Bugga!

Rav can be dangerous for lots of reasons. For one thing, it's a huge time suck. I love it, mind you, but time spent there is time not spent knitting, spinning or otherwise playing with fiber.

For another thing, there are way too many paths toward enablement. There are the ever-popular destashes, the messages detailing the latest and greatest yarn sales online, and of course, there's the CPA (Completely Pointless and Arbitrary) swap group.

A year or so ago, I was swapping about $20+ a week in shipping costs. That was maybe 7-10 packages a week sent out. My local PO thought I had an ebay business. DH threatened to add "yarn shipping" as a category in our monthly budget. And I spent waaaaay too much time hunched over the PC swap stalking.

Then, we heard DH's job was not secure. After the initial panic subsided, I decided to stop swapping until things were all worked out. And so, I did. Cold turkey.

It wasn't as bad as I'd thought it might be. I still stalked the swaps, but I didn't claim. Brand-new, gotta-have-'em yarns came and went and came again. I slipped swiftly out of the loop, sitting on my stash and feeling virtuous for not buying yarn for most of 2009. I loosened the purse strings in the beginning of 2010 only to find that DH's job situation is now at its least secure yet. Ugh. So, back to the no-yarn-buying plan, which is actually OK since I'm pretty stash-happy these days (and, quite frankly, could probably clothe a small community if I managed to kit up all that I've got on hand).

And yet...I've really, really wanted to try Bugga! This is the sock yarn from The Sanguine Gryphon that's part merino, part cashmere, plus a touch of nylon for a bit of strength amid all that softness. Bugga! is notoriously hard to score during updates; popular colors sell out fast, and it's pretty much a free-for-all.

But today, I read on rav that The Sanguine Gryphon is picking a different colorway for each update and making it available in unlimited quantities for one day so that people can order as much as they want. The yarn will then all be dyed at one time and sent out to fill these "pre-orders." So, I went to the website. And, lo and behold, the colorway of choice today is "Twice-Stabbed Lady Beetle," which actually looks far prettier than it sounds. It's a deep, dark purple with flashes of muted fuschia that looks like it will knit up beautifully.

So, I ordered a skein. I also ordered a skein of Skinny Bugga!, a lighter-weight version of Bugga!, in Cowkiller, which is also a dark, rich, purply-browny sort of color that I'm looking forward to seeing in person.

All together, I spent around $58 on the two skeins, including shipping. If my mother ever knew the amount of money I spent on socks that I have to make myself, she would pass out. And I was hesitant to spend the funds that I really should be saving for a rainy day.

But, honestly, I couldn't resist. I've wanted to try this for a long time; these were colors I loved; and I've been so very good for so long, not even spending my birthday money "just in case." At the end of the day, I'm ok with it.

Now to stalk the mailman until my yarn arrives.