Saturday, February 21, 2009

Destashing - Yarn and My Life!

Recently I took the plunge and decided which yarns I could part with. Yesterday I sent off the first two boxes. I was having second thoughts about one, the Boysenberry London Tweed, after seeing one of Svetlana's latest creations. There, was, however, no way I would knit up all the London Tweed in my stash. And certainly no way I could tackle the sweater that Svetlana knit (Forestry - last sweater in the post linked to above). I'm a self-taught knitter (books and magazines) who, so far, has been able to knit the patterns I've taken a fancy to, but who also realizes when a pattern is above my current skill level (or beyond my patience and sustained attention). I consciously choose to work on patterns that I know I can knit now, while queuing up others that I will be able to knit at a later date. E.g. the latest IK cover sweater (Spring 2009) - I read through the instructions and couldn't quite envision what one needs to do to knit this sweater, so as much as I like the sweater, it has to wait.

So, rather than overwhelming myself with yarns I MUST knit up, I decided to let go of a few. It's rather strange to package up these yarns - yarns I couldn't wait to order, couldn't wait to swatch as soon as they arrived - and send them on to their new homes, new dreams, new projects. But OTOH I can't wait to see what they end up becoming...

The destashing of yarn will soon extend to my stuff. Stuff that fills every corner of this 450 square foot apartment and the garage below. Starting small...with some magazines and books on eBay. Then branching out into Craigslist, Freecycle, the library and then onto the Goodwill/Salvation Army. I did it once before (from the same apartment). Back at the end of 2002, I got the contents of the full garage down to a 6 foot by 3 foot stack of boxes. I vow this time NOT to let so much stuff* back into my life.

*Stuff: Clothing I no longer wear, books I read and never let go of, multiples (several bluetooth headsets, several cell phones), Elliptical trainer (used for one week...at most), half-used toiletries, old linen, old files, miscellaneous doo-dads and knick-knacks...and on and on...ugh! =:P