Yarn splurge

Despite trying to stash less this year I have been a little naughty this past fortnight and splurged on a couple of bundles of yarn.

Firstly, I picked up 4 skeins of Madelinetosh DK Twist for $65 + postage from the FB destash group page, Australian Hand Dyed and Luxury Yarns Buy Sell Swap. This is a bargain for Madelinetosh and with 4 skeins I will have enough for a jumper for Miss L. 

Madelintosh DK Twist in Vermillion

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the world of yarn beyond what is stocked at Spotlight or Lincraft in Australia, Madelinetosh is a luxurious brand of yarn from the US. They hand dye their skeins of yarn into a multitude of delicious colours that are vibrant, unique and totally addictive. 

Madelintosh Tosh DK in Begonia Leaf

I knit with Tosh yarns twice last year and the yarn is so beautifully soft that it is a delight to work with and wear against the skin. My Mara shawl, knit with Tosh DK is the favourite item that I like to wear over my shoulders while I knit into the evening. Unfortunately when binding off I lost out in yardage chicken and had to patch in a different colour to finish the project. Because Madelinetosh hand dye their yarns in small batches each batch could be subtly different to other batches of the same colour. When I lost out in yardage chicken buying another skein wouldn't have been much different to just patching it with another yarn altogether since the colours could potentially be different anyway. Also, I didn't want to fork out another $25 for one skein when I only needed a few meters for the last little section of bind off.

Yardage chicken; sometimes you win and other times you lose and you just have to live with it.

The other yarn that I splurged on was from the Nunnaba Artisan Yarn's birthday suite. Nunnaba is an Australian indie dyer and her birthday suite brought together many of her indie dyer friends offering up yarns specially dyed for this occasion. I snapped up 2 skeins of gorgeous Red Riding Hood Yarns "Bubbles Darling!". Now, this purchase was seriously a splurge because it cost me $84NZD for the two 200g skeins of DK wool. 

I have a soft spot for RRHY because I have been following Hannah's weekly FB stockings for awhile and never been quite quick enough to snag the yarn before other buyers. Back in November I put in a preorder for some of her yarns and I'm still patiently waiting for it to be dyed and shipped. It might sound like a lot of effort just to get some yarn but seriously this stuff is magnificent. The colours are vibrant and unique and Hannah is so creative with the themes she uses and the colours she creates to match the characters from each theme. I'm waiting on some "Princess Leia" and "Gone Girl" skeins from the preorder which should be in my hot little hands by mid February.

Photo from Red Riding Hood Yarns

Ok, I now pledge to not buy any more yarn unless I am making a project from my make list that I cannot pair with anything from my existing stash. 

Photo from Red Riding Hood Yarns

 What tips do you have for not buying too much crafting supplies? or just going on splurges in general?