Yarn Retirement Account (401Y)

I've been trying to get my stash (as well as my knitting paraphernalia) organized and cataloged so I can see (or at least know) what I have. This flurry of organization came about when I returned from the bookstore clutching a new knitting book (Knitting circles around Socks by Antje Gillingham) only to find that I already had it. I've had this same realization with knitting needles but usually it's because I've got a project on one pair of the needles in the size I need for a new project and rather than move that project onto stitch holders or scrap yarn (or finish that project first - a novel idea) I just buy new needles in the duplicate size. This seems to work well but eventually I finish both projects and am left with two needles of the same size. So with the help of Ravelry I decided to start getting things listed. No easy (or quick) task, I assure you. The first step in this process was getting all the knitting items into the same room.

You'd be surprised how many places I had yarn, books and needles stashed around the house. As I was moving everything up to the spare room (I hope we don't have any house guests for awhile) I started pondering what made me think that a house with multiple stairs was a good idea. Once I got everything (or what I think is everything) up there, I started with the magazines. My fears were confirmed when I found that I had three duplicate magazines in the stack.

OK, three isn't a lot but still, it's a sign of a problem that needed to be nipped in the bud so I felt pretty good about lugging all that crap, I mean fabulous knitting items, upstairs. Then I did find another duplicate book. How does this happen? This cataloging of books and magazines took longer than I thought so I didn't really get into the actual yarn stash yet but I did have a realization. It's not that I'm accumulating yarn, I'm actually making deposits into my yarn retirement account, my YRA 401Y if you will. Think about it -- if I buy yarn now until I retire then I'll have a fabulous "nest egg" and I won't have to spend my actual retirement account money on yarn. (Some of you might say I will probably still make yarn purchases after I retire - you can point out your plot holes elsewhere). I think this is a fine rationale and I'm sticking to it as I continue to make deposits into my YRA. I suggest you do the same.

Then I did find another duplicate book. How does this happen? This cataloging of books and magazines took longer than I thought so I didn't really get into the actual yarn stash yet but I did have a realization. It's not that I'm accumulating yarn, I'm actually making deposits into my yarn retirement account, my YRA 401Y if you will. Think about it -- if I buy yarn now until I retire then I'll have a fabulous "nest egg" and I won't have to spend my actual retirement account money on yarn. (Some of you might say I will probably still make yarn purchases after I retire - you can point out your plot holes elsewhere). I think this is a fine rationale and I'm sticking to it as I continue to make deposits into my YRA. I suggest you do the same.

Quick update from Sock Camp

I'm here at Camp Crows Feet and having loads of fun. Wish you were here.

This was the first night (Monday) when we came into the Discovery House. The camp counselors and sockateers were standing guard over the shop - we couldn't make any
purchases until later. Recognize anyone of the guards?



As you can see here, when they did open the store people went wild!





We all love our yarn.










This is Joan - doesn't the yarn frame her face well?





More to follow... Stay tuned...

Flashback blogging

Well it appears that finding time to blog is just as difficult as finding time to work on my dissertation. So I'll be doing blog posts in a bit of a flashback manner (similar to the flashbacks in Lost but not quite as cryptic).

So, I'll start with a recent flashback - my evening at the Tattered Cover in Highlands Ranch waiting for and then listening to Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. I got the the store around 4pm and there were already 20+ people in line. I'm not sure if the staff at TC were surprised by this but they seemed accommodating as they started to snake the queue around the various areas in the store. By the time line numbers were handed out at 6:30pm there was a lot of folks in line (all working on their various knitting projects, of course). I was working on my fan kimono from Vicki Square's "Knit Kimono" book. I found a woman later who was working on the Komon pattern from the same book - Fabulous! After I got my line number (26!) I put my bag down on a chair in the 5th row and headed outside and around the corner to String. I hadn't been to this shop yet and it was quite lovely with all the yarn arranged by color. The owner was giving us all a discount for the event and she even gave away yarn in a raffle before Stephanie talked!

At 7:30 I was back in my chair (and I didn't buy any yarn at the store-I know that's a shock). The TC employee introduced Stephanie.

Stephanie's talk was quite funny (as usual). After she was done, I got in line to get my book signed. I probably shouldn't have tried to keep working on my kimono while standing in line but I did and of course I fudged up a couple of rows (I think I've got them fixed now). When I finally I got up to have my book signed all the witty things I had thought to say all escaped me. But I babbled something about going to sock camp next week where I would see her and she mentioned that she had head about the pre-camp yarn crawl and thought that sounded interesting. And then I tried to take a picture of her and snapped it while she was talking. Sorry Stephanie.

Overall I think it was a very enjoyable evening and I was able to get out of there by 9:20 or so. I don't know how long it took for everyone to get their books signed but judging from the size of the crowd I would imagine it was quite a while.

By the way, I'm in one of Stephanie's pictures on her blog about the event. I'm in the second picture, fifth row back on the inside aisle. My tiny head is peaking out as I'm knitting and smiling. I was sitting next to two lovely ladies (of course I forgot their names) who had made the trip from Wyoming! Knitters are always up for road trips.

Speaking of trips, in my next post I'll give you the scoop on the six yarn stores I visited during my recent trip to NYC. And then if I'm feeling really ambitious, I'll post about my trip to the Great American Knit out at the Mall of America in February. So much to post, so little time...