn't stopped me from looking for new patterns for the yarn, because I know I won't finish what I've already started with it, and I have to rip back anyway because the yarn break almost drove me crazy. I have been seeing posts about the Mystery Stole 2 floating around Bloglandia. (This is the one that made me really want it for some reason. By the way, I had never seen this woman's blog before but I really like it -- discovery!) The pattern was written by Melanie of Pink Lemon Twist (a name which reminds me of the "vintage" Pink Lemonade line from Bath and Body Works), who has not yet put the pattern up for purchase by those of us dumb enough not to sign up for the original knitalong. When she does, you can bet I will buy it. (Hint hint!) [ETA: The pattern is now available! Go get it!] I don't want to wait (not like the yarn is going anywhere, I still don't even know where it is!) so I kept shopping. When this stole pattern is mine, I will probably want to use a crimson red silk blend or possibly a paprika orange linen blend; you can see I've been thinking a lot about this. A lot of folks don't seem to like rectangular stoles, but I have a few woven ones and I really like them. I might even say I prefer them over all other wrap shapes.

After spending too many hours last night online looking at online yarn shops and pattern purveyors, I caved and bought the Hidcote Garden Shawl by mimknits. No buyer's remorse there: this is a beautiful pattern and its author promises to provide technical support if I have problems with it. The fun part about buying .pdf patterns online is that one can download the purchased product almost immediately. Now if only I had a printer... then I'd be casting on instead of blogging about it. But then, I guess I'd have to go looking for the yarn first. And, isn't there some sort of "Socktoberfest" about to start? I need to plan for that as well.

DC update: I've spent all morning researching places to go/eat in DC, instead of attending the final round of the Southeast Regional Barista Competition. I feel only slightly guilty about that since I talked to everyone I knew who could froth milk and asked them to enter the competition. I am now wondering if I want to go up to DC on Thursday night after work instead of waiting til Friday to drive up. That means I would be getting into town close to midnight but at least I wouldn't lose sight-seeing (read: yarnshopping) time on Friday. O fret! O worry! The only thing that comfort me in this time of trial is a little sock-knitting, eh?