{"id":338,"date":"2010-04-21T20:55:48","date_gmt":"2010-04-22T03:55:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gknerd.com\/?p=338"},"modified":"2010-04-21T20:55:48","modified_gmt":"2010-04-22T03:55:48","slug":"thats-it-im-cut-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gknerd.com\/?p=338","title":{"rendered":"That’s It, I’m Cut Off"},"content":{"rendered":"

Considering I just graduated from college a few years ago (thus giving you some idea of how young I am), I have a relatively impressive yarn stash.\u00a0 In volumetric terms, it’s about 18 cubic feet (roughly half a cubic meter, for you metric types), and that’s under pretty heavy compression.\u00a0 The only reason it’s not double that size is because over the last few years I’ve done a few systematic cullings of synthetic or crappy yarn, so everything that’s left is at least Cascade 220 quality or higher, and I’ve also been on a yarn diet for more than three years.<\/p>\n

Of course, “yarn diet” is a very flexible term when I\u00a0 use it.\u00a0 In theory, it was supposed to mean “knit from stash and stop buying new yarn, stupid”, but what it ends up meaning is “don’t go to the yarn store by yourself, but when someone invites you to come with them then you probably will end up buying something there.”\u00a0 Or if you’re at a yarn store you’ve never been to.\u00a0 Or if there’s a sale.\u00a0 Or if you’re sure<\/em> you know what you’re going to do with it.\u00a0 Or if you need a reward to motivate you to get through something really crappy at work.<\/p>\n

The end result is that it’s unclear whether my stash has grown or shrunk over the last few years.\u00a0 Given that I’ve given away bags of yarn in that time frame, that realization alone is rather disturbing.<\/p>\n

So on Saturday, I was forced to understand why the “yarn diet” wasn’t really working.\u00a0 It started with this box from Knit Picks<\/a>…<\/p>\n

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Which when opened up revealed\u00a0 30 balls of the gorgeously soft and squishy yarn (Simply Cotton Organic Sport<\/a> in Marshmallow) for my friend’s wedding blanket.\u00a0 When I ordered it, I figured 30 balls would be enough (it’s 4,920 yards, for goodness sake!), but now I’m wondering if maybe I shouldn’t order 10-20 more…you know, just in case…<\/p>\n

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But then, upon taking that yarn out of the box, I also found the Elegant Edibles<\/a> kit, with it’s own set of 14 balls.<\/p>\n

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This kit is my reward for surviving March.\u00a0 Remember how I posted maybe twice the whole month?\u00a0 I’m counting myself lucky that my head didn’t turn around backwards while my eyes imploded and my insides were sucked into a black hole.<\/p>\n

…that’s just a lovely image, isn’t it?\u00a0 Here, why don’t you look at the picture of the knitted fruit and vegetable bags instead of imagining that other thing:<\/p>\n

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All told, though, that’s 44 balls of yarn acquired in one<\/em> day.\u00a0 And, sure, I didn’t buy any yarn in the month or two before, so maybe that averages to less than one per day.\u00a0 Except that, I went to the yarn store a few weeks ago with a couple friends, where there was also a sale<\/em>, and may have walked out with some yarn for an imaginary sweater.\u00a0 But even if we forget that particular purchase of yarn, and even if the things in the box were justified because it’s for a gift and a reward respectively, well…<\/p>\n

…that still doesn’t explain this:<\/p>\n

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That’s right, the day after that box arrived I found myself in a yarn store, and I managed to pick up 5 skeins of Cascade 220 (and a pom-pom maker, inspired by the Yarn Harlot’s post<\/a>).\u00a0 And as soon as I walked out of the store, I realized…I have a problem.<\/p>\n

So here it is – I’m really committed this time.\u00a0 I’m on a yarn diet, and yes, that really does mean that I will not be buying any more yarn.\u00a0 If that means I can’t go to any more yarn stores, so be it.\u00a0 If that means I have to find different rewards for my difficult projects, oh well.\u00a0 Until my stash is of a reasonable size – which we’ll say is roughly 12 cubic feet, when it will fit in the one giant tub I have without overflow or major compression – I will not<\/em> buy any more yarn.<\/p>\n

Unless, you know, I need more yarn for the wedding blanket.\u00a0 Because I’m actually really worried that five thousand yards might not be enough…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Considering I just graduated from college a few years ago (thus giving you some idea of how young I am), I have a relatively impressive yarn stash.\u00a0 In volumetric terms, it’s about 18 cubic feet (roughly half a cubic meter, for you metric types), and that’s under pretty heavy compression.\u00a0 The only reason it’s not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[37,39],"class_list":["post-338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-wedding","tag-yarn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gknerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gknerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gknerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gknerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gknerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gknerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gknerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gknerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gknerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}