Did you know that today is “I Love Yarn” day?  Instituted by the Craft Yarn Council, this is the day we publicly affirm our passion for yarn.  Personally, I do that most days, but today, October 12th, is the “official” day.

My mom showing first blanket in process (circa 1976)

I have loved yarn since my mom taught me to crochet when I was 7.  We went to the yarn store and I picked out a skein of blue yarn.  She taught me the basic stitches and then started me on a blanket using the shell stitch.  As I reached the end of the skein, we would go back to the store to buy another color.  The blanket grew and by the time I was 12 it was large enough to fit a double bed.

During my teen years, my mom taught me how to knit, but I didn’t really take to knitting until I was in my late 20’s.  My grandmother was an expert knitter and I only wish I had paid more attention when she was alive.  I still have cardigans today that she knit for me and as I’ve improved I have a huge appreciation for her skill when I look at her work.

Today I’m going to deal with organizing my yarn.  Those that know me, know that as well as having a passion for yarn, I have A LOT of yarn.  Given my previous posts and my propensity for accumulation, this should be no surprise.  I have received several donations of yarn, but the bulk of my collection has been purchased.  But now I want to corral my stash, organize it and make good use of it.  I knit on a very regular basis, always have several projects on my needles and come up with many more ideas on a daily basis.

A website called Ravelry is a knitting/crochet community where you can find patterns, yarn, friends and also organize your stash.  My goal is to sort through my stash of yarn and patterns and get it organized through Ravelry.  Once it’s set up, I will be able to know at a moment’s notice if I have the right yarn for a particular project.  While it’s always exciting to go out and purchase new yarn, I have enough to safely last my lifetime and I want to start using it.  I, and many of my friends, knit squares for a wonderful organization called Knit-A-Square that sews those squares into blankets for AIDS orphans.  This is a fantastic way to use up the bits that are leftover from a project.

While organizing my supplies is a good and necessary idea, the larger change that I want to commit to is finishing projects.  I have several large projects in the halfway phase and I need to complete those before taking on others.  So here’s to completion…. 

“Would our dog sweaters be on your ‘projects to be completed list’?  Winter’s coming and you know how shivery I get.”