What a Life!

Enough about sickness. Let’s talk about knitting.

I have decided to join the Stash Game of 2007.

For those of you who are not knitters…we knitters have this habit of buying yarn that we’re going to knit and then building up a “stash” which is a collection of that yarn which has not yet been knit. Then from time to time there are “stash games” on internet boards or in the blogging world where knitters challenge each other to knit only from their stash – as in, not buy any yarn – for a given period of time.

First, a few comments about my current stash.

At Thanksgiving, we inherited a chest of drawers from my Grandma Heinrich as part of a bedroom set. The top set has four drawers – two small ones that fit on one level and then two big ones below. My sock yarn fits in one of the small drawers. My remnants from completed projects fit in the other small drawer. Then I have one drawer of cotton and cotton blends and one drawer of wool. Considering the fact that some of my knitting friends have “a room full of yarn,” it’s a rather modest stash. [If you’re wondering what’s in the bottom two drawers, it’s my sewing stash.]

Another thing you need to know about my stash is that I buy yarn for specific projects – I don’t just buy yarn because I like it. That means that if I decide to knit a certain project, I have to go out and buy yarn for that specific project; I can’t just go to my stash and find something that would work, as many knitters do. So all of the yarn in those drawers is earmarked for specific projects. The only exceptions would be yarn from two specific projects that I made but hated the end result and so I frogged them and wound the yarn back into balls.

I may sound like a complete nerd, but I must confess I have a list of all the yarn I own and the projects associated with every skein, and that list is kept in a separate knitting section of my planner. The tab on that section is blue because blue is my favorite color and I like to knit.

There. Now, with embarrasing admissions aside, here are the rules which I have set up for myself:

1. The Knit-From-Your-Stash-a-Thon will start January 1, 2007 and run through September 30, 2007 — a period of nine months.

2. I will not buy any yarn during that period, with the following exceptions:

2.a. Projects committed to prior to the beginning of the stash game (as in, I bought the pattern with the specific intention of knitting a given item but haven’t purchased yarn for it yet due to indecision as to what yarn to use) are exempt. Those projects are included on my list of knitting projects in my planner so there is no doubt as to what they are.

2.b. Knitted gifts – specific gifts require specific yarn. Like I said, I don’t have yarn in my stash to use for these types of projects. One never knows when an opportunity to present a knitted gift might occur, and knitted gifts are generally small projects requiring one or two skeins. Thus all knitted gifts not already on the list of projects qualify as exceptions.

2.c. If I am knitting something and run out of yarn, I may purchase enough to complete the project.

2.d. I get one “Get Out of Jail Free” card — I am allowed to fall off the wagon one time.

3. I am allowed to receive gifts of yarn.

4. Trading stash is allowed.

5. If I run out of yarn before the contest period ends, I am allowed to go out and buy whatever yarn I please as though the contest period has ended. While I do not consider this likely, in my knitting life, I will confess to coming rather close to this more than once.