Yesterday a lady at our church gave me an entire kitchen-sized trash bag full of beautiful new yarns. Now I’m just about the opposite of a yarn snob. I think a person should knit with what they have available or what they can afford, and knitted things to be gifted or given to charity or babies should probably be done in acrylic, so it can be chucked in the washing machine.
Clockwise from Top left: 4 pink/peach/apricot sweet rolls. Then 4 white/blue/turquoise Sweet Rolls. A yellow Pound of Love and about a 6-oz ball. 2 and about a half mint/cyan/teal Sweet Rolls, 3 Lion Brand Landscapes, an I Love This Yarn overdye in white/Lavender/blue/green; 2, 7-oz skeins plus about a 4oz ball of hot pink I Love This Yarn, and 4, 5-oz skeins of I Love This Yarn Print in hot pink/light pink/tan/blue/orange/green
I’ve been active for about a year and a half in a group on Ravelry whose main focus is knitting socks, from stashed yarn, and I’ve enjoyed the comaraderie on this group. As a matter of fact in 11 years on Ravelry it’s the only one that I’ve felt like I fit in. And I love the chain swap that they have every year. Last year I even managed to do 4 of the challenges, and I sure enjoyed knitting all those double-strand scrappy socks for last Christmas, because they go so fast. Though most of us in my family don’t need more than 1 pair of those because it’s only THAT cold a few days each winter.
And regular handknit socks are important and warm, but this year I’ve only finished ONE pair. Mostly I’m just creating UFOs to add to my already stellar Hall of Shame.
And I’ve been looking at these lovely new yarns that Lynette gave me yesterday, and also my bin of beautiful bright worsted to bulky yarns, that I got to begin with because I wanted to knit something quick and pretty. I’ve been thinking, you know, I could make a bunch of hats or mitts for the homeless and I can do one of those projects in a day or two, whereas lately I can’t even get a pair of socks done in a whole month.
So I think I’m gonna probably do the “finish UFOs” challenge in August & September because I need to, and keep my eye on the chain swap, but I think I’m going to maybe knit up some instant gratification things for charity or gifting or even for my shop and take a break from trying to force myself to get socks done by a deadline. Knitting is supposed to be a relaxation, an enjoyment, and a stress relief, not a guilt trip.