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breaking fast
December 20, 2008
It has been a year since I bought any yarn. I alluded to an upcoming knit-from-stash period a couple of times last January but never followed through with the dedicated post I promised. This is, in case you still haven’t figured it out, because I am a lazy slackass of the first order. At least I’m good at something, right?
My last yarn purchase, some time in the first two weeks of December 2007, was two skeins of then-brand-new Noro Kureyon Sock (preordered from the wonderful and much-missed Main Street Yarns in Watkinsville, Georgia). When the yarn made its way to me at the end of January I was still thinking that knitting exclusively from my stash for a whole year was going to kill me. I don’t really have that big a stash, y’all. But, guess what? After the first month it didn’t hurt at all. AND I gave away whole piles of stash, some to my friend Brian for his piece Constancy, some to Nikol Lohr for her building scarf project, and some to the Athens Goodwill in the last days of packing to get the hell outta grad school and go home (sweet home). And I don’t know about you guys but once I stop doing something for a while I get into a groove where the not-doing of the thing is the easiest thing in the world, and the thing I had to force myself not to do suddenly becomes a big super-hassle to even think of doing. This is how I once fasted for almost six days, too: after the first day it was easier to just keep not eating. I don’t recommend that, or intend to ever be that foolish again, but. Just, you know, for comparison.
So that Noro sock yarn bounced around in my bag for a while, accompanying me to visit friends in Chicago for the fourth of July, keeping my hands busy in the car while I deluded myself multiple times about the size of my calves.
I now have a single knee sock stalled just before the heel flap and haven’t touched it since summer, and after reknitting that one knee sock leg three times before getting it the right size, I think I’m going to rip the whole thing again and make the Ziggy socks instead. Because I am a champ at the starting part of projects. Egad, but that yarn is effing gorgeous though, eh?
So. For the first time in over a year I walked into a yarn store today, not to break my fast in a hideous display of deprivation-fueled wooly gluttonly, but to pick up a few very specific yarns with which to make some small gifts. Here’s what I walked out with:
Two skeins of Noro Silk Garden, one of Noro Shinano. I plan to expand my yarn buying beyond the world of Noro soon, I swear. But I have to tell y’all, while I was torn for a moment whether to get the Shinano or just go with a solid colour of Manos for one person’s gift, I wasn’t really tempted by anything in the store for myself. It was like yarn had lost its hold on me, or something. Scary, eh?
Posted by jodi on December 20, 2008 at 8.30pm
Categories: it's only sticks and string
Comments on "breaking fast"
completely understand, particularly about the ‘easier to keep not doing it’ bit. since we moved to the states i have stopped buying (most) anything new and yes, it’s a release from all that consumerism (in a way, i still consume heaps, albeit all from goodwill). i also use almost exclusively recycled yarn these days, inspired by you. what did happen to Alice?? i bought some yarn new a few weeks ago bc I needed a specific gauge and it was quite a let down. i have some of that noro sock wool in stash – i understand that it’s not v forgiving when it comes to anything bar stocking stitch.
Posted by Amelia on December 23, 2008 at 1.09am :: link
No, I dig. I was at a yarn store two weeks ago and I could see beautiful things but I appreciated them mostly in an intellectual way. And when I think back, I bought some colourmart merino cashmere that was way too good a deal to pass up considering it is my favorite colors and ideal % of fibers, and a sweater’s worth of natural Shetland fingering weight at Rhinebeck and… some souvenir sea silk in Toronto in June and…I think that might be it. No, 2 skeins of merino cashmere on 50% 2 months ago. It seems like a lot written out like that, but compared to the frenzy of acquisition over the past few years, it’s nothing. I’m just …full. And it’s getting easier and easier to say no thanks, I have plenty at home.
Not scary at all – just – evolution. I’ve been inspired by the way you recycle not just thrifted sweaters but your own work sometimes – a reminder that it’s all material, whatever form it presently holds.
Posted by Juno on December 28, 2008 at 8.54pm :: link
That’s a great tale.
Or should I say a nice yarn?
*rimshot*
I know. Not terribly original. But I haven’t had my coffee yet.
Posted by Rich on December 29, 2008 at 8.31am :: link
I think that since I’ve started spinning, I’m less inclined to buy yarn when I know in the back of my mind I can just spin some up. Though, if there is a sale, all bets are out the window.
Posted by grace on December 31, 2008 at 9.47am :: link