Account for 2013

I bought an awful lot of yarn in 2013.  So much that I dare not say it here.

During the last week in 2013 I had an idea - 2014 could be the year I didn't buy any yarn.  As I toyed with the idea it started to seem familiar, and looking back here I read that I went on a yarn diet in November 2012.  It did last several months; it was in April that I started buying more indiscriminately, and by and by I forgot all about the diet.

Now I realised that I really could not do without the pleasure of buying yarn.  I just need to restrict what I buy, and I must stick to the list I made up a year ago:

1.  I can buy yarn to add to my collections, and the list of my collections is quite fluid, so it gives me plenty of scope.

2.  I can buy yarn to add to existing plans for projects.  I must not buy anything that would involve new plans.  This can be tricky, if I find something I really want.

3.  I can buy yarn required for a project in progress or that I am about to start.

4.  I must look at colour of yarn, and avoid bright colours and white and black.  It is taken for granted that I will stick to yarn in natural fibres.

This leaves two groups of yarn:

Yarn for my standard blankets.  So far I have bought anything that I could conceivably use, and that is very extensive.  So, for the next year I will have more than enough without buying any more.  I will reassess in 2015.

Extra nice yarn.  By this I mean hand spun, hand dyed, expensive fibres.  You find this in individual balls, and I buy.  It is often too nice for the standard blankets, but what else do I do with it?

So it would be nice if I could avoid buying these.  That is all.  I think this can keep me happy.

As far as knitting is concerned, 2013 has been a bad year.  I thought I had finished little.  My friend's sweater set me back, because I stopped doing work on finishing blankets, and at this moment I have five blankets waiting to be finished.  I also have a number of unfinished garments.  I have always been proud not to have any UFOs, but counting them now I have one pair of socks, one sweater and three cardigans unfinished.  So I was surprised to find that adding up the few things that I did finish it came to 9.3 kg, proof that my speed of knitting has not slowed down.

And to finish, just because a picture is nice, a close up of blanket #158.