Monday, 8 Jan 2007
I’m one of those staunchly anti-resolution people. For years I’ve watched my friends torment themselves over their stash, their waistlines, their ashtrays, trying in vain to stick to a resolution they decided to make in the sloshy haste of a New Year’s announcement at 12:01. I’d rather not give myself a reason to feel guilt and self-loathing; I have plenty of those, thank you very much. So even though everyone and their mother is joining the 2007 Knit from Your Stash-Along, I will resist. The flesh is weak, friends, and no flesh is weaker than my own when it comes to the acquisition of good tasty yarn.
…But I’m not totally immune to this New Year’s fetish for making goals for self-improvement, so I am willing to make up some rules guidelines of my own:
- I will follow the wise old edict, Thou shalt not buy random amounts of yarn just because it’s there. Yes, if I’m picking it up, EITHER I need to have a project in mind for it (and those can be dreamed up on the spot, to be sure), OR I need to get enough for a sweater project TBD at some future point. I’m tired of discovering that I have 4 or 5 skeins of some lovely yarn, when I really need 12 to get anywhere unless I want to knit my 9,068,257th scarf. …Did you hear that, people? I just resolved to buy MORE yarn, didn’t I?
- No more than three different single socks can be floating around my WIP collection at once. Just because I got some nifty rosewood needles or a new hank of STR, I can’t go starting socks willy-nilly, or the avalanche of lonely single socks will start to seriously bum me out. (I might add that I have two on the needles, and I’m just itching to cast on for a third pair… so you see I’ve given myself some built-in wiggle room in the compliance department.)
- I will make a reasonable attempt to keep my yarn room from looking as if has just been ransacked by the KGB, and furthermore as if the KGB didn’t find what it came for:
[photopress:room1.jpg,full,pp_image]
That’s enough, I think. Hey, nobody ever called me a paragon of self-control.
Meanwhile, I continue to plug along on the socks that I started knitting to avoid the hoodie that I started knitting to avoid the Argyle of Doom …(deep breath) So far, so good! [photopress:fasock1.jpg,full,pp_image]The yarn is Fleece Artist Nova Socks, which is a dream to work with. It’s a nice springy yarn - it knits up on much smaller needles than you’d think at first glance (I’m having to use 0s as usual) because the yarn has so much loft to it. I’m knitting them in a boring old Garter Rib, which is about what it takes for me to be able to watch movies and knit. More soon (and pictures) on the rest of my knit projects…
January 8th, 2007 at 3:21 am
Nice socks, very pretty colour. I love Fleece Artist, so yummy. And hey, is that a hat form on your desk? I totally have to get one of those for blocking hats!
January 8th, 2007 at 4:56 am
Today, I successfully turned a heel and shaped a gusset. FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER! SQUEE!
You don’t know me. :) I’m a brand new knitter, and in the spirit of being so, I did a technorati search for other knitting blogs and found you. :D
Ivy In KW
January 8th, 2007 at 5:57 am
Lovin the socks, that just means that I’ll have to try the yarn. –good for you on your non-resolution..it’s really just a mind set, right?
January 8th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
It’s a good thing the KGB weren’t looking for knitting stuff, but it would have been nice if they had cleaned up after themselves!! My little corner of my knitting world looks pretty much the same. Love the socks. I currently have 4 pair in rotation, in various stages.
January 8th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
Love that you too did not hop on that bandwagon.
I have tried those things in the past, and I just hurt my butt falling off the bandwagon.
I am pretty much doing what you are though, where I reduce my stash.
Also, check out these stackable bins that Joann’s has, they are pine and have a tilted front which is perfect for yarn. I have about 6 in the sewing room, just for yarn and fiber. It does keep the Yarn Rodeos down to a minimum…..at least until Littlest Shows up, anyway.
January 9th, 2007 at 6:24 am
Nice resolutions.
I tagged you for the six weird things meme.
January 9th, 2007 at 10:01 pm
amen sister! glad to hear someone else doesn’t do resolutions and isn’t giving into the knit from your stash craze that is sweeping the nation. I totally hear you on having enough reasons to hate myself without adding to it!
January 11th, 2007 at 2:33 am
I absolutely love to see photos of other people’s messy rooms. I feel so much less stress about my own chaos.
thanks for sharing!
January 11th, 2007 at 9:58 pm
Good resolution!
Heh. You should see my fiber room right now!
I couldn’t even find the skein of alpaca I was looking for this Am….
January 12th, 2007 at 4:27 am
Eh, I don’t do resolutions either. If something’s worth committing to, you don’t need a special occassion to make you do it. Your craft room looks totally familiar–apparently the KGB have been to my house and I didn’t even know it!
January 12th, 2007 at 10:56 pm
Pretty socks. But you can start as many as you want to. It’s a luxury. As long as you get back to the second sock eventually…
Or you could just wear different socks. It’s been done before!
January 13th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
I like your plans — they seem practical. I was thinking the same thing about my stash; I don’t have one-skein problems (well, ok, a few) but I do have 4-skein problems. That’s the result of sale basket and deStash temptations. I’m making legwarmers (for practical purposes, not public/fashion), which will use up some (legwarmers take me about 4 skeins), but you can only use so many pairs (like.. one) of legwarmers!