In which I am incapable of self-restraint...

...at least, I am when it comes to shiny new yarn!! Though in my (somewhat patchy) defense, most of it was purchased with a definite project in mind! 

My new-found obsession is indie yarns! I think it started when I was reading Stitched Together's Blog and saw her lovely pictures of hand dyed and hand spun yarns. While I realise that I don't have the time to learn another new craft (no matter how wonderful spinning my own yarn sounds), it's much easier to buy a few very nice new yarns and to support independent crafters.

It's also, of course, more expensive *cough*

Anyway, off I wandered to various links and to Etsy, and back I came eventually with my bank account several pounds lighter and several very nice parcels due to arrive over a week or two!

These are the lovely, squishy, shiny, gorgeously yarns that have arrived so far! 

Anyway, the first two to arrive were Babylonglegs semi-solid sock yarns, which are 3-ply 100% merino in the "Pie" and "Feel the Teal" colourways:

If I'm honest, these give me ever so slightly mixed feelings: they're both wonderfully soft, really rather pretty and I do love them... but they look much brighter in pictures than in real life. I've discovered similar problems with some of the others looking more green in person than in pictures, though I suspect that might just be the way my eyes work - everyone sees colours differently after all.

These are the only one's I bought with no real project in mind, although considering how soft they feel I think at least one of them will have to become a scarf... maybe both of them in a houndstooth pattern since they're both blue based.

The second yummy parcel I got to open (seriously, Wednesday was like my birthday considering the number of exciting parcels I got to open) was from Jelliebean Yarns on Etsy - the Stardust Sock Yarn in the Peacocks colourway. This is 75% merino, 20% nylon and 5% brilliantly sparkly silver thread. 

This was bought for my current on-the-go small-ish project - the Elise Shawl. This has been in my queue for ages, I've just been debating over a suitable yarn to use. It was a little hard to photograph - mostly because it started raining as I was taking pictures of stuff, but also because this is going to need pretty heavy blocking once it's finished.  

The final parcel that arrived the other day was this scrummy yarn from Artist's Palette Yarns.

This is the Smoothie Sock yarn in the "Walk in the Downs" colourway - it's 75% merino and 25% nylon, and is a wonderful mass of greens, yellows and blues. This is actually intended for socks!! Since my knitting is laughable I've been hunting through crochet patterns, and this is the one I've singled out so far... though it may change at some point before I start.

All of my stash yarns and my planned projects are linked through my Ravelry profile... and there will no doubt be another gleeful post like this when my other parcels arrive!