A blog about fibre, wine, and all things cozy.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Time to Think Ahead

Christmas is over. The tree is still up, but the gifts are unwrapped. The left over dinner has been turned into soup, and the mess is mostly cleaned up. Now comes the next “big day” in the holiday season and the one that prompts people to make resolutions for next year, New Years Eve. It makes sense, there is a clear starting point and ending point and 365 days in between to work on that goal.

I don’t make resolutions. I know that my body feels better when I put healthy things in it, that my mood and appearance are better when I work out regularly, that I feel better about purchases when I make them with cash instead of credit, that too much booze at a party will give me a vicious hangover and not drinking enough water in a day makes me feel that same way. I know all these things and some weeks I do really well at all of them, and some weeks not as well. I don’t feel the need to makes a promise to do something “better” or “more or less frequently.” I just go about my business knowing what needs to be accomplished most days and attempting to do it. And then, I look at my stash and my knitting life in general and all that goes out the window.

Dec 2010
My stash is out of control. It is disaster waiting to happen. When I am brave, crazy enough to need something out of it, I need to have both a trained Sherpa to get me in and Search and Rescue team to help dig me out when the inevitable yarnalanche happens and I am buried. I have considered starting to take a few energy bars in with me so that if I am home alone and trapped until my husband returns, I won't starve. My stash has also started creeping into other areas of the apartment as I can no longer contain it all in one area. I recently (yesterday) went to acquire two specific balls of yarn from my stash and they weren't where I thought they would be, which means I have no idea where they are in the mess. I am pretty sure that we don't have yarn elves living in our building, (and if we do, why are they doing their job and the kitchen elves don't?) which means that the yarn is somewhere in the mess. It needs to be dealt with and I have decided that 2011 is when that is going to happen. So I am going Cold Sheep and not buying anything new until the DKC Knitters frolic in April. I will still accept gifted yarn, which is truly a big part of the problem. I will not try to blame my addiction on others, but I do have a lot of enablers in my life. Yarn, especially pretty yarn, means that I am an easy person to buy for. Even my brother in law, who knows nothing about yarn, walked into my favourite knitting store and came out with four balls of sock yarn and a gift card for me. I am both spoiled and blessed. (My WIPS are out of control too. But that one's pretty straight forward to understand.)
So here I am at the end of 2010 and I am making resolutions. I will knit solely from my stash until April 30th. I will get the one day reprieve and then no new yarn until Canada day, July 1st. I will stop ignoring the spinning wheel that I have on loan from my best friend. And I will be an active member of the 111 in 2011 group on Raverly. I am determined to use 111 balls this year. I will do all these things and at the end of 2011, I will have a far more functional stash and a calmer knitting life. I will control the addiction and stop letting it control me. I can do all these things, and I will keep telling myself that this is not a punishment. These are my resolutions. What are yours?

1 comment:

  1. Not a new years resolution, but I do know I have to get back on my diet January 3rd (that's the Monday I go back to work). I lost 30 pounds, and then holiday season began and it was all down hill from there.

    I'm the opposite of you, my new years resolution is to grow a stash I can be proud of. I just started knitting again and so far I only have a blanket bag full. lol

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