the state of my stash

Since I was not allowing myself to knit last night, instead I pulled out all the yarn I had and made a sloopy handwritten list. My catergories were wool-hand wash, wool & wool blends-machine wash, and cotton & acrylic. (The sock yarns were left undisturbed in their bin because I couldn't handle them as well.) Guess what, I have way too much yarn. Note to self, chill out with the online yarn purchases, ok?

In my organizing frenzy, I ripped out a purple sparkly chenille project that was going nowhere, and now I hope the chenille will not fall apart once I find the right use for it. Gone went the beginnings of a mohair/wool jacket that ended up the size for a toddler. None of my friends baby's a toddlers yet, plenty of time to knit non-fuzzy jackets for them. Finally, I frogged the last mitered square I began in my insane quest for a Mason-Dixon blanket. That dream is now one of those lifetime dreams, the sort of blanket I may finish someday for one of my future children or even grandchildren. Something I'll be knitting on my deathbed perhaps. I knew it was hopeless when I saw that I had only finished 10 squares. Pitiful really.

Now my current projects bin in the living room has three socks, the purple baby sweater, the first sleeve of Shannon's sweater and the Rayna baby blanket. I've got to make some swatches for Shannon's grandma's shawl this week or next. Other holiday projects have to be started or abandoned soon. Now I can just consult my scribbled yarn list though. If I get any gifts done, they will be a bit generic, scarves and fingerless gloves I think. But I must finish a sock before I start anything else new.

When I put the yarn bins back in the closet, I thought about how if there was a fire and all that yarn went up in flames, how sad I would be. Or if my arm/hand didn't stop hurting, what if I would have to stop knitting. So despite feeling overwhelmed by the yarn, by the end of the night, I was very appreciative of the yarn. This past year of reimmersion into knitting, of discovery of knitting blogs, it has been great. I will figure out how not to go nuts at Elann or Webs or have more than ten projects going at once. It's going to be a great rest of my life figuring it out.