Tuesday, October 03, 2006




Knitting A Purposeful Life.....

The summer has been officially over for a few weeks now, and I am caught up in the mad frenzy of cleaning, organizing, disgarding, and knitting, but not necessarily in that order.

I am in the process of moving my immense, yet glorious, yarn stash out of the t.v. room and basement into an upstairs small, spare bedroom. Problems lay with the issues of "immense' verses "small". There is minimal closet and dresser space. I am contemplating various storage options. I must make this work somehow.

The motivation for this massive undertaking was the observation that my family room was beginning to resemble:

1. My local yarn store.
2. A crowded and messy workshop.

I was feeling claustrophobic.....

This has caused me to reflect on my knitting life, and reach a conclusion:

THE FIRST STEP IS ADMITTING YOU HAVE A PROBLEM!

In an effort to prevent an inevitable family intervention, I decided the time had come to take measures to contain, manage and resolve this little problem of mine. Let's relocate the stash!

It has turned into one major project!

Taking yarn inventory has forced me to face the fact that I have accumulated over the course of 8 years colossal amounts of yarn!!!

I've gotten re-acquainted with little fiberfriends I hadn't seen in years and had long forgotten about. "Hello Koigu"! "How ya doin', Noro"? "What's up, Bartlets?"

Yarn purchased with specific projects in mind, waiting patiently for years for that magic moment to occur when it is whisked away on golden needles to be created into beautiful gifts for my loved ones! There are many, many of these groups with the stash.

Others bought as single, precious, lonely oddballs, perfectly suited as a hat or combined with other orphans to form some small item for an emergency baby gift..

Yarn that was "On Sale', discontinued, or designated for charity knitting projects.

Yarns purchased in abundance for the latest KAL.
Can we say "ballband dishcloth?" The Lily people should feature my picture on their Sugar and Cream cotton labels.

Let's not even get into the novelty scarf knitting craze that isn't winding down as far as I can see, despite the indrustry trend reports!

I think you get the picture.

What the heck was I thinking?

Is this yet another example of gross consumerism? Or, perhaps the signs of serious mental illness? Am I a hoarder, in need of the false sense of security that having yarn somehow provides? A serious collector of fiber? A woman with an obsession? A Material Girl?

I could photograph Le Stash, but I am too ashamed to have an official record of my vice.

I cannot fathom the $ amount I've invested in my craft. Nor do I want to.

Catholic Guilt leads me to question how the money spent on yarn could have served a more practical purpose. I wanted only to bring happiness to others.

SIGH!

One last thought about my yarn issues.

Stitches East is one month away.

And, yes, I am going.

Be afraid. Be very afraid....

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

NO GUILT!!!! Do you golf? Belong to a country club? Smoke? Drink? Play bingo? Gamble? Shop too much? (except for yarn, or course) Everytime I start to feel guilty, I remind myself that I have no other hobby, or entertainment. My knitting is as much for the process as the completed article. Just the fact that I can sort and look at my yarn (and feel of it all) satisfies my soul and I refuse to feel guilty. Ruth Spears

THE KNITORIOUS MRS. B said...

Ruth, thank you from the bottom of one of my many knitting project bags! I do a little online shopping at Coldwater Creek though.....but that's about it.

I'm struggling with finding storage solutions, short of adding an addition to my ranch1

Anonymous said...

Guilt? I wish I had so much that I felt guilty. LOL. I have one small bin.
Enjoy, don't fret,
Susie in northern NY

Sharon said...

Problem? What problem? Sounds all good to me, enjoy that yarn and sounds like you will be adding more to it as well ;)

Janice said...

Sounds like a 'Stashers Anonyomous' group in the making...
My name is Janice.. and I am a 'Stasher'....

Anonymous said...

You ought to post photos! I can't go into a yarn shop and not buy yarn. Goes back to the eighties when all the yarn shops over in the UK closed and we had a yarn drought for 15 yrs! Seriously check out mine if you feel brave - april 1st entry - Flash the Stash day (I had to do two posts!)
I enjoy my stash, the only cloud on the horizon is organisation...

Mz Mar said...

Oh, trust me~~you are not alone!!
I've been cleaning "my room" and it's almost overwhelming~~
What was I thinking??? I've decided ~~no more cleaning!!! Problem solved!!!

CraftyCarole said...

I've only been knitting for about 16 months but I can identify with your problem. I keep telling myself that I'm not buying any more yarrn until I use up some more of what I have, but then I see a GREAT deal and can't pass it up. And now with my new dishcloth obsession... it's nuts I tell you!

I wanted to say, that I live very near you in Bethlehem. What's is your favorite LYS?

Pleased to meet you!

catsmum said...

DO you still have enough money to feed and clothe yourself and the family? Do you actually sometimes make stuff with all this yarn [ yes I know from Babysweaters Group that you do ] OK then ... the stash may be huge but it's ok. Breathe sweety, breathe... you are not alone!
I had a similar panic moment about a month ago when I had to move the yarn stash into a different room from the fabric stash cos they were both too big to co-habit...and I will admit to being on a self imposed yarn diet for a while.
Basically I tell myself that
a] I don't drink
b] I don't smoke
c] I don't gamble
what I do is stash fibre and if people have a problem with that...well tough.

Jana B said...

Congrats on re-organizing the yarn stash!!!! YOU GO GIRL!!!!!!!