Is Yarnorexia the answer?

O.K. It's no secret that I have a sizable stash.



The thud you just heard was the sound of my family and friends falling on the floor with laughter; so maybe I'll rephrase that.



I've got way too much yarn and fabric, more than I could ever hope to turn into anything lovely and/or functional even if I were to live for another 100 years. More than is remotely justifiable, reasonable, sensible or appropriate. I have been in yarn shops (always an enjoyable hour or three) where my stash had more to offer as far as quantity and selection...gotta say, I'm a little bit proud of that one....went. When I'm in a fabric store...the ideas that come to mind; well I can't help myself! 'Wouldn't that look great? Oh, I could just do this with that! Look at the SALE!!! Are those mushrooms? Oh, that's too funny; I'll have to get that!' And on, and on it goes.

Every now and then I try to pare down The Stash. Sometimes I actually make what I set out to make, or lately I've been donating some of it. But mostly....I move it from one spot to another; thereby giving the illusion of paring down. This might seem somewhat productive, but more often than not I succeed in finding some forgotten part of The Stash because I had moved it out of sight on a previous 'paring down episode' and then I get re-distracted by this everything old is new again love affair with The Stash.

And so it was this past weekend.

I made a plan, a Creative Plan 2008, to avoid the pre-Christmas crunch (one more time!) and provide genuine hand made, with love, presents to my family throughout the year. So I gathered the materials needed to complete my plan.

The plan is:

Two Quilted Wall hangings (maybe three)

Seven Quilts --- to be fair, most of them are lap size

Six Sweaters

And one afghan.

There was no shopping required, I have everything here.

I grouped 'The Plan' materials together; it only took two shelves. Sigh.

So, as I regrouped yarn (again...it's a little Forest Gump thing I got goin' here) I remembered reading about yarn diets. Yes, yarn diets, as in, don't buy anymore yarn and use up the yarn that you already have; thereby reducing The Stash. Sounds reasonable, sounds sensible, easily justifiable and dare I say, appropriate.

But we live in an enlightened society now. Anorexia is not the answer. We know 'dieting' does not work. If we 'crash diet' to loose weight, well, then we just get into a yo-yo cycle of weight gain don't we? (Look it up, it's a known fact.) Does purging work? NO, I say! We only stuff ourselves with more later and the body finds it's own special way of making sure that what it loves is stored safely and even harder to loose!

So let's say NO to dieting! Let's be sensible! Eat the food that loves you, that helps you, that gives you energy to knit and buy the yarn that you truly love; not just stuff that's there!

This yarn diet stuff is scary! I mean, go without buying yarn? I couldn't go to yarn shops? I couldn't order on line? I couldn't go to creative shows and yarn frolics? Because I couldn't, you know, I'm weak; I couldn't take it! Being surrounded by it all and not being able to take it home with me?! Oh, the inhumanity!!

Anorexia is not the answer; well, Yarnorexia isn't something I'm going to try either!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a couple of new knitting magazines and there's a couple of sweaters I want to make out of them; maybe that new yarn will be in at the shop....