the year in preview

Over the past couple of months, my wallet has creaked open on a couple of occasions, revealing generations of settled dust and releasing a few moths, and - yes - purchases have been made. Yarn purchases. Pattern purchases. I know, I know it is almost too much of a shock for you to take in all at once. But take a deep breath and read on, because here's what's in store for the next couple of months:
The first purchase began with a gift. (Isn't that what they all say?) The ever-generous Jacqueline and Kris sent me 4 balls of Kid Silk Haze (which I'd never seen in person!) as a combined birthday/wedding gift back in November. What's a girl to do but purchase Romantic Style in order to make Butterfly?

Then came news of an amazing sale. A sale offering free shipping within the USA. Free shipping which had just enough time to get to my mum before she came here for a visit. What's a girl to do other than make a purchase? How could I pass up this great bargain. So 6 balls of Misti Alpaca laceweight in the colour Merlot (destined to be a Forest Path Stole) jumped into my mum's suitcase for a little trans-pacific flight. Incidentally, the customer service at this place was fantastic. (And, Jacqueline gets extra credit points for finding the sale in the first place.)
And then, I went on a bit of a holiday. One must always have a souvenir from holidays right? So home I came with a kilo of some local Tasmanian Corriedale (well the sheep are Tasmanian, but the milling and spinning takes place on the mainland I'm told). And because I had a bit more time to kill while Fiver was at the Cascade Brewery Tour, I decided to purchase Norah Gaughan's Knitting Nature to accompany my kilo of wool, to make the hexagon coat The wool is currently a natural beige clour, which I'm not sure about. The plan is to knit it up and dye it if I don't like the garment in the finished colour. The colour selection of natural tasmanian corriedale is as slim as it sounds.
And of course, one must not forget the patterns - Sivia Harding's Diamond Fantasy Shawl and Eunny Jang's Anemoi Mittens and Deep-V Vest have all arrived on my computer desktop in the past month or so, and all have yet to be paired up with wool. What can I say? It was a long year of trying hard not to spend too much money, so here's to starting 2007 with a full pantry!