I’m not hopping on the yarn-diet, buy-no-yarn-in-2007 bandwagon that seems to be making the rounds. Those who are, I know, have their reasons for doing so and I respect those reasons. But I’d like a chance to express my reasons for choosing not to follow along.

First, my stash is just not that big. I don’t have a room for my stash or even a closet — I have several large plastic bins that I store on a bookshelf and in a corner of my dining room. Oh… If I knit nothing but lace and socks and maybe a sweater and a couple of hats, and finished up the projects already on needles, I’d have enough yarn to keep me busy this year and partially into next. About half my stash is sock yarn and I am not adding to that collection right now unless I find some unique fiber or amazing color that I really want to try. I’ve joined the STR sock club this year, so I already know that some lovely yarn will be coming my way.

I am usually thoughtful about my purchases. Not always, but usually. Sometimes the thinking goes very quickly — so quickly that it might appear to be an impulse buy. But I do think and consider and weigh what I already have against the desirability of whatever new thing has caught my eye. Even if I buy impulsively, I have a roof over my head and my bills are paid and I have money in savings and buying a skein of yarn does not take food from my child’s mouth (he feeds himself quite well nowadays, anyway).

I’d rather knit a pretty sweater than buy one.

I have learned the hard way that failure to buy a wonderful yarn when it is available might mean that quantities large enough for the intended project are not available when I get around to starting on it. With colorways and even fibers changing quickly from season to season, it’s sometimes best to strike while the iron is hot if a particular yarn is needed (or wanted).

Most of the yarn I have has already been earmarked for projects, even if those projects have not yet been started. Most often I decide what I’m going to knit and only then start looking for a yarn to knit it from. I’ve also learned the hard way that buying yarn in quantity without the actual project in mind usually means that I don’t buy enough.

We are blessed in Portland buy having probably more local yarn shops per capita than almost anywhere else. Each is a unique shopping experience. All carry wonderful yarns and amazing fibers. Whatever you are looking for, be it acrylic or qiviuk; whatever shopping ambiance you prefer; there is something here for everyone. But our LYS exist only because they are sustained by the yarn needs of Portland area fiber crafters. If we all stopped buying yarn for the next nine months, by October we might find that our choices were fewer and some wonderful local businesses were no more.

I love yarn. All the yarn. I feel that I show admirable restraint by not buying all the yarn – even the yarn I don’t plan to knit with. OK… there are those three balls of pink KidSeta. But that was an aberration. Really. For the most part I am content to stroke and fondle and smell and squeeze and simply visit the yarn without bringing it home.

But I will not feel guilty when I do. 🙂

I saw this on Kathy’s blog and just had to try it out. And look! The results are so fitting! Dream boxes, here I come, key in hand!

My Fortune Cookie told me: It is time to open your dream boxes. Get a cookie from Miss Fortune

Yeah. It’s that post. The one where I look back on everything I did last year, bemoan the things I didn’t do, and resolve to get in gear during the coming year.

I actually finished quite a few things:

• 14 pairs of socks
• 7 pair-of-socks bookmarks
• 6 hats
• 1 pair of gloves
• 1 lace shawl

Even if all of the bookmarks are counted as one object, that’s still nearly two finished objects per month. That’s not too bad, if I do say so myself.

The 2006 FO list has been removed from the sidebar, and a new list and new gallery for 2007 have been started. Nothing in them yet, but I’m working on it.

There are unfinished objects over in the sidebar. Sadly enough, a couple of them were unfinished last year at this time. But since both are items that I’d really like to have, I will keep slogging away at them.

This is a bronze Roman key, made sometime in the 1st to 3rd centuries AD (or CE). It was most likely made to fit a small chest or casket that stored valuables.

Who was it that used this key? Did it belong to a woman? The wife of a merchant? The daughter of a general? Did the casket break and the key was thrown away? Was it lost and searched for but never found?

What secrets and treasures did the little chest guard? Jewelry? The spices of the Orient? Important papers? Plots against the emperor? (several of the more interesting ones fall in that time period) Plans for conquering the rest of the known world? A precious book?

Dare I say it… yarn? (ok, ok… I know that knitting hadn’t been invented yet, but spinning and weaving had)

Let’s go back 2000 years and use this key… unlock the chest… peak inside… what do you see?

The key is strung on a chain because I am wearing it as a pendant to remind myself that things that are locked away and hidden may be safe, but they are also not of much immediate use. This year I resolve to look for hidden treasures to be unlocked.