All of this runs counter to what society expects from women. We are certainly not encouraged in anything for the mere sake of pleasure--except for a small piece of chocolate once a week or maybe a bubble bath[...] when I think of an indulgent weekend, I think of having pizza for breakfast, lunch, and dinner; I think of staying out all night drinking whiskey and flirting with younger men; I think of spending an entire day in my pajamas knitting and watching documentaries on Netflix--I certainly don't think of a bath. In fact, taking care that one is clean and pore-free and has her talons in tiptop form isn't an indulgence for women--it is an imperative. There's no indulgence in doing what one's already expected to do.
Now, I know that no women's magazine is ever going to encourage women to indulge themselves by buying more yarn. But they've got it all wrong. Because every time a person buys yarn for a future project they are going to make "someday," they are reaffirming their commitment to spend many delicious hours doing something they love. A woman's growing stash is a monument to her never-ending, happily-ever-after love affair with yarn; to the ongoing respect for her craft; and to the value of doing something just for herself [...]
Because the way I see it, it's sexism, pure and simple, that makes a woman feel ashamed of her yarn stash, while her husband, who has enough parts in the garage to make five motorcycles, doesn't display the slightest bit of embarrassment about it. It's sexism that makes a woman believe that an investment in hundreds of dollars of skin creams promising to restore her youth is an acceptable expenditure, when the same amount spent on yarn is considered to have been squandered, because our culture expects women to be forever young. It's sexism that makes hobbies engaged in mostly by women, such as knitting, considered frivolous wastes of time, while those engaged in mostly by men, such as fishing or golf, are never judged as harshly.
So I say to women: Flaunt your stash. Own it. Find a way to share your space and your finances with your DH that seems fair and equal, because no modern partnership should be based on anything less. Then fill that closet, or those shelves, or that craft room, or that suitcase, with as much yarn as you can fit and afford. Stake your place in the world inside a circle of yarn balls. Stand up for your right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of a yarn stash. It's your duty as a knitter, and as a woman.
