Hobbies of Acquisition

Of course, if Ms. Packratty is going to have hobbies, they will be hobbies that require getting things.
Like the 2,000 or so books that dominate Ms. Packratty's home.
Or knitting. Yes, indeed, knitting is a truly deadly hobby for packrat people - one can always buy more yarn with the self-delusion that you'll find the perfect pattern for it someday and it's too affordable or too pretty and won't be available when said perfect pattern becomes available.
When Ms. Packratty first learned to knit, her stash acquisition was hampered by living in small towns without good yarn stores and her miserable reporter's salary, not to mention the fact that the Internet wasn't even a gleam in Al Gore's eye ....
But then, settled down in Atlanta with several excellent yarn shops even a decade ago, the packrat impulse started setting in. But it was really the yarn outlet that started it. What I thought I was going to do with that spaghetti thin lavender chenille, I can't imagine. Oh, yes, I can imagine - all I need to do is look at the $2 price tag on the cone to tell me what I was imagining. 10 years later, it's in one of the many folding top totes stacked in one of the Chez Packrat closets.
Unfortunately for the Packratty budget, fiber snobbery set in quickly and many of the totes are full of silk, laceweight cashmere and the like.
However, Ms. Packratty occasionally dips into the stash and depletes in a worthy cause, to wit:

A baby blanket done for former manager's third child - no, it's not sucking up - 3rd children are lucky if they get a baby picture, let alone a hand-knit blanket This used up most of a wad of Debbie Bliss Cashcotton that had attached itself to me - I bought some white for the edging and then changed my mind and edged it in the same color.

However, that still leaves me 5 pair of felted clogs, three pair of socks and two sweaters behind for the year .....

Now if I could just figure out what to do with those 10 skeins of hideously expensive Noro silk .... not enough for the cardigan or jacket of Ms. Packratty's dreams, but far too beautiful and pricey for anything minor.