I'm not planning on doing any massive 2007 wrap up posts, but over the next couple of weeks as I get back into the groove of things I'll post about some area specific goals for 2008. And yes, I realize February starts at the end of the week, but for me the new year started two weeks ago with the end of my award committee appointment.
So, yarn in 2008. I have no clue what I spent on yarn in 2007 because I stopped keeping meticulous track of my monetary spending about 1/3 of the way through the year. Every year I try to be better about tracking my finances and every year I fall off the horse. I was inspired to keep track of what I spent from an article in "This Week in Ravelry". Guestimating, I'd say I was probably in the $500-999 range. Tonight I set up spreadsheet to keep track of the yarn I buy. The people surveyed for the article sometimes included fiber related expenses like needles, hooks, spinning wheels, notions, classes, travel, and food and drink consumed while gathering with other fiber freaks. For the purposes of my personal survey, I'm only including yarn and only yarn I purchase with cash. Bartered yarn and yarn I receive as "you purchased this amount so you get this much free" will not count towards this survey because I want to know how much money I spend. I'll report back at the end of every month. I'm not planning on going on a yarn diet, but I'm looking to cut down on the amount I purchase, at least during the first half of the year. I'm also keeping track because I plan at the end of the year to donate 1% of my yarn purchases or $10 (whichever is greater) to Ravelry as suggested in the comments thread for the article. With all of that said, here are my January totals (because I know darn well I'm not going anywhere near a yarn store the rest of the week).
Number of yarn transactions: 4
Locations where yarn was purchased:
Rosie's Yarn Cellar – Philadelphia, PA
The Yarn Shoppe – Davenport, IA
My Sister's Knits – Chicago, IL
Michaels – Tinley Park, IL
Number of skeins purchased: 11
Range of price per skein: $2.00 to $44.00
Range of total prices: $4.00 to $179.00
Total: $267.20
Average price per skein: $24.29
Yarn purchased:
ArtYarns Silk Rhapsody Glitter – use: no idea, too pretty!
The Fibre Co. Road to China – use: probably a scarf, sooo soft and pretty!
Jade Sapphire Mongolian Cashmere – use: maybe a hat?
Shokay Shambala Yak Down Worsted – use: one skein for Koolhaas and no idea for the other two skeins
Vanna's Choice – use: baby present
Ravelry contribution to date: $2.67
Katie's Crafting Life 
Oh this is going to be really interesting. I've spent 52.28 since I decided to pick up knitting in December, so that's 2 sets of needles and 6 skeins of yarn. Not bad, but I can see how this could easily get out of hand, as I'm wrapping up my fourth project with no idea of what's next.
It would be interseting if you would edit the above to add what the intended purpose of each skein is (if you have one, that is).
Done! As you can see, I'm easily seduced by yarn 😉
Ooooh I was just admiring the Koolhaas hat.. that looks way cool. Probably beyond me just yet, but I'm going to have to get beyond scarves soon.