While I was cleaning closets and such for the garage sale I realized a problem. Perhaps it isn't such a big problem. But it is an issue that I felt needed to be addressed. I love yarn. I have mentioned before that I like to knit and even more, I like to spin yarn from raw fiber. I haven't done any spinning in a very long time. While cleaning the guest room closet, I found a garbage bag full of the finest dark brown Alpaca I can ever remember touching. It is perfectly clean, brushed and ready for spinning. I would love to be sitting on my patio right now spinning it. But I am not. In fact this isn't even the problem I ran into. I came across 2 or 3 bags of fiber that is in need of spinning. Additionally, I have 1 or 2 of those Rubbermaid storage tubs filled with fiber. It should all be addressed. But the problem is the store bought yarn that I found in my closets.
I have enough yarn to run a double ply line to the moon and back. The sad thing is that if I walked into the Woolie Ewe today, I'd buy more. I am addicted to buying yarn. That is where my addiction stops. I am not addicted to doing anything with the yarn. I just feel an incredible need to buy it. When I buy it, I envision all of the wonderful things I can make with it. In fact, most of the time, when I leave the store, I do so with a new pattern and a brand new set appropriately sized needles to finish the project.... You know, in case I am unable to find the correct size needles in the 3 knitting needle storage locations that I have in my home.
I know that this is an addiction for two reasons. The first is that I never even considered putting any of the yarn in the garage sale. Not even any of the scrap yarn that was left over from various projects was ever considered for the garage sale. That fact just dawned on me as I wrote this. I just put it away as I found it, daydreaming about all of the lovely things I could make with it. The other way I know it is an addiction is that I never once acknowledged the addiction the entire time I was finding pockets of yarn hidden within the storage areas. I would just begin to hum louder than before and more forcefully. Ladies and Gentlemen, my name is Susan Meyers and I am addicted to buying yarn. There I said it! Now I can move on to step two in dealing with this addiction.
Using the yarn that you have purchased during one of your yarn buying frenzies is usually quite a bit more of a challenge than anything else. Actually, I have found in the past that starting the project is fairly simple. I get everything out. The next step is to read the pattern from start to finish and make sure that I understand each step. I am very thorough about this sort of thing. Once I have decided on the yarn I will use, get it out and have wound it off of the skein and into a ball either single strand or double strand depending on the pattern, I can actually start the project. I don't mind telling you that this step in the process although it sounds very simple can take hours. Finding just the perfect yarn and pattern to put together takes time. Sometimes in the past this step has taken a few days. But it is still exciting enough to follow through on, so it gets done. Next I cast on and begin to knit. I might knit for 5 or 6 hours on the first day of a project. After that, I might knit for an hour or two on the second day. By the third day, I have become remarkably bored and might only knit one row before setting the project aside. Then about a month later, I pick it up and put it all in tote bag and hang it on the doorknob of either my bedroom or a closet and I don't look at it again until the next time I start a knitting project and need to find my scissors. That is when I open each of the tote bags hanging on all of the doorknobs in the house in search of scissors.
At this point I will usually either start knitting on it again or rip all of the knitting out if I look back at it and find it lacking and re-ball the yarn for later use. If I re-ball the yarn for later use, I put it away in one of the yarn storage areas I have. If I start knitting again, sometimes I can actually work my way through the project and finish it. Other times, it gets set aside again until I once again need my scissors. I have to admit at this point that my favorite pair of scissors has been missing for about 5 years. I am certain that they are buried away in a tote bag full of yarn somewhere and I know that one day I will find them. No doubt the yarn will be so moth eaten that it will be unsalvageable but I will be reunited with those prized scissors. Disney girls sing about someday finding their "Prince Charming", I just want to find those damn scissors.
The good news is that while I was going through all of my stuff looking for things to get rid of last week, I kept walking past a knitting project that I started last year and was so excited about that I never put it away in a tote bag but I also never finished. I was down to the last four rows and was almost out of yarn. I had stopped because I was concerned that I would run out of yarn in the middle of one of the last rows and I wasn't sure how to proceed if that happened. It is a really unusual scarf that already contained close to $60 worth of yarn. Since the yarn is $19 a skein I couldn't face buying another skein to finish just one or two rows and then just discarding the rest (especially since I would never be able to discard it). So, I was still mulling this over after about a year. So, yesterday, I bit the bullet and finished it. I ended up knitting two more rows and casting off and it turned out fine! I had about 14 inches of yarn left when I finished it and that remnant is already in the trash can. Today, I simply have to sew the ends in and block it and then you will see me sporting my new scarf about as soon as the temperature drops below 80 again. Maybe even before then.
I started reading a new book at about 10:30 last night. So, I don't know if I will be able to start a new knitting project until I finish the book, but I think I already know which pile of yarn I am moving on to next. We are moving into knitting season folks, the time of year when you can light a fire in the fireplace and knit all day with a cat cuddled up at your feet. I have to knit as much as humanly possible while I can. My goal this winter is to finish up at least two projects that are not socks. Socks do not count since they can be knitted in just a few days. No, this is going to be a sweater knitting year. I have lots of yarn to get through and I am up to the task.
Have a good day.
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