Here's the damage done...

...on the official day off from the Stashalong.

I tried to keep the frenzy to a minimum. I knew it would be tough because I was lucky enough to be getting a special discount on that exact day at the LYS. They give a sweet birthday discount and since that only comes once a year I may have had to bail on the Stashalong if it hadn't been a "free day"! There's no way I'm missing my once a year discount. But I did try to go in with a plan. Ahead of time I decided what I would buy.

I liked this pattern from the new Rowan magazine #39:



I know this is a terrible picture but you can get the vague idea. It is called "Maggie" and is a Fair Isle technique jacket done in Summer Tweed. I have been just dying to do some Fair Isle & use the skills I learned when I took that class months ago. I don't think I am going to jump into this pattern as my first big Fair Isle project though. For one thing it is NOT knit in the round and I'm NOT going to try purling in Fair Isle. Instead I'm going to let this marinate in the stash until I feel confident enough to translate this pattern into being knit in the round. So the search is still on for my first big Fair Isle project...

Here is the yarn I got:



It is Summer Tweed in Raffia and Toast. I had to order the other colors: Sunset, Summer Berry and Torrid. I love these earthy colors. I think they are perfect for the slightly bumpy imperfect look of the Summer Tweed.

I also got 10 skeins of this:



It is Rowan Harris Aran in Lavender. I have been eyeing this yarn all year but since it is around $16 a skein I was waiting until discount day to get some. Thank goodness they still had it. I guess the price tag discouraged other people too! Luckily it does have pretty good yardage at 186 per skein. It will probably become a cabled jacket - something classic. Sirdar has some nice patterns... Anyhow - this yarn isn't being marketed under the Name "Harris" anymore. I think it's being called Scottish yarn now. The gossip is that St*rmore threatened to sue over the name. So maybe I should keep these as a collectors item?? LOL!

And, at the last minute this jumped in my bag.



It's more Rowan...Felted Tweed this time. In Dragon, Whisper and Billberry. I guess the LYS isn't going to carry this yarn anymore (wah! I love this yarn!! So soft and light!) I think this yarn is a bargain. It has about 190 yards and sells for around $10. So since I got the discount I thought it was a pretty good score. I think I might make a sweater with an argyle pattern or something.

Whew! Well there you go. Not too bad eh? Only the Felted Tweed was unplanned. I don't know what it is but I have really been into the Rowan lately. I didn't like it much when they went through the "Big" phase a few years ago. Everything was super extra mega ultra chunky and I just got tired of that. Skeins that cost beaucoup bucks and only have less than 50 yards each. But lately I've fallen off the Noro wagon and hopped on the Rowan train!