Tink about It...

I've recently found myself once again surrounded by unfinished projects. A sweater with half sleeves, an afghan with incomplete blocks, a prayer shawl that needs to be frogged and de-frogged. And this is the time of year when our 1.5 days of sweater weather comes around so I am sorely tempted to start up one for myself - knowing full well that I will not finish it in time to wear this season. So what do you do when these sudden seasonal urges come over you and you find yourself caressing skeins of Noro that you know you can't dedicate time to right now (or next month, or in January...)? Seriously, I've taken the first step: I admit I have a yarn stash 10 times larger than my motivation or collection of patterns will use within a year. So now that I have identified and admitted that I have a problem, what do I do about it?

On the subject of having yarn stashes larger that fall somewhere between one's ambitions and one's realistic time and energy restraints, a sad fact exists that I think needs to be addressed. Where will your stash go when you go? My aunt, for instance, was 1)a fabriholic, and 2)Obsessive Compulsive. She left instructions concerning the distribution of her vast fabric stash in the case of her leaving this earth prior to exhausting it. Her executor, my mother, had very specific and detailed notes that told her what was to go where or to whom. Not many think of this ahead of time. (Did I mention that said aunt was Obsessive Compulsive?) On more than one occasion now I have become the distributor of fabric and yarn stashes for those family members who really just don't know what to do with their loved ones' supplies and incomplete projects. Since I am a facilitator of a stitch ministry and a contributor to several charitable organizations, I am able to assure the bereaved that these materials will be used for the benefit of those less fortunate. I'm thinking I need to include in my will where my sewing and knitting and crocheting supplies should be taken when I go. I think of it as a sort of pay it forward. I can enjoy as much of my stash as possible while occupying a corporeal space in the world, but I want to bequeath what is left to a good cause. Hmmm, I wonder if that proclamation gives me the freedom to purchase the most luscious and expensive yarns I possibly can from now on - after all, it's for a good cause in the long run!