It was my birthday. That's a good enough excuse.

I have a confession. I had another hiccup in the stashdown commitment. I can't even blame winning yarn or helping a friend out. Turns out this no-new-yarn thing is even more difficult than I expected.

Claire, the larger of my identical twins, had a favourite yellow sweater. She'll tell you with glee that yellow is her favourite colour. That yellow sweater is much too small for her, but it's her happy sweater.  Lucy, on the other hand, loves purple (and pink and green). We receive plenty of purple hand me downs and she can still fit into her favourite purple knit sweater (although I should probably crochet a longer bottom to it; but I won't because someone just offered us a similar sweater their daughters won't wear).  We don't receive much yellow.  Clearly the obvious solution is to knit her a new sweater.  Yellow is not a yarn colour I usually buy. There was nothing suitable in my stash. You see the conundrum.

On my birthday weekend I stopped by Wolseley Wools on our way home from dance class with the sole intention of supporting the MS Walk-a-thon and possibly winning a yarny gift bag. (I wouldn't have used the yarn yet!)  There was an ongoing sidewalk sale and from afar the girls caught sight of beautiful yarns - including hand-dyed yellow wool sweater yarn. It was half-price.  Clearly it was meant to come home with me. For Claire. Because I love my kids.

As I was checking out, staff threw a My Mountain hat kit into my bag. It's a gift from the LYS because we, their supportive customers, helped them to win a competition hosted by the yarn suppliers. I remember voting daily for a while. I promise I won't knit that yarn this year.

The yellow Secret Stash Sweater yarn, however, is going straight onto the needles. I've already started swatching. Yeah, it won't count towards my stashdown yardage, but that's okay.