Tuesday, January 2, 2007

I have to say this to the denizens of Knitbloglandia:

Jesus, people, it is not always about YOU! This Knit from the Stash thing has elicited some strong negative reactions, and many milder bitchy ones. It's simple, really. Bess showed the way a year ago, and did it quietly, without buttons and contests and OhMyGodMeTOOmeTOOalltheCoolKnittersaredoingit!!!! I think swearing an oath to the Clerk of Court was a great touch, but other than that Bess just shut up and did it. I plan to shut up and do it too, there will be no buttons on my blog and I'm not going to join any contests. You all will just know that any finished objects in the next 12 months will have been born of the stash and on-hand patterns. And as Forrest Gump says, "And that's all I have to say about that."

This is not about your stash. It is about mine. My yarn stash troubles me, because it grew mostly due to self-medicating with yarn purchases during my husband's illness, and now it's just all sitting around taking up space. I left for work at 7:30 this morning and got home at 6:20, and I only have a 15 minute commute. I do not have a hell of a lot of time to knit, but I do have a hell of a lot of yarn, plenty to hold me for the next year and allow me to make a variety of projects. I also have the patterns and needles to do it. I am not buying so much as a knitting magazine in 2007. I am taking this year to catch up.

And this is the thing about the sort of reverse-competitiveness of women: If your next door neighbor goes on a fitness binge and loses 40 pounds, that does not mean YOU are fat. Maybe you are, maybe you aren't, but she didn't lose weight to make you feel bad about yourself. She did it for herself. If a fellow knitter swears off until she catches up with the on-hand stash, that doesn't mean you have to do it. You may be perfectly comfortable with your own stash, whatever size it may be, and nobody is saying that this is wrong. But please spare us all the commentary about how crazy it is, and make snitty little comments about the inevitability of failure and what torture it will be. It isn't about you. I am going to go work out in a few minutes, this isn't at all related to the size of your ass.

Go forth, buy yarn and be happy. I don't need to for the time being. Let me and the others like me be.

Can't we all just knit along?

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

well said.

Francesca said...

I always miss the genesis of things like this -- I'll read a blog, and someone will mention a big brouhaha, and I'm thinking, "Wha?" But yeah -- stash or destash, whatever. Who cares?!

Debi said...

Did you see where some LYS owner actually told Wendy that if she promoted this "many LYS would close and she would have blood on her hands!" WTdoubleF???
I'm like you, I've wanted to do this for a while but lately I am a joiner, hence the buttons! I figure I supported the LYS economy to date, I'm taking a sabbatical and when there's more room I see how much purchase. I freely admit abstaining from sock yarn will be HARD!!!

Catherine said...

Aaah, I'm just too lazy to add a button! I've thought about it for months and my yarn purchases have tapered off for the last several months, but its time to go cold turkey.

Anonymous said...

I followed you here from the KR forums, because I've been nodding along so much with so many of your comments of late. And now it's official. I heart you.

Bess said...

Thank you for the kind words, my twin. I'm sure it was the bit with the County Clerk that tilted the universe so that that Golding fell into my lap.

Now, about the LYSs. Yes. It was a little tough to go into shops and not buy yarn, especially if the owner was a friend. And I may have bought a book or two out of guilt, but not a book I didn't want. Just one I may have put off buying. And then forgotten about it.

As for all the me2me2me2 folk, well. Sheep will graze in a herd, now, won't they? The good shops will make it, even if Wendy tells all her friends not to shop. Too bad she lives in Richmond, though. That's where I shop. I hope none of the LYSs close there. :D=nymb.

And my own guess is that the folk who go on yarn diets and stick to them will last about as long as the ones who go on food diets. The ones who have some inner desire for calm or peace or reality will stay with it, the ones who who must compete with their neighbors will quit.

Sue said...

Cna't we all just knit along! You are so funny.

People are often only validated when others agree with them. Fuget about it.

Unknown said...

It's too noisy up on that bandwagon, so I'll stay off, thanks. The astounding level of aquisitiveness among knitters continues to make me shake my head, as does the need to justify it.

Thanks for a great post.

Unknown said...

Studio?

sallyjo

Catherine said...

Studio what???

Anonymous said...

No, what studio?

Anonymous said...

Does this stash make my ass look big?

Catherine said...

Amy gets the prize, if I had any, but I don't because I am The Laziest Bitch in Knitblog World, for the perfect comment on this whole thang.

But I'm stilll baffled by the "what studio?" Did I miss something on my own blog? Happens all the time, but point me at it, please.