ok folks, you are here to hold me accountable. You’ll notice in the sidebar a Yarn Diet Status message. I installed a WordPress countdown plugin that will track the number of days I’ve “gone without,” hehe. I declared August 1st as the official start of my yarn diet, though in reality I haven’t bought yarn since before that. But I figure the first of the month is a nice, easy way to remember where I began.

I’m shooting for September 1. yes, just a month. I figure, if I can go a month without buying yarn, then I can set another short-term goal from there. I think that’s more encouraging than saying I won’t buy yarn for 3 or (gasp!) 6 months.

I generally dislike rules, but here are my self-imposed ground rules for the Grand Ole Yarn Diet:

• Sock yarn DOES count. I know a lot of knitters say that it doesn’t count, but are you kidding me? The majority of my stash IS sock yarn. I have got to widdle it down, and that can’t happen if I keep acquiring more sock yarn.
• Patterns and knitting books don’t count. My thinking is that these help use the stash, plus this satisfies the cravings I get to buy something.
• Any other non-yarn items (needles, notions) don’t count either.

I seriously feel like I am embarking on some kind of QUEST, or something. It’s the oddest feeling. Somehow, declaring that I really need to curb my spending habits–just the act of admitting that I have budgeting issues–gives me a feeling of POWER. Case in point: I have a ton of WIPs in progress (my Ravelry queue currently shows 10). This week, I finished a Clapotis, knit the Everlasting Bagstopper from Knitty, and I’m about to turn the heel of a sock I started LAST NIGHT. Crazy? Yesssssss. Motivated to use the yarn I have? oh yes.

Watch that space over to the right, and do a happy dance with me when the counter adds another day.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 2nd, 2007 at 10:04 pm and is filed under Knitting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.