Last Saturday, Yarnydays organized a yarn swap for members of our knit/crochet group. It might not sound like such a big deal, but it kind of was. She's quite organized, and so it was quite organized, which made it both easy and fun. The general idea of a yarn swap is intuitive: bring yarn and leave with different yarn, but there's really a bit more to it than that. I spent several days making piles of yarn to swap, then pulling yarn out of the pile because I thought I should keep it, then putting it back in the pile, reasoning that I'd had it for two years and it had yet to see any action, blah blah blah, so clearly I couldn't be that attached to it. I later found out I wasn't the only one suffering from that back-and-forth anxiety. It all worked out in the end, though. See:
In fact, it was a little batshit insane. We started the day with a delicious homemade Indian meal and some vino and then started swapping. We were allowed to being whole and partial skeins, although partials had to be weighed so that yardage could be estimated and proper point values assigned (1 pt for $1-$5 dollar skeins, 2 pts for $5-$10 skeins, etc.). Clear and simple, so I would recommend the scheme to anyone contemplating a swap of any sort, but it involved a bit of advance work.
Looking at and fingering all of the yarns, imagining how I might use them, was really exciting. Almost as exciting was seeing someone else fawn over one of my "discards". It felt like "Oh, you have a new home with someone who will appreciate you more than I have. Go forth and realize your potential! Fly! FLY!!!
I juts went crazy there.
Anyway, we drew names and took turns making our selections in rounds, so as to avoid the craziness that is the Barney's Warehouse Sale. It was all very civilized. And fun.
When I got up on Sunday and came upstairs to make myself some coffee, I saw the pile of new yarn, I had a really unexpected reaction. I felt a little depressed. There was just so much yarn, an embarrassment of riches, really, and when combined with the rest of my stash, I was overwhelmed. So, I sat down and sorted and bagged yarn for about 2 1/2 hours and hatched a plan that I knew would result in the immediate diminishment of my stash: I started crocheting an afghan.
The pattern is Ruby Hexagon by Novamade, and while I'm only 1/3 of the way finished, I can already tell it's going to make me very happy.
7 comments:
You got great pics of the Yarn Swap Party! It was so much fun. And you are right about our yarn finding new homes and being appreciated because it's new to someone else.
Love the new afghan in progess! It has been on my mind ever since the yarn swap and seeing Jane's version. I have a plan for that blanket to use up some of my pretty sock yarns, but it will have to wait.
YES! That's such a great idea. And your afghan is going to be beautiful. Nice job!
Lizadies: Thanks! It is incredibly fun and sastisfying.
Oiyi: I completely bit Jane's style.
LittleBird: I can see you really getting in to something like this. Now to get your roomie to teach you to crochet!
Glad to know how a real yarn swap works. We had one at our knitting night and nobody knew how it was supposed to go, so we just chose numbers and went at it. Is that Shameka, my Rhinebeck buddy, in one of the pictures? The afghan is going to be off the hook.
A yarn swap - be still my heart. I might have to try making a baby afghan for a friend using the Ruby Hex pattern - it's so lovely! Thanks for the inspiration!
That looks to have been so so so so so much fun. Given how much I completely love this whole knitting thing, and the degree to which I am starting lovely projects, I will be sure to have something with which to participate in the post-Christmas-2010 swap. :)
GREAT PICTURES! I love the idea of "brand-to-me" yarn. The yarn swap was so crazy good.
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