Is It Enough Or Too Much?

Pattern:  Rune, by Helen Stewart (Curious Handmade)
Yarn: Lollipop Yarn Sweetpea Sock MCN, in Dirty Pewter & Wild Hare
Needle: size 6

I'll never catch up. Just as I was coming to the end of this knitting project, Helen Stewart released another shawl design I'd love to make. There are so many—too many—wonderful designs that I want to make. I need to figure out a way to sort them out and decide what I can realistically make. Life does require other activities besides knitting. But somehow in my mind, if I own the yarn and print out the pattern, I think the shawl or scarf will magically appear in my wardrobe. Nope. Doesn't work that way.

And yarn! There is so much gorgeous yarn. I know I've bought too much. (Much of the excess was bought several years ago when I first discovered the "good yarn." Newbie excitement.) There was a plan in my mind (most of the time) for how to use it when I made a purchase. But then, as it waits its turn in line, I forget why I bought the yarn. I forget what I wanted to knit. I forget why I liked the pattern I chose. So the yarn accumulates.

I'm making an effort to do better. This shawl is made with yarn I bought at the Carolina Fiber Frolic last November. And here I've used the yarn before that retreat happens again in several weeks. Good for me! That's how it should work. Use up the yarn before you go back to the place you bought it. I don't always follow my own advice. But I'm trying.

Detail on center of the Rune Shawl

"Knit down the stash." "Stash diving." These are the phrases that knitters use to talk about this issue. Some knitters even talk about SABLE. That's "Stash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy." Assuming I live to be as old as my grandmother, and assuming I keep knitting at my current rate, I don't have that much yarn. That's a lot of assuming.

So as I wrestle with curbing my yarn/pattern wishes, these boxes arrived in my mail yesterday. Before you judge me, let me say I won this yarn in a give away! It's a gift from KnitCrate, a monthly yarn subscription. I won a box for me and a box for Jessica. The yarn just comes to me now. Maybe I'm fighting a lost cause in working down my stash. Maybe I'm supposed to have extra yarn around the house. I can think of worse problems. 😊