I am Starting to Understand Why People Stash Yarn

April 11th, 2008 | View Comments

I literally have nothing on the needles right now. Ok, not quite literally, as I have about four rows of a tiny tube knit up after I got it into my head that I was going to design a sock. And then I quit. But beyond that, nothing. Not so much as a baby hat.

I have a couple of toys on hooks, one of which you saw here, but that’s it.

And it occurred to me the other day that I’m just uninspired. The projects out there are plenty inspiring. But the yarn I own…meh.

I’ve never been a big yarn stasher. Limited income (poor grad student) and limited space (poor grad student apartment) just make it impossible to really stash. If you remember, my entire stash looks like this:

And right now, those green drawers are easily half empty. The basket mostly held yarn for the Ombre Blanket and is now three-quarters empty.

This year has been an expensive year (though for good, happy reasons) and I just can’t justify buying yarn when I had, at last count, almost thirteen miles of it. Except for the ball of green Plymouth Encore being used for the amigurumi frog ($5.75), I cannot remember the last time I bought yarn. I’ve just been knitting through what I’ve got, and I’m officially sick of it all.

Thirteen miles of yarn, all earmarked for projects, and I don’t want to cast on any of it. Not the Alpaca Silk, long earmarked for the long-coveted Vintage Cardigan by Norah Gaughan. Not even the gorgeous laceweight from Sundara, because I wanted to design something special for that, and that requires time (something else I don’t have much of right now).

If I had a random stash of non-earmarked yarn, I could at least do something. Swatch exciting stitch patterns. Make a purse. Some random socks.

Instead, I’ve got thirteen miles of earmarked yarn, and not a yard I want to knit. What is up with that?

You won’t tell anyone if I go splurge on something pretty this weekend, will you?