Friday, November 7, 2008

a knitter insane


it is as you might be able to see, not because i don't have wool. i actually have to shelves in my book cabinet stuffed with wool and several bags sitting around in my apartment. there should be plenty to go on board in without adding to the stash. i mostly have a few skeins left from each project i knit since i always order a little more than i expect to use. i am afraid of running out of yarn for a given project.
and it is not because i don't have nice wool. i have lots of nice yarn. for instance i have a whole cone of perfectly good jaggerspun zephyr that would go well with the smoke ring i would like to knit. anyway i found myself stressing around all over copenhagen to buy qiviuk that i cannot really afford and because last friday was a bad day i wanted to cry or stamp my feet because no one seemed to carry it. and it almost went that way since i slipped on the slippery floor of one of the lys's and then i really wanted to cry. especially since they only had worsted weight qiviuk. it is obsessive and in sane and the fate of many knitters. why do we so desperately want to beaver more wool than with could ever knit in to projects??? well maybe i will be happy it this financial crisis gets any worse. but i am an optimist and it is nothing i really think about on a regular basis.
and after the qiviuk story i told myself that it was crazy so why did i go to a yarn store yesterday and buy the olive green yarn for a dress for alba???? there is a plenitude of things i could knit her out of the yarn i have in my cabinet??? useful warm hats and cowls for winter it is not like she is in terrible need of a knitted olive green dress??
i wonder why it becomes so obsessive and actually i think this is very much influenced by the internet. in the old knitting days i didn't buy more yarn than i needed and only bought anything if it was needed for a project. now i obsess though i think some people would consider my obsessing that of a novice. but i cannot bear to live without a qiviuk smokering or whatever until the next day or week when i want something else. maybe i should get a more meaningful hobby like helping out the homeless where i would surely be more able to draw a line.
PS: sorry about the lousy quality of the pics recently. when i looked out the window an hour ago i was thinking about the bob dylan song that starts with the line: darkness at the break of noon. so please forgive me.


6 comments:

Kverulantinnen said...

I totally identify with your post. I too am in a period of transition, and knitting is getting me through it. But with the massive internet resources available, it is very easy to get sucked into obsessive thinking about the projects one could or should make. Oddly enough, I was ravelling the exact same "smoke ring" that you were at almost the same time. When I went to check my Ravelry friends' activities, there were the same projects I had just looked at.

I don't have any good advie other than to say be kind to yourself, especially as the winter doldrums set in...

Shan said...

I completely agree - the internet is culpable. Too bad you can't sue Al Gore for damages...

Jo at Celtic Memory Yarns said...

Darling girl, we're all in this same obsessive boat! I have a whole workroom jammed with yarn, and still I want more, more, more.

And now you've reminded me that I HAVE the smoke ring pattern - maybe I need some more really really beautiful yarn to make it?

kgirlknits said...

the internet does encourage a certain level of covetous thoughts - so much you haven't seen yourself pops up...

and I totally relate to the driven desire for a particular yarn/shade, despite the many many options lurking in one's stash - I don't know what the answer is though, because I've tried shopping from my stash and it just never seems to be as satisfying!

Anonymous said...

I too have lots of stash, nevertheless I just came back from Britain with 100 balls (yes one hundred) of yarn in the caravan! But I think this obsession is harmless (and a lot cheaper) compared with betting or collecting oldtimers to name but a few. Happy knitting,

A Dutch knitter

Anonymous said...

http://www.bettedesign.dk/
I think Bettedesign has quiviut... For the next time you are in Kbh.
Half my room is ISOLATED with wool. It would take me decades to knit it all. Perhaps one should give some of the not so beloved away... and then buy new :-)