Dear blog readers, it has been 29 days since my last yarn purchase. In this season of winter sales and new spring yarns it’s been hard to resist, but a knitter’s gotta do what a knitter’s gotta do – especially with the DKC Knitter’s Frolic coming up at the end of April. There’ll be plenty of purchasing to be done there, that’s for sure. I’m already making a list of vendors I want to look at first, and planning projects for the spring knitting time.
But now there’s this tiny little event on the horizon for August (you may have heard one or two people mentioning it), and since this is going to involve a bit of saving up and yet further shopping opportunities (I can only imagine what that vendors’ hall is going to look like), Rebecca and I have issued a mutual challenge: No more sock yarn purchases until the Sock Summit.
Now, we are not pure cold heartless non-stashers. (Hah! Me, a non-stasher? Have we met?) All other yarn is still fair game. And we are allowing each other 2 free passes of sock yarn purchases, just to be terribly generous. Rebecca has gone and taken this to the next level of personal guilt and taken a photograph of all of her sock yarn stash, to encourage her a bit further.
My friends, I can tell you right now, I will not be taking a photograph of all of my sock yarn stash. I know how many pairs I could knit from that stash, and well…I’m OK with that even though it makes me twitch just a little bit. All I have to do is close my eyes and I can see the stash closet in all its yarny glory. But the fact of the matter is, I do have more sock yarn than one person reasonably needs, and I just hate to think of it all sitting there waiting endlessly to be knit, growing shadowier and falling into permanent slumber.
My tactic, therefore, is to keep an ‘in’ and ‘out’ tally of my socks for the year – the ‘out’ side of the list is all the pairs I have knitted so far this year, the ‘in’ side is the # of pairs’ worth of yarn I have purchased since New Year’s. At the moment, the ‘in’ side is definitely winning. This is my goal: To have the ‘out’ list out-number the ‘in’ list before the Sock Summit comes calling. I need to get back to some of those neglected skeins, and knit ’em up before new stashlets come home to roost.
This can be done. I will do it. Sock stash rediscovery shall be mine.
To get this party started, I’m turning to my freshly purchased copy of Nancy Bush’s Knitting Vintage Socks (I knew 9/10ths of the knitting blogosphere couldn’t be wrong – there are at least 4 pairs in here I’d like to knit right now), and have dusted off a long-stashed skein of Schaefer Anne for a pair of Gentleman’s Fancy Stockings. It’s a start.
Now if I can just add more hours into the day, I’ll have no trouble with the rest.
What sock pattern do you want to knit today?
Glenna Knits 
I have a skein of Malabrigo sock yarn (lettuce) all ready to go just waiting for me to make up my mind. Leaning towards the Monkey socks by Cookie A. I might be the only person left on Ravelry who has not made these!
I just purchased the book ‘Socken aus aller Welt’ (in German) by Stephanie van der Linden. It’s a journey around the world in sock patterns and I want to knit nearly every pattern in this book. It has colorwork, lace, cables, beads. I want to knit nearly every pair in this book.
You can do it, especially with that wonderful event as motivation – just think how good the guilt free purchasing will feel. Sending moral support as I know the habit of adding one little beautiful skein of sock yarn here or there is a very hard one to break!
My out tally will never, ever, EVER surpass my in tally – I’m so bad, even my mom is adding to my stash (and she’s not even a knitter!) on a regular basis.
I just counted, and if you include the 50g skeins that are destined to become pairs of low-cut sporty socks, I’ve got enough for 30 pairs. As a symptom of my disorder, that seems completely reasonable. 😀
Etsy and Rav trade/sell pages are a bad, bad, bad, bad, BAD thing. Bad!
One of these days I must make it to a festival.
I’m on the opposite end of the spectrum: sock stash sufficient for 1 pair only. I need to worry about that, right? Right?
Hearty congratulations on making it 29 days without a yarn purchase; a remarkable achievement!
And remember: need has nothing to do with stash enhancement. 🙂
Did you get the shakes after going so long without a new yarn transfusion? I’m up there with Kate, my stash has enough for easily 30 pairs. And I’m heading for Stitches this month, so I know I’ll be adding to it!
I’m missing DKC Frolic again!!!! 😦
That is an interesting plan, I like it because you get to start over every year… and all those previous years worth of sock yarn become possible out, rather than in… very clever.
I fell off the wagon (again) this morning when my mom suggested I knit my dad a pair of socks for his birthday this month. “What color?” I said. “How about gray?” she said. And since I don’t HAVE any gray sock yarn and I doubt that bright orange is a reasonable substitute, I had no choice but to buy some. Still thinking about a pattern, though I recently stumbled upon some great vintage patterns from decades ago that I may want to try.
I’ve just begun socks recently, but I tend not to stash sock yarn- I stash heavier, sweater yardge yarn! those gentleman’s fancy socks are looking cute.
Honestly, the pair I’m itching to make is your Viper Pilot pattern!!! I have to finish up a bit of “obligation knitting” first — babies about to be born, birthdays about to be had… but I have the yarn alllll chosen and everything.
The opening to your blog sounded like an AA meeting! Oh, right, yarn is an addiction. A good kind, one I hope I never recover from!
Is it brown-nosing if I say the pair I want to knit is the Viper Pilots? I care not! Viper Pilots it is! Now if I could just finish ONE of Purl Bee’s Socks for Giving I feel like I could justify pulling out my beautiful, brand new skein of Malabrigo Sock Yarn in Cote de Azur, cast on, and begin knitting them in all their twisted glory!
Also, FiberFervor, you are not the only one on Ravelry without a pair of Monkey Socks. I keep meaning to buy some yarn and hop to it, but I seem to have the unfortunate problem of stashing worsted weight yarn and can never find the sock yarn when I want / need it.
I refuse to count my sock yarn stash as I know I have more than enough yarn to last for the next 5 years! I am now designing 4 pairs of socks for a sock club.
Didn’t someone — the Yarn Harlot, perhaps — say that sock yarn doesn’t count as stash? I certainly would like to think that’s true.
I do good to just keep notes on what I’m knitting, never mind the tallies :^)
I’ve gotten my sock mojo back and focusing on getting my drawer full, but it takes time,eh?
I’ve picked out my brightest, most springy coloured sock yarn, as there is no colour outside. They will just be plain, as they are a striping yarn.
Sadly, I actually am itching to do nothing BUT knit socks. Sweater project be damned. I’ve got a LOTR-themed Hobbit sock on the needles right now, and then I have two other ones queued up mentally. I really should get back to the sweater sleeves tho……
You can do it! Go ahead, show us your sock stash! 🙂 We can handle it. I wish I could go to Sock Summit. (sigh) Not this year. I know it’s going to be awesome. As for socks I want to knit, I have Lenores that are barely on the needles. And I’d like to knit Leyburns too. And someday, your Vipor Pilots….
I think more out than in is a perfectly reasonable goal. You can do it, no sweat! Plus, it’s a motivation to get knitting on some of those patterns/skeins that once caught your fancy. Enjoy it!
I have taken a vow of (almost) complete stash-buying chastity, between now and August. With exceptions made for “emergencies,” of course. However those may be defined in the moment of need. Holding off on sock yarn, however, is not a problem for me (yet) as the (very large) bin that holds my sock stash is full to the brim of precious lovelies….and I have to knit some of it up to show off at the Summit!
(Including, I hope, a pair of those awesome Viper Pilot socks of yours…woot!)