Koigu addict

Knitters know, there's your stash and then there's your Koigu stash. My general stash is made up of yarn for future projects. I have an idea of what the yarn will be -- a scarf, a baby sweater, a cardigan -- when I buy it. I have a sense of who it will be for -- mostly me, sometimes a friend or relative, never a boyfriend (there's a whole legend about the boyfriend sweater and the doom that accompanies it). But when it comes to Koigu, any sense of reason goes right out the window. I will buy it to make something. I will buy it to look at. The number of skeins available in the color I'm lusting after is superfluous. I will buy one skein -- 175 yards, hardly enough to make anything -- if the color is tempting enough, and then I will create a whole scenario about how I will find other yarns to blend with it in order to justify the purchase. I was fortunate to take a workshop with Sally Melville this spring, and learn how to make a garter stitch scarf with one skein of Koigu and 2-3 solid colors of fine weight yarn, thereby giving me license to pick up individual skeins of Koigu to my heart's content. For the rest of my life. How great is that?

Koigu is fingering weight, which means it's knit on teeny, tiny needles, size 3 or smaller. That means a long-sleeved pullover can take you, well, forever. At least a year, allowing for other UFO's and project diversions. I have a fetching sweater just like that on the needles -- a simple, classic Jaeger pattern, with just one sleeve to complete. I hope it will be finished by the new year. Though I think that was my plan for last year as well. I try to use this UFO to reign in my profligacy. I cannot, will not, purchase enough Koigu for another sweater (10 skeins or so) when this one leaves me feeling so guilty. My solution, then, is to only buy in small quantities. Two skeins, say, for a pair of socks. But it never seems worthwhile to make Koigu socks because they'll be on your feet, and who will get to admire them? Instead, I've made a scarf out of two skeins. And I've laid aside at least eight skeins for gauntlets (I plan to have very warm and beautiful arm candy in the near future). Still I can't stop myself. I have three or four individual skeins to make up into the Sally Melville scarves (for me? for friends? whatever). And during last month's little spree at the Knitting Basket, I had to have the two skeins in a peachy, lavender combo that I don't care if I ever knit. Of course, they went onto the needles over the weekend, and the previous pair of gauntlets in an irresistibly beautiful shade went into the knitting pile.

I'm going to grab the niecelet and her digital camera so you can see how enticing this yarn is. And sometimes, it's very soothing to be working on teeny, tiny needles so you can see how the color is distributed on each stitch...