Yarn Diet: Fail

It's a proven fact that I already own a lot of yarn. As you can see from my earlier post last month re cleaning my yarn room, I basically have my own little private yarn shop. I love having my own little private yarn shop. However, now that my yarn stash is public, I have to admit that mine is the prototype for STABLE – Stash Accumulated Beyond Life Expectancy. So for New Years I made a resolution to knit exclusively from my stash and go on a yarn diet. No new yarn this year. Hmmppphhh.

...Until mid-January, when I was finishing a project and was running out of the yarn that I was using. Had to make an EMERGENCY purchase. Well, it was all in the service of finishing a project. (You know that last year's theme was perseverance, so I was just continuing that, right?) But really, let's face it, January: FAIL.

Ok, so on to February, which is a short month so I should be able to suppress my yarn addiction for 28 days. All went well throughout the month. Now, I may be on a yarn diet, but I'm not on a fiber diet (got some luscious new wool blend from Janette to spin), a spindle diet (got a gorgeous 20 gram Greensleeves drop spindle made from East Indian rosewood with a walnut shaft), or knitting accessories diet (several new magazines and needles made their way into my life). Nor am I on a paper diet. I spent a lot of time this month making cards, which was super-fun! So here came the last week in February and I was getting ready to dance the happy dance in celebration of making it an entire month without buying any yarn.

Just then, a series of events rattled my diet world. First, I got the new KnitPicks catalog. OMG, really? Right when I was at my most vulnerable, after going through three weeks of yarn buying withdrawal, I go to the mailbox and pull out the catalog filled with vibrant yarn that is so lovely you can see in the pictures how smooshy it is. My resolve weakened a bit, but I didn't order anything from KnitPicks.

Second, a designer on Ravelry, Valerie Johnson, who designed the Elphaba fingerless gloves that I love, emailed me because she saw that I had posted on our Maple City Ravelers discussion board that I was looking for some self-striping yarn to make those mitts. She told me she has some for sale in her Etsy shop, and her yarn looks so luscious. "Wow, what great customer service," I replied, as I drooled and worked hard to remain strong in my yarn diet commitment.

The last straw was getting an email from Jimmy Beans Wool, my all-time favorite online yarn shop. As it turns out, my "Jimmy Beans Bucks" (quarterly rebate) were set to expire on February 28. Did you hear me, I said EXPIRE! I was going to LOSE SEVEN DOLLARS if I didn't buy some yarn by the end of the month. To top it off, when I asked my knitting friends what I should do, they agreed that I needed to buy some yarn. (Thank you, my enabler pretties.)

I put an order in for some Malabrigo and Madelinetosh sock yarn as well as some delicious Arucania cotton in a jade color. March is a long month. Can I make it?

Everyone Needs a Little Yarnover Now and Then

Earlier this week we celebrated groundhog day (with a rip-snorting blizzard, no less). In case you didn't know, this holiday derives from the ancient midwinter celebration because, as it turns out, February 2 is pretty much the exact middle of winter, being six weeks from the winter solstice (December 22) and six weeks from the vernal (spring) equinox (March 22).

In the depths of winter, we knitters are working furiously to finish our wooly sweaters, hats, and socks. We were discussing this yesterday at the Monmouth knitting group that meets on Saturdays at the local library. It seemed that everyone was groaning about the dreariness of their current projects, what with the unending ribbing or stockinette stitch. All of a sudden, I realized that what we all need are some yarnovers to perk us up.

Well, I went home and finished a baby hat/booties/mittens set -- cute, but no yarnovers. Then I knit 20 rows of ribbing on my ho-hum yoga sock February KAL project. Yawn.

Suddenly, I decided to cast on a lace-edged hat so I could bring a little excitement into my knitting life! I'm using this smooshy Lorna's Lace's worsted organic merino in a pretty lilac -- cheery color for the middle of winter -- and very nice to work with. I got to spend an hour happily knitting with lots of yarnovers and even a purl here and there. The color, the texture, the lace...it all rejuvinated me! (Ok, the color in these pictures is washed out, but trust me, it is lovely yarn!)

Wistfully, the two inches of lace edging came to an end. Still, I cherish the memories of that hour of lace knitting. It's amazing what a little yarnovering can do. Now excuse me while I knit eight inches of stockinette stitch to finish this hat.

Clean, Gut, Disinfect, and Purge

Don't worry, this post will actually be about yarn. I have been thinking about what to write about for my first entry of the new year (on JANUARY 23, no less :rolls eyes: oh let's not even get started about my blog neglect), and upon reflection, the most meaningful event of my new year thus far has been the cleaning of my yarn room.

Everyone knows that the new year is the time for cleaning, gutting, disinfecting, and purging -- oh, and organizing. I know this because all the stores have their cleaning and organizational items (plastic tubs etc.) on sale. That proves it. Even before I realized this fact, I was already compelled to do some new years cleaning. I cleaned out all my kitchen cupboards, reorganized them, moved the shelves so I could reach things better, and even put down new shelf liner paper! I also cleaned out my closet (somewhat, anyway) and made Mackenzie clean out her closet (somewhat, anyway), whereupon we made umpteen trips to the Goodwill drop-off center, which, by the way, was OVERFLOWING with the stuff of dozens of other people who were also doing some new years purging. Hmmmm, maybe there's something innate to this? Is it like when women live together their cycles start to coincide? So when you live in a society where everyone celebrates the new year, we are all drawn to cleaning house at the same time? But, I digress...

Anyhow, I set out to clean my yarn room. I am extremely fortunate to be able to devote an entire room in my house to my yarn stash and knitting paraphernalia. However, if you have read my earlier blog posts (e.g., visiting eight yarn shops in eight days), you know how bad my addiction is. Over the summer my yarn room had become an unsightly, unorganized mass of bags of yarn.

Yes...the mess at right is my yarn room at its worst -- unsightly and disrespectful to the yarn! Ugh!

So I set about to clean and organize my stash. At first it was fun going through all the bags of yarn and reminding myself of what I had. But then it got a little scary and I was feeling guilty for having SO MUCH YARN. John even came and stood in the doorway and commented, "Wow, you have a lot of yarn." Uh, yeah... Luckily I have the most wonderful husband in the world (who is equally addicted to fishing) so he is not judgmental about my predicament at all.

It took THREE DAYS to get everything organized and put away. And in the process I frogged numerous projects that I knew I would never finish. The best thing is that frogging produced more yarn for my stash, ha! Remember the project my dog tried to eat? Here is what it looked like:

Oh what a giant mess. The good news is that I succeeded in untangling all the yarn and wound it into cute little yarn muffins that will now be put to use! Yay, happy ending!

Well, to make a long story short, my yarn room is finally looking like the private yarn shop it was meant to be. I love spending time there, looking at and petting the yarn, and making plans for ambitious new projects for 2011. Here is the lovely result of my hard work and dedication: