So, you’re at home. The Pandemic is chugging along, and you’re trying really hard to not get it, or recover from it, and you’re in no mood to go out and do anything because there are people out there, and people are emphatically Not What You Want right now. You’ve binge-watched all the Netflix you can stand. You’re sick to death of baking bread, and your sourdough starter died. Again. How are you going to pass your time in between Zoom meetings and grocery deliveries? Well, you can mail things to friends and hope like heck they actually get where they need to go…
(Good luck, pretty card. Please please get to where I’m actually sending you…)
Or You can do something really soothing and bust out something to knit. You can start something fun now, and *maybe* have something finished and pretty by the time the weather starts turning cold. But first you must face…The Yarn Stash. Yes, that delicious mountain of fluffy potential you’ve been socking away for that special project or moment. And those moments have arrived with a vengeance. It’s been a few months into the Pandemic now, so many of us have already whittled down that mountain into more of a smaller-but-still-formidable hillock. But that just means that the yarns that are left in The Yarn Stash are all the more precious. So my thought process ends up going something like this:
1st Step: Open the cedar chest that has all The Good Yarns.
2nd step: Gasp at their pretty colors and how good the cedar makes them all smell.
3rd Step: Snuggle them like fluffy, multihued kittens for a few minutes.
4th step: Realize an hour just went by like it was nothing, and that you still haven’t picked out anything to knit with.
5th step: Well, how about this skein? No, too precious. And too thin. Do I want a thicker yarn for a quicker project? What exactly am I going to be making anyway?
6th step :Snuggle the yarns a bit more. Let them tell you their secrets. What they want, what they *need* to be. Whisper back to them how much you love and appreciate them. Refuse to think this is weird.
7th Step: Lay on the floor surrounded by balls and skeins of yarn and take a huge nap.
8th Step: Wake up confused and with strands of mohair sticking to your clothes.
9th Step: Get online and loot Ravelry, Knitty.com and Pinterest for ideas about what you should be knitting, which you should have done before playing with all that soft, fuzzy, wonderful yarn.
10th Step: Finally! A pattern you think you can sink your teeth into that can use yarn you already have! Success!
11th Step: Open the chest and start looking for the yarns you need.
12th Step: Repeat Steps 1-11 until you get hungry or there’s something else that you need to get done…
Eventually the right yarns and the right project will end up in your lap after all, giving you something comforting, soft and soothing to do. It might just take a few tries. And a few naps. Maybe more than a few naps. And that’s okay. The New Normal is a weird place to lay your head, but at least all those yarns in your stash can make it a soft place too…