Yarn lust

I have done very well this summer. I have bought hardly any yarn, except for some dishcloth cotton for my cousin's wedding presents, and my Hogwarts swap yarn for Lavender. I've worked diligently on projects extant, and actually finished a few that were hanging over my head. (A few that need to be blogged about! yes!)

But!

I've been playing with podcasts lately. I don't have a lot of time to listen to them, so had avoided subscribing to too many--I am not commuting during the summer, obviously, and when I am in the car there are usually two competing voices, Mr D, age 5, wanting Harry Potter (we have listened to books 1-4 approximately eleventy million times) and Miss E, age 2, asking to listen to the "Wicked" soundtrack (what can I say? She likes the show tunes...what toddler doesn't?). So there's not a lot of support for knitting podcasts among the rest of the family, especially because they are basically incomprehensible and totally uninteresting to them. I get it. I don't let M listen to his fantasy football podcasts in the car, either.

I had subscribed to "Cast On" and the Knitpicks podcast and had been enjoying them whilst on walks, during my few-and-far-between solo excursions, and when cleaning the bathrooms. So I checked out a few more.

The first new podcast I subscribed to did not make the cut, because I listened to two episodes and both made me feel like I was the new girl at school with no one to sit with at lunch. There was a tone of insularity--I don't know how else to put it--and self-centeredness that I just could not get over. Plus, I don't think grown women should say "Squeee!" out loud. It's one thing to write it, but another to say it. I'm just saying. And hearing a person complain with one breath about financial issues and then mention buying $250 of sock yarn on her credit card--well, that just brought out the Norwegian in me. Unsubscribe, please.

(I won't mention the name of this particular 'cast because I know it has many fans. It just didn't float my boat.)

The second one, the WEBS podcast, is on probation. I really like Kathy Elkins's professional manner, and the knitalong idea is fun--to actually knit along with a pattern together would be cool. On the other hand, I'm not really enamored with poor Steve being dragged on to read what is basically a list of yarns. ("Um...some new Noro at 9.95 a 100 gram ball...") So I'm keeping this one on the list for now, and I'll see how it goes.

The last one, though, like Goldilocks's porridge, is JUST RIGHT: Stash and Burn. They had me at hello, metaphorically--when Jenny (I think it was Jenny) asked: "Have you read this pattern?" And it wasn't a pattern she was knitting at the time...it was just one in a book or magazine that she had READ. For fun. Like I do.

So I blame Stash and Burn for my current fire in the belly to go and splurge on yarn. The last couple of episodes I listened to contained compelling and lust-inducing accounts of visits to various yarn stores on coasts both west and east...

And Miss E is asking for a pink cabled sweater (presumably to keep warm while backstage during her Broadway debut). (I asked her, not really expecting an answer, whether she would want stripes, lace, or cables on her sweater, and she answered, quite vehemently: "CABLES. Like Daddy." That's my girl!)

And I have finished two sweaters this summer. Don't I deserve a good spree? Or at least some pink Cascade 220 Superwash?