The 2015 Diet

Yes, it’s true. I am being ever so cliché and taking on a diet for my New Year’s Resolution. A YARN diet. You’ve all seen the Yarnerator. I have worked at two incredibly successful and inspiring yarn shops – Purl Soho and Knitche. I’ve also been knitting for over 8 years. The sad truth of it all – my Yarnerator canNOT even hold all the yarn I call my own.

You think I’m kidding? Ask my mother. The first time she saw my stash was just over a year ago. My mother knows nothing of knitting. She says to me, “Uh … Amanda … do you ever have a project in mind when you buy yarn?” with a look of utter confusion. Those of us in the yarn world know THERE’S NO SUCH THING. The sadder truth, my stash has grown by at least 50% since that encounter – but A LOT of that has already been used … maybe – I don’t know exactly how the math works out.

I have many resolutions this year. One is to get out of my apartment more. Freelancing, knit design, and general knitting are not activities which are great for getting me out of the house and I have decided this is the year I will try harder to meet a man – OKCupid is NOT doing it for me. Another was to not buy yarn until I have finished three projects – two of which had to be from my stash. I decided this was not good enough once I took into account all that I made in 2014:

While I am incredibly proud of all that I made in 2014 (and I don’t think this is even the whole of it), maybe 15% came from stash (part of Diamond in the Gradient, the stripe of my Staggered Cowl, two thirds of By the Mayside, half of Sparrow, meet Habu, Geometry Trapezoid, Janna’s Tunic ::Part Deux, and half of Chevron Stripes hat). Two projects were sponsored, but I bought the yarn for everything else! I am SO proud to have supported Local Yarn Shops, but I have to remember I am a broke-ass female! Here in is where I birthed my newest New Year’s … let’s call it a dare.

ONE YEAR WITHOUT BUYING YARN

Everybody CALM DOWN. I know a lot of hearts just skipped a beat – mine still does when I say it out loud. But seriously – I have yarn for 4 new sweaters AFTER the two that are already on my needles (one is for Mom!). And then I have yarn for about 52 other projects … I have exceptions – I’m not crazy. I lead Saturday morning KnitAlongs at Knitche in Downers Grove, IL. I’ll need to acquire new yarn for those projects, but that’s for WORK. Today, I literally (in the true sense of the word) just started counting and collecting all my spare change for a Portage worth of Blacker Yarns : Elegance Spice which I fell in love with while designing DeConstructed Cowl.

It’s on my blog now, so DEEP BREATH, it’s official.

I last bought yarn on December 3oth, 2014.

To help me on my quest, I’ve started Ravelry project pages for all projects which I have yarn for, well at least the sweaters so far. I have not yet gotten to all the accessories I have on my list for which I already have hard pegged. Those WIP project thumb nails on Rav just itch at me, so I thought that would be helpful to give me the umph to stick to it.

What I would really enjoy to keep me on my way is for co-workers and friends to start betting on when I will cave. I think this could get very interesting because those who know me know … that I buy yarn like I wish I could buy donuts. The trick is no one can tell my boss … HI, KATHY!

Disclaimer: I am not AT ALL encouraging ANYONE to follow along on my adventure. I’d rather you all bet on it.

All I’m saying is, “Hello, my name is Amanda and I am a yarn-aholic.”