Stashalong is bringing out the worst in me!

Happy Easter for those who celebrate. I'm in my eighth year of being an ambivalent catholic, but I'll talk about that some other time. It's a long story. :-)

So when you do something different you usually get an emotional snapshot of who you are. I know I'm fanatical about my knitting but I didn't realize how much until I joined this Stashalong. I've been good, I haven't bought any yarn, although I still spend too much time looking at yarn in stores and online that I covet. But the actual knitting is going badly. I was on a roll finishing pieces that made me feel like I was kicking the "let's start a sweater" jones. This problem goes like this, and you all know it: Wow, that yarn is on sale, let's buy a pile: uh oh, i don't know what to make with it, let's look for a pattern: this one looks like it might work, if I re-gauge it and change the neckline and do a different pattern stitch: OK, let's start knitting, Oh God it looks horrible and I'm getting bored - then I throw it on the stash pile and start something else.

Since I started Stashalong, I've been working on nine different sweaters and a scarf with no progress on any of them. It's almost like I have to do my homework and I'm not playing. Each of these projects excited me when I started them, but the idea that I can't start anything new until I finish something old that's on the pile is getting me cranky!! :-) Is this the knitting version of detox? I have experience detoxing from an addictive substance and it feels the same! So although we joke about "12-step programs for compulsive knitters" maybe there is something to it. It's not so much that you are depriving yourself of the substance that gives you a high, it's more that there are compulsive behaviors that rear their ugly head and impede our ability to carry creative thinking to a natural conclusion.

I don't want to mimic a recovery system and say you need to work "steps" to break these bad habits but I think a good start is a mission statement.

Ok, since I'm writing this as I think, I'm going to work a little bit of research and then post later about how to write a "Knitting Mission Statement."

stay tuned, sue