Monday, June 18, 2007

Must. Stop. Buying. Yarn.


I have a problem. It's a sickness really.


I have embraced the fact that I am a process knitter. I have more WIPs than I can easily keep track of, and an utter shortage of needles, because it seems like the ones I need are always buried in the bottom of the bin with a half completed project attached.


I have also embraced the fact that looking at yarn, buying yarn, and stashing yarn is a part of the process for me. I love my yarn. I sniff it and pet it. What's wacky to me is that in some cases, I cannot bring myself to actually knit it.


What's up with that? It doesn't make sense to me either, but the best way I can explain it is that the yarn is so perfect, so loved, that I can't bear the thought that it could wind up as an item I could love less than I love it right now, skeined up neatly. So I save it, for the perfect pattern, the perfect needles, the perfect recipient.


And meanwhile, I keep buying yarn. In fact, since it's not enough anymore to place weekly yarn orders, I recently joined sock clubs with Yarn Pirate and RubySapphire. Now I am guaranteed a monthly fix without even the effort of clicking the "Place Order" button.


It's crazy, I know. I may be in need of an inpatient yarn detox at some point in the future. But I can't hit my personal rock bottom until after I succeed in getting one of the highly coveted slots in the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Rockin' Socks Club. I have been stalking their website for months, waiting for sign ups to open. I think they're trying to torture me.


I'm finally posting pictures of my newly organized yarn cubby. It's my happy place, even though when I put it together, the goal was simply to get all the yarn on the shelves and so, I am not super happy with their arrangement. The yarn is separated by weight, but I may change that. I'm curious to know how it will look if done by color instead. Perhaps I will try it on some lazy afternoon. (Hah! Who am I fooling? If I have a lazy afternoon, I want to spend it knitting!) The needles are, sadly, half missing (see earlier paragraph.) But the needlefelted wall hanging I found on Etsy is the perfect complement. I was especially happy to hang it up, so my darling child can stop stealing the nursing baby from the mother's arms and using it as Barbie's lovechild.

5 comments:

Melissa @ Banana Migraine said...

I'm drooling over your stash - it's beautiful :) I too have many WIP and find the process of buying yarn very therapeutic. I moved my stash into our bedroom so that I can look at it more often - how sad is that?!

Good luck getting your spot!

Unknown said...

Oooohhh I wanna sit on that bench and pet yarn too!

Dani said...

I want a happy place like that! Mine is sad in it's rubbermaid tubs. It needs a display like yours.

LeaAnna said...

Love it!

Gina said...

Holy crap! Now THAT'S a stash! It's funny, I usually find the pattern/idea before I buy yarn, thus avoiding the stash. I am also the sort of person who is always taking things to goodwill or freecycling, so the idea of accumulating ANYTHING makes me bristle.

However, my trip to sheep and wool this past May might be the experience that changes me. At least where fiber is concerned. For the first time, I bought wool because I loved the color or the feel of it. And because I didn't have a project in mind, I bought way more than I probably should have (do not even ask me how much the silk and wool from Tess was). But it was so worth it. This is the yarn I pull out of the bag and FONDLE.

Now if you'll excuse me, the basement needs to be purged. So I can store some yarn, of course.