I guess there is something about purple yarn that saps my brain. I've only used purple yarn three in my whole knitting "career" and 2 out of 3 of those times I have ordered way too much yarn for the project. I seem to order double what the pattern calls for in purple.

The summer after 5th grade I love purple. I remember having a purple purse and getting a pair of purple plastic hoop earrings in Wall Drug, South Dakota. I'm sure there was a lot of other things too but those are the two things that I remember most.

In the last year or so, I've slow become reacquainted with my love of purple. It was never a conscious thought but some how, I've collected a lot of purple stuff. My favorite travel mug is purple, my re-use able lunch bag is purple and my snow jacket is purple. My favorite lipstick is in a purple case and the mirror I keep on my desk is purple too. I don't recall thinking, "Ooo! Purple!" even once. I just suddenly had a ton of purple stuff.

But back to my purple yarn problem. When I ordered my yarn for Vera, I accidentally ordered enough for a second sweater. That's where Valpuri comes in. It's still blocking (and has been for about a month). All I need to do is fix where my bind off unraveled when I washed it for blocking and then sew on the sleeves and knit the collar. But I basically got two sweaters for what I thought was the price of one. Well, it'll be two sweaters when I finally finish Valpuri.

Then I ordered yarn for Vintage Knee Socks from Hannah Fettigs book, Closely Knit: Handmade Gifts for the Ones You Love. At some point I read it as needing 4 skeins of lace weight yarn. So off I went to Knit Picks and ordered 4 skeins of lace weight yarn. The yarn sat for a while while I messed around with Moorish Lattice Cardigan, which eventually got frogged and became Girl Friday. On Christmas day I finally decided to cast on for my Vintage Knee Socks. The pattern in the book calls for 2 skeins of Alpaca with a Twist in Fino. Each skein of Fino is 875 yards for a total of 1750 yards. The yarn is held double because it's lace weight. I ordered 4 skeins of Knit Picks Shadow, it's 440 yards each for a total of 1760 yards. When I knit a regular pair of socks, I used about 440 yards of fingering weight yarn. Granted these socks are considerable taller then the ones I normally make but after finishing the 1st sock, I still have about 1/2 my yarn left. I wound 2 skeins of Shadow at the same time on the ball winder to make one ball to pull from, so I have about half of that 2 skein ball left. At this point I'm starting to think that I could have gotten away with ordering 3 instead of 4 skeins of Shadow, or maybe just 2.

I don't know but either way I think I have too much yarn...too much purple yarn. Now the question becomes what to do with the reminder of the Shadow when the socks are done. I don't do shawls. I just don't. I won't wear them and I see no point in spending the time to knit something I won't wear. I'm thinking maybe a lace scarf or, depending on how much yarn is actually left, a pair of socks. I'm just not sure. The only thing I am sure of is that I have to stop ordering too much purple yarn.