Note To Self

Dear Self,

In light of today's escapade at the yarn shop, I feel compelled to remind you of a few things.

Yes, yes. It was aminor escapade. Especially for you. You do tend to buy yarn by the truckload. Not by the cutesy little lunchbag-sized load. So two skeins of sock yarn and a single skein of Calmer is really not that bad.

But you see how that rationalizing works? You say, oh it's not so bad, it's just three skeins. And then the yarn follows you home despite your earlier decisions to abstain from yarn shopping for a while.

You remember last year at Stitches Midwest? In the market -- the market with millions of skeins of yarn, all of which made you nearly hyperventilate with yearning? You remember how paltry your $150 yarn budget seemed in the presence of such yarnbundance? Keep your money close, Self, so that you can really splurge at Stitches this year. You know you want it that way.

And don't give me any crap about sock yarn not being stash. Admit it. Seven six-quart bins of sock yarn are jampacked -- you can't even fit all the sock yarn in there any more. That's forty-two quarts of socks waiting to be knit, plus the odd skeins hidden in your knitting bag and cookie jar.

That's stash.

And that's why you joined the Summer of Socks. Because you want to lighten the sock yarn load a bit. And clear out some space before Stitches. You'll need it for the STR binge you have planned. Try to remember that.

Also try to remember that you don't have to buy every single bit of teal sock yarn in greater Chicagoland just because you're knitting a teal cardigan that you really, really love. You can only wear one pair of socks at a time, you know. And it's entirely possible that you won't want to wear the cardigan every single day to match your avalanche of teal socks.

Now, the Calmer, that we can all agree was excusable. You have a family member in heavy treatment for recurrent breast cancer. She will not be with us much longer. Neither will be her hair, and she needs a chemo cap. A very soft one. In a pretty, uplifting, feminine color. Nothing in the stash will come near to accommodating this project, so a single skein of Calmer is perfectly acceptable.

Especially when it's on sale. As was everything else in the store. But that doesn't mean you can buy it all. No, you can't go back there tomorrow, even though the sale is still on.

Now, Self, go knit what you've got, and try to get a little Self-control. It's only two months until Stitches. You can handle it.

Very truly yours,
Me.