My Yarn No Buy Year – October 2022 Check-in

And there were some patterns..

I thought October was going to be a blank month and a real no-buy. Well, that was without some creators birthdays and a well thought buy.

Steven West Birthday operation

For his Birthday (Happy Birthday Steven !), he offered a 34% discount on all his stuff, from patterns to classes, on Ravelry and his site. So very generous. I got 4 patterns, 3 of which were in my favorites.

© Batad by Stephen West

© Dustland Shawl by Stephen West

First, Batad, a very graphic poncho I first thought I would knit with the yarn my son Théo offered me for my own birthday. I found another pattern in the mean time, more on that later when I report on my Birthday cast-on.

Then the Dustland Shawl I had my eyes on as soon as it first launched. I loved the plain colour block, the stitch pattern, and may be the yellow colour. I am drawn to yellow, even though I think it does not suit my skin colour.. The sweater is very appealing too, but I have too many similar or beautiful sweater patterns in my queue for now.

© Armored by Stephen West

© Sólfar by Stephen West

Armored is of another world. The pattern is from 2013, so inventive and original ! Love at first sight, even if it is quite far away from my comfort zone.

Sólfar, on the other hand, is much quieter with nice features. one of my own ponchos I made years and years ago is looking like a rug, and I keep it at home. I have another one, and I prefer to have two in rotation. Not sure which yarn I’ll use.

So that was it for Stephen West. Another creator had a birthday operation and I go two additional patterns. I was/am looking for a colour work pattern for the mohair I got last summer. I think I found one, or two !

© Esther by Camilla Vad

© Agnes Jumper by Camilla Vad

I had both of them in my favorites, the Esther and Agnes sweater patterns by Camilla Vad. Two beautiful yokes that have the same vibes. I think Agnes will be better suited for my mohair, and I have so many other options fo Esther, I think I’ll enjoy knitting the two of them !

To finish, quite of a story.. I had my eyes on the COSMOLOGY DARUMA Collection 2022 by Amirisu since I saw it on their Instagram I think. Several beautiful patterns are offered, the APHELION cowl by Kiyomi Burgin to start with..

© Amirisu

© APHELION by Kiyomi Burgin

Once again, how original ! The book is full of other much appealing patterns.. For the story, I had seen the book available in one retail online store in the UK. Once I went to buy it after my work day, it was out of stock. So I sorta panicked out of FOMO, and ordered it from the Amirisu website in Japan. I was OK paying for shipping, at long as I could get it. Well, that doubled the price. What I had not anticipated was I had to pay for custom border taxes once it arrived in Europe, that tripled the original price.. Am I a bit mad ? Yes. Am I so happy I own the book ? Yes ! Since I got it, I saw it available in Germany. I just checked, and it is not even in their listing anymore. So I am triple happy I could get it 🙂

All in all, I spent €99.61 this month, a bit more than anticipated. My first expense was on the 20th, the last one on the 25th, 5 frenzy days.. So that is €1222.42 fso far this year, €122.24 per month. Still a bit over what I had planned for the year, still stress free purchases, that is the most important. If you forget the shipping and custom taxes of course 😺

Companion YouTube Video : https://youtu.be/-4zaY67r-c4