Stash enchancements, not a lot of knitting

I think we can all pretty much see that the knitter who sucks around here is NOT Lea, right? She's technically skilled, an awesome designer, and unlike some people who cowrite this blog, she finishes things.

All I have finished in the last two weeks is one lonely pair of socks (Norton modeling) in ArtYarns supermerino for a dear friend :

And I have been working hard on stash enhancement, so now I'm on a yarn diet.
From left to right :

SoySilk Phoenix from Pittsburgh Knit and Bead (going out of business sale). Also bought lots of single color sock yarn there to make UNC blue and white socks (alumna spirit) and Northwestern purple socks so I have some school spirit this fall. I'm going to use the SoySilk to make a version of the XBack Ribbon Tank once Lea uses her mad math skillz to tweak the pattern for me.

NatureSpun in a pretty purple, for the Hourglass Sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, and black-n-gold sock yarn, both from a neat little yarn store downtown, Ewe Can Knit. No website, but they're on Wood St. about 1/2 block south of Forbes. Good prices on everything, plus greeting cards - one stop shopping for mother's day!

IncaAlpaca, from YarnsEtc in lovely Carrboro, NC (I was on a roadtrip to see friends and my mother). I'm going to use this super-soft alpaca for a cute cowl, something like this, to help block out the Chicago wind! (Can you tell I'm preparing to freeze to death next year?). Also at YarnsEtc I bought some Trekking XXL and some Cascade Fixation, both in the category of "sock yarns I haven't tried yet."

And finally some hand-painted merino sock yarn from my mother's LYS, The Peace of Yarn. It was like pulling teeth to get my mother to pick out some yarn for socks, but she finally chose this southern-produced yumminess, dyed by the ladies at Liisu Yarns (beautiful colors, reasonable prices!).

And finally, some great deals from Webs forced me to buy enough Cascade 220 for a hooded tunic pattern I picked up a while ago, and enough Debbie Bliss Merino Aran for a long sleeved version of Tempting. Now I have enough yarn for 4 sweaters, 14 pairs of socks, and assorted other small things - so it's time for a purchasing hiatus. Check back for knitting progress - yeah, right.