A twelve step program for dealing with yarn addiction.

After writing yesterday’s post, I realized that I might be addicted to yarn. Not that there is really anything wrong with that, I mean, yarn isn’t really hazardous to your health. Unless you are allergic to it, and I guess some people can be accidentally strangled by it, but besides that, I can’t think of anything that would be all that adverse about owning yarn. My problem is that I own a small house and large quantities of yarn. I’ve been pretty good about keeping the yarn stored in just a couple of rooms of my house, but I have noticed that the yarn keeps multiplying. Whenever I go stash diving, I find all of this really nice yarn I must have bought last time I had a yarn binge. Anyway, I’ve devised a strategy to handle my growing yarn collection. This would also work for pattern books or almost anything that is taking over the space of your house.

A twelve step program for dealing with yarn addiction.
Step 1: Admit that you are addicted to yarn.

Step 2: Believe that yarn will not take over your life.

Step 3: Make a decision to go on a yarn diet. Set a budget of the number of skeins/balls/hanks of yarn you will buy in the next year.

Step 4: Make an inventory of all of your yarn. Really just sort of count how many balls of yarn you have. Also count the number of projects that are on the needles.

Step 5: Admit to the skeins of yarn that are hidden in strange places around your house and anywhere you have decided to store it.

Step 6: Be willing to go through your stash and either use up some of the yarn that has been sitting there for years, or give it away. Give away anything that you know you will never knit with. You know what I’m talking about, the skein that sends chills down your spine whenever you touch it. The balls of yarn you bought for 25 cents per ball, but soon realized that you paid too much.

Step 7: Humbly ask someone to help you with this process

Step 8: Make a list of all of the projects you want make with your yarn. Match yarn to pattern. Ravelry is a great resource for this.

Step 9: Stop ignoring the partially finished projects that have been on your needles for ages. Either vow to finish them very soon, rip/frog them and make them into something else, or cast off and find a new use for whatever it was. A lot of knitted things are flat, maybe get a bunch of these abandoned projects and sew them all together, making a blanket for those cold winter nights. If you have some sleeves from an unfinished sweater, sew them on your blanket too, you could make one of those blankets with the sleeves like the ones seen on TV. Be Creative! Have fun!

Step 10: Continue to take inventory of your yarn stash. It is probably overwhelming and a little scary, but it can be overcome.

Step 11: Knit a little of something you seriously want to knit. Change takes time, and if you work too hard at all of this too quickly, you might get overwhelmed and disgusted with the whole process.

Step 12: Have a yarn awakening, think about what you like in a yarn and what you don’t like in a yarn. If you know that you absolutely hate knitting with cotton, or silk or wool or acrylic, stop buying it. Even if the yarn is on sale for an awesome price, avoid it, if you know that you won’t ever enjoy using it.

Just remember, there are worse things to be addicted to than yarn.