No Diet is Easy

Including yarn diets. It's the worst when I'm so bored and the colors are so pretty and look that's a really good price and...not good.

I have dentist bills and car bills this month, and so many projects and supplies for projects at home, that I am really, really trying not to buy anything. I have my Spunky Eclectic subscription and that is supposed to be IT. Nothing this month, and hopefully nothing next month either (although my birthday is next month so I don't expect to be completely deprived).

I am unfortunately not someone who has cultivated a lot of self-discipline. I know it is healthy (and, in fact, necessary) for me to say "No" to myself sometimes, but I'm not very good at it. I know in my brain that I don't NEED stuff, but stuff makes me happy, so when I get upset or stressed out or just depressed I buy stuff. Very, very bad. So, this month is an exercise in self-discipline, because I will be happier if I get some. Also, I'm flippin' broke. See above re car bills and dentist bills. So today is a good day to learn to say "No."

I have been very tempted this week. However, I have the comfort of tossing the stash. My stash is pretty meager by most standards, since I tend to buy stuff with a specific project in mind and knit it up pretty quickly, but Christmas presents increased it quite a bit and I have been knitting long enough now that I do have materials for a couple of projects that I just never quite got to. So, when I saw the Shipwreck Shawl in the issue of Knitty that went live yesterday, I thought, wait a minute! She used the bare and dyed it, but the base yarn is KnitPicks Gloss! I have like six skeins of gloss in my stash that I bought intending to make into a shawl, but then never did! Let me multiply...hey, that's almost the exact same amount of yarn I have!

But, I don't have any beads. I mean, I have about six different varieties of blue beads from when I was picking for my mystery stole, but I don't have any red beads and the yarn is red and the blue wouldn't work.

And then, Pink Lemon Twist blogged today about a new shawl she is designing and it just so happens that the yarn she is using is one of the first (non-acrylic, non-off-the-shelf-at-Michaels) yarn purchases I ever made, Fleece Artist Suri Blue. And since I love Pink Lemon Twist patterns, and I never came up with a project for that yarn, I'm like, YES! I'm all set! (Side note - I actually bought 4 skeins in 2 colorways, the flagstone colorway I have actually started a project with, the Beginner's Lace Triangle from A Gathering of Lace, that I never finished)

Except, I don't have any beads. I mean, I have about six different varieties of blue beads from when I was picking for my mystery stole, but I don't have any red beads and the yarn is red and the blue wouldn't work.

Can you see where this is going? Clearly, I need beads! Beads aren't yarn, so they don't count, right? And beads are cheap!

Except, here's the thing - my general method is to buy four or five kinds of beads and then decide what I like. If I don't like anything...I end up buying more beads. And then I have to pay shipping on top of that, and it all just adds up really quiclky, and before you know it I've got the equivalent of hand-dyed sock yarn in my basket and I have wholly defeated the purpose of the yarn diet.

So, I think I'm going to take a different approach and actually go to a local bead store. There are some here, I just have to drive into an area where I always get lost to get to them. But, I should be able to take the yarn with me and hopefully walk out with only one or two options rather than say, 7. Or 17. Or 70.

I realize this may be better in theory than in practice, so I think I'll walk in with ten dollars in cash and leave my debit card in the car. Just as extra insurance.

Really, I don't need anything right away. The PLT shawl isn't even designed yet, and while the shipwreck shawl looks both awesome and appealingly easy once you get past the center design, I do still have other projects going that need attention (ahem...hemlock blanket, carribean socks, phyllo sweater, moonlight sonata, mystery stole) and a couple that I really, desperately want to do (swan lake!) so...maybe if I just sort of sit still and put my head between my knees, the feeling of I MUST HAVE BEADS will pass.

On a totally different note...looking above, I seem to have something against the color red. I know that red looks good on me so I do buy red yarn, but...I really prefer looking at darker colors like blues and greens and purples, so I have not knit much red yarn.