If you took all the yarn in my yarn stash and laid it end to end, it would be something like 30 miles long. Which isn’t that bad, really, but it’s quite a bit of yarn.
So I made a resolution. I won’t buy myself any yarn or fiber in 2010.
Please, stop laughing. Really. Control yourself. It’s undignified.
OK, I said buy for myself. I will buy for others (gifts and swaps), and I will buy for genuine work-related purposes. And I will accept free yarn, absolutely, without any hesitation.
Yarn without a specific project is out. Yarn that I decide in the yarn shop “Oh, I’ll make socks for Mom with this!” is out. I have to have the pattern and a known recipient before leaving to go buy the yarn. That’s the rule. In fact, we’ll make it accountable: I have to have posted to my blog or Facebook what I’m buying, and whose present it is being bought for before purchasing (this may mean updating to Facebook from my cell phone… it also may mean leaving and coming back to the shop, which is no bad thing).
But I will not buy any for me. Instead, I will participate in the great stash knit-down. If I run out of yarn, I suppose I will have to have a bout of tatting or thread-crocheting and use up some of my thread, too.
And, because yarn clubs are so fun, I am borrowing Allison’s suggestion. I took 1 skein of sock or lace yarn and 1 pattern that I want to knit with that yarn, and put it into a paper bag, which I then stapled shut. I did this 12 times, and on the 1st of each month, I will open a bag and make that project. It’s like Christmas every month!
I am taking bets on how long this lasts.