I’m not TRYING to grow my stash. I swear! It’s just… I can spend money faster than I can knit or crochet. And the pretties… they CALL to me!

We stayed in Williamsburg last week, we had an outdoor wedding to attend last weekend, and my in-laws had a bunch of timeshare they needed to use. Most of the week was spent doing what we usually do, just in a different location. The condo property had outdoor mini-golf and heated indoor and outdoor pools (by reservation only). The kids loved getting to play mini-golf almost every day and they got to swim twice. I swam with them once. I can swim, but since I’m not olympic level good, I don’t do it. We were the only ones at the pool, so I swam a TON of laps. And I wasn’t as bad at it as I remember. When I feel comfortable swimming indoors with other again, I think I’m going to take up lap swimming. The kids got to see their grandparents for the ONLY time this year (we all wore our masks and spent as much time outdoors as weather would permit).

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One of my frivolous outings was to the Flying Needles in Williamsburg. I needed to pick up a couple pom-poms (they are super nice and REALLY affordable) and I wanted “travel” yarn. They shop is absolutely abiding by the state safety guidelines, and I was the only shopper in the store. I wanted 2 yellow pom-poms, but they only had one. Blue is nice too. I’m going to make myself a pair of socks out of the Queensland Perth. The special purchase was the Robin’s Promise Yarn. Its locally dyed. The multi color braid is 8 fingering weight mini-skeins at 90-something yards each. I’m pairing it with the not-actually-black fingering weight in a yet to be designed project. Vest? Giant shawl? Dunno, I’ve about 1300 yards to work with.

I also picked-up lunch and stopped at the grocery store, so we didn’t need to go out an additional time. This makes me feel slightly less irresponsible about shopping for non-food in person during a pandemic. But only slightly.

Now that we are home, we are hardcore quarentinging. Even though we are feeling fine, spouse and I are going to get Covid tested for peace of mind. Different place, people we don’t see normally. If either of us get hot tests, we’ll get the kids tested. Making the conscientious decision to stay home has been a bit relaxing. I crocheted a baby size beanie with some leftover yarn (stash bust 2 partial skeins, I’m counting as 1). I already have a home planned for it! My daughter and I also spent at LEAST 2 hours making pom-poms today. It was EXHAUSTING. By the end, my thumb was numb from the cutting step. Together we made 14 pom-poms, using 8.1 oz of scrap yarn! We decided we are going to make a Christmas project together, once we make a bunch more pom-poms.

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Also today, a yarn order I placed a week and a half ago arrived. Kid sweater quantity of Cascade 220 Sport Superwash (a DK in the colorway “Punk”) and a skein of Cascade Heritage Wave Sock yarn. My girlchild needs a sweater replacement, all of her’s are becoming crop tops! And OF COURSE I need more socks…. I’m home a lot and require pretty handknit socks.

So the score for the week is 3 skeins out and 10 skeins in. For the record, this is more skeins out (only counted in finished projects) than usual.