I figured it out

"I figured it out...with a pencil and a pad, I figured it out"
-The Pajama Game

Lately I have been seized with the desire to buy more and more yarn. You already saw the orange stuff - but if internet LYS-surfing is any indicator of desire, I’ve wanted to buy a LOT more than that. My yarn lust ebbs and flows, but I’ve never understood what brings it on or why it goes away.

I think I've figured it out: I want to buy yarn when I feel like I don't have enough time to knit, or when my current projects are failing. Somehow buying and stashing yarns for future projects feels like progress when I can't "knit" progress.

This makes sense in a way, but is ultimately unhealthy. For instance, I have been seized with the desire to buy sock yarn (is it just me, or is cool hand-dyed sock yarn multiplying like bunnies?!). However, I've only made 1 1/2 pairs of socks in about 10 years of knitting. So there should be no reason to think that buying more sock yarn puts me any closer to having a completed pair of socks. Also, having more yarn (and thus more potential projects) actually works against knitting progress rather than facilitating it. If you only had one project with you on a desert island, don't you think you'd finish it out of sheer boredom, even if you hated it? And for a person like myself who is scatterbrained/always-multitasking/probably-borderline ADD - more stuff, more projects, more details, etc. can quickly add up to no progress at all.

So what’s a knitting girl to do? Just resist the urge to buy. Sounds simple, but maybe writing it here for all you knitter-friends to see will help me actually do it. I do have some lovely cotton yarns marinating in the stash…maybe if I feature them on the blog, I will get the inspiration to DO something with them. Stay tuned for a spring mini stash flash...