major yarn itch

Lately I've had a major urge to buy yarn. No particular reason, other than finding several new and old projects that I really want to get underway. Everything is so tempting!

I have a small stash of natural fibers and a medium stash of acrylics, most of which are years old. I've offered to do a bunch of knitting for the rescue - some dog blankets to send to new adoptions and some sweaters etc. to try to sell online and at various functions. I decided to do some initial stash-busting and I took out a few balls of some really chunky yarn. I made Eli a small blanket from this yarn once, and he seemed to like it, so I figured it'd be a good way to knock out 3 big balls and move on to greener, less squeaky pastures.

My initial plan of action is to alternate projects - one for the dogs, one for humans. I altered this plan a little bit because right now I'm in the middle of 'two for the dogs' because it'd just be easier to bust out these two blankets from these three balls. So now that I'm about halfway done with the second blanket, I'm thinking ahead as to what comes next. I've got it down to two choices.

One is a 'market bag' - I recently acquired via a yarn swap a skein of 'second time cotton' - a recycled yarn generated from cast-offs in 'the fashion industry,' whatever that is. It's a great thing, I think - might as well take scraps and work them together into something useful. This is something knitters love, after all. It'd be a relatively quick knit - three or four hours worth. I could work on it on and off for a week and have it done, or bust it out over a weekend, no sweat.

The other is a black short-sleeve cardigan. I actually legitimately need one of these things. It'll take a while to make, though. I ordered the yarn for it online from a discount yarn site - 6 balls of yarn for about $18, including shipping. Not bad for a much-needed cardi. I couldn't buy it for less. It'll be a significant time investment, though - and I haven't made anything like it before so it might take me a while to work on it. I'm torn between working on a dog sweater first (learning about piecing and buttons and assembling sweater parts) - or heck, finishing this ugly sweater I began in February - and my general excitement for working on the project.

Decisions! Wants vs. needs! Planning vs. caprice!