Christmas is over and that means just one thing to me – The Bluewater John Lewis yarn sale!!

Most of my ridiculously obese stash can be blamed on the temptation of those wonderful reductions on Rowan yarns 🙂

Apparently, there is a sale in the rest of the store too but I’ve usually spent all my money before that actually dawns on me 😎

In this year’s sale I was simultaneously very bad, very good and a bit disorganised.

The very bad first…

I bought more yarn even though I definitely don’t need it. 😳 Other years I have managed to be strong and not go to the sale. One year I even didn’t buy anything  – mainly because I got there several days into the sale and the good stuff had gone!

I weakened for Kidsilk Aura – You know how bad I am for Kidsilk Haze – I’m almost as bad for Aura!

First I riffled though the Kidsilk Aura collection book – this one…

From stash

And, given my recent success with fairisle, decided immediately on Liliana – the fairisle jumper….

From stash

I really liked the original colours and managed to find them all (red, cream, black and grey) in the sale except for the dark grey 🙁

Janice, our Rowan rep even was kind enough to rummage in the stock room for me but alas – it had been discontinued some time ago. I reluctantly bought a lighter grey that would be OK but not perfect.

I was sure I had the Kidsilk Aura book and didn’t buy it. After all, I bought some Aura for my stash last year didn’t I?? I must have it.

I went to the till and paid, had a look in the other shops and the non-yarn sales  – and actually didn’t buy anything either because it wasn’t that much of a bargain, there was nothing I liked or the queues to pay were stupidly long! Who in their right mind would wait an hour to pay for a £9 t-shirt???

Unfortunately, I had to walk through John Lewis again to return to my car….More badness.

Silky Tweed was also in the sale – I had used it and loved the yarn when making Catrin and promised myself more.

Most of what I saw in the sale was brownish shades, too similar to Catrin. Then I saw some very pretty green – the lady at the till said “oh you’re back again – more knitting??” Project to be decided  😳

Here it is…

From stash

Now the disorganised bit…

When I got home I checked my stash -I really must load a version of my stash onto my iPhone so I can check it when I’m out.

I was overjoyed!! I had the Grey shade I couldn’t  buy to make Liliana from a previous year’s yarn sale stash enhancement exercise!! 😀 But where was the Kidsilk Aura book??  Stupid, Stupid, Susan didn’t have it 🙁
Add a list of my knit books to things I should have on my iPhone!

All that did was give me an excuse to jump on the train the next day and head up to John Lewis Oxford street – they tend to have even more yarn than Bluewater!!

I bought the Kidsilk aura book and after a darned good rummage in all the yarn bins – decided to buy some brown Kidsilk aura to go with the recently rediscovered antique gold Kidsilk aura that’s already in my stash – I intend making Gelsey – lovely mottled cabley big warm jumper…

From Gelsey

And the “Very Good”? How can I possibly redeem myself after such a yarn splurge??

Well…I liked Gelsey so much that I also picked up the Kidsilk Aura in purple and lilac to make a second version 😳 The woolly mist of an uncontrolled yarn buying frenzy was closing in on me…

I carried the purple and lilac around the shop while I looked at other things on the other floors – for about an hour…my good sense was fighting to be heard,
“You might not like Gelsey when you’ve made it once”
“By the time you’ve made two Kidsilk Aura garments won’t you be bored with it? And it’ll be summer?”
“Your stash is big enough!”
“If you really decide you want it later – there’s plenty of places you could buy that yarn – this isn’t your last chance.”

So I was “Very Good” and put the purple and lilac back.

Maybe, just maybe, there is a distant ray of hope for a pathetic Stash Addict!