Last month, I was on a knitting diet. Not a voluntary diet: I had mostly run out of yarn. It’s not possible to completely run out of yarn as there is always a ball of yarn somewhere waiting to be made into doll’s clothing, but I had no big projects. I had knit a sweater for my father in law, my mom, my daughter for the fall, my husband for the fall, and then, I had no more project yarn.
Today is September 23rd, or 19 days until the annual pilgrimage to the Sheep and Wool festival in Rhinebeck, NY. Buying yarn now would be counterproductive: I would diminish my Sheep and Wool budget and spoil all the fun.
And so, I was on a diet. As many avid knitters, I am not quite myself when I don’t have 3-4 projects that can be picked up at any minute. I’m antsy, nothing is going quite right, all of a sudden the train or car ride seem SO LONG!
And then the cold weather came. Since we live in a condo, the winter things go into boxes in the spring (or midsummer depending on my work load). Here I was, going through the stash of hats, mittens, scarves, sweaters, and other woolen items that I had so lovingly knit the previous years. As best as I can see, my kids have outgrown or rejected about 60%-80% of everything they had.
First, my younger daughter took my older daughter’s Basket Weave hat (pattern coming soon). Check – one less thing to store for the next 2 years. Then it became obvious that the girls have outgrown all of their light winter hats and those woolen pants that I had knit for them two years ago? No one wore them: RIP it! I donated some, but the rest made from good yarn I re-purposed.
Now I had a grown my stash back, without spending one cent and simultaneously discovered a real need for my family. Winter hats! Scarves! I’m working on the Every Year Hat pattern – details coming soon.