For the most part, over the past three years, I have not bought much yarn. This is largely because I have so much I have nowhere to put it, but over the past few months, I succumbed to the perils of saving money on yarn.

It all started this past spring when I was going back and forth between Albuquerque and North Carolina. It began with just a few skeins that I picked up at the Michaels that had recently opened near the apartment where I lived when I was not in New Mexico.

I was in the middle of completing a move from North Carolina to New Mexico, I was overrun with things to pack. I hardly needed to go to the store and buy more, but that ended up being what I did, and over the course of my travels, I ended up buying a lot of yarn, and while I saved $54 as the result of BOGO and half price offers, I had to spend $54 to save all of that money, and when all was said and done, I had this pyramid of yarn:

And seven more skeins to boot.

The yarn is a one in Michaels’ Loops & Threads line

and while I like the colors well enough, I was most drawn to the fiber. A blend of 57% cotton, 28% nylon, and 15% polyester, it as a softer feel to it than a lot of yarns, and I thought it might be just the thing for a baby blanket, and as my friend from third grade of cookieghan fame had become a grandmother, I wanted to make something for her granddaughter, Averie.

So I picked up a skein here, and I picked up a skein there, and before I knew it, I had saved a lot of money, but I had so many things yet to do — boxes to pack, a graduation to attend, two more cross country trips to make — it wasn’t until early this week, when I had finished my 2019 New Mexico State Fair project that I had a moment to contemplate what I would do with all that yarn.

After some thought, I decided to make a great granny square like the one I had made for my mother’s neighbor’s toddler:

Only this time, I would use a more limited palette; one dictated by the colors in the pyramid of yarns I had purchased “on sale.”

First, I wrote the pattern so that I would have it to refer to, and then with a literal pile of yarn at my side and my trusty hook in my had I got to work, and by the time I had finished lunch today, I had gotten this far:

By late afternoon, I had added three more rounds:

I don’t know what other things I will make from the pyramid of yarn that has reaffirmed for me the perils of saving money, but I will continue working my way through each skein, one stitch at a time.