How the insanity was born

Flashback time! I started knitting in late Summer 2004. I bought a book called "I Taught Myself Knitting" and was knitting in a matter of minutes. Well, that's until I got to the end of the row. The book didn't explain clearly what to do when you got to the end of the row. I don't know why I didn't think to just turn it, but I didn't. So I had to abandon knitting.

After a while (o.k., it was a week) I had to learn how to knit. So, I went to a local gift shop that happened to have a yarn room in it. I signed up for a basic knitting class. Apparently, I was far ahead of the crowd, because I could knit like there was no tomorrow. Then, when the instructor, June told me how to get to the next row by just turning the thing over, I was thrilled!! I took me about 5 hours to complete my first scarf, which I still have, and have never worn. (It was hideous.)

At that moment, I was totally hooked. One strange thing that happened while I was knitting my first scarf is that I had a two-hour drive with my boyfriend to our friend Kathy's mom's funeral. I hadn't seen Kathy in a really long time, and when I saw her, she had a knit scarf on. I asked her if she started knitting, and told her that I was knitting, too. That kind of re-kindled our friendship and from then on, Thursdays have been our TV/knitting night.

Anyway, I went to New York city for work in October of 2004. I went with my at-the-time boss, who was about three years older than me. (I was 25 then!) So, she knew I was a knitting freak, and she wanted to learn. We looked up yarn stores that were near where we were staying, but they had strange hours and with the business conference we were at, it wasn't easy for us to find a shop.
Then, on the last day of the conference, she told me we were going to skip to go yarn shopping!! I was so excited! We went to Seaport Yarn - an office (literally) crammed with yarn everywhere. Floor to ceiling - hanging from the walls, stuffed behind doors and making it so that only one person can walk in the hall at once. What can I say - it was yarn nirvana.

Of course, I was new to this knitting thing, so scarves were my drug of choice. But, I was exposed to a whole new world of yarn. You see, in Iowa, at that time, the yarn stores were limited, as in Wal-Mart, Hobby Lobby, Michael's and Donna's. Donna's was nice, but had mostly novelty yarn because they really only taught scarf knitting classes. I just didn't know the world had so many other fibers in it.

So, I spent a lot of money at Seaport Yarn. Too much money. So much money that the owner offered to ship me the yarn for free because I had so much I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get it in my bags for the plane ride home. My boss bought a ton of yarn, and she didn't even know how to knit yet - and I didn't teach her for almost three months.

The beginning of my stash is pictured above. Of those things, all I have left is the Lantern Moon needle case. Pretty much everything you see was knitted into a scarf, except for the Noro, which was made into my first felted bag. I don't know the names of a lot of those yarns, or who made them. I affectionately called those two furry looking balls of yarn "dead parrot" and "dead skunk" That hank of yarn just next to those that looks kind of like a fuzzy sunset is the only yarn I didn't keep. Kathy wanted it, so I gave it her. The yarn all the way to the right was a super-soft chenille that I made a multi-directional diagonal scarf with, but it was hell to knit with!! My hands were screaming when it was over, and the yarn smelled like bleach (still does actually, and I've washed it a couple of times!!)

My yarn stash now is not quite so novelty - it's more of a fiber loving festival of goodness. I love wool, cotton, soft yarn, fun stripy yarn (I'm dying to get my hands on Jamaica by Katia!!) the thing I have learned is that I love yarn for its color, its texture, for the fact that it lets me create.