The last four years developing Knitting: A Love Story have been amazing.  I didn't realize how amazing until going back to day 1, March 20, 2014, and reading Knitting: A Love Story day by day.  I am going to share the "Aha" moments, special times and all of the yarn shops, LYS and online, I've shared with you.  First, "Aha" moments.

1.  I think it was March 26, 2015 I came to the realization that I am a yarn collector not a yarn addict.  (Even though I have the physical symptoms of  addiction when I am not around beautiful yarn or knit every day.)  Collector is so much more socially acceptable.  I remember the fabulous quote from Dave Barry.  "There is a fine line between hobby and mental illness."  I walk the line.   

2.  It doesn't matter how beautiful the yarn is or how amazing a pattern, if it uses bobbins drop it immediately.  Do you remember this?

Every time I see a picture of of this amazing Helen Hamann design I think, "This is so beautiful, I really should finish it."  Then I remember the nightmare of using bobbins.  It gives me cold shivers.


​3.  Using a crochet hook as a cable needle.  Genius!

I was making a scarf with cables using bulky yarn.  The cable needle just didn't work right.  It quickly slipped through the stitches and there I was with my stitches raveling down the scarf.  The crochet hook was perfect.  You just catch the last stitch on the hook and it stays in place.  Necessity is the mother of invention.

​4.  Like a person with PTSD, I can step back into the moment when I first learned what ROY G BIV meant.  I am still amazed I didn't know this.  Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet.  ROY G BIV!

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5.  It was mind exploding to invent two perfect words to describe my knitting experience.  Knabbling:  Playful knitting or trying techniques, colors or stitches out with no particular goal in sight.  Kniterest: To search through books, magazines, Ravelry, Patterfish, or Pinterest to find the perfect pattern.

6.  I took a class at Crafty Lady Trio to learn different ways to use the iPad to support knitting like storing patterns in iBooks.  Having my patterns from Ravelry or Patternfish living in iBooks makes it possible to use patterns without being on the internet (like last April when we couldn't get our cable/internet hook up for several days.)  

7.  I felt so validated discovering the research around Therapeutic Knitting.  This book explains exactly how I feel about knitting.  It put words to my feelings

This is such a beautiful book.  If you haven't already read it, you should.  

​There were many special moments, but two involved Jocelynn Brown and the Detroit News.

One was the thrill of having Knitting: A Love Story written up in the Handmade column. . . 

The second was participating in the first Detroit News "Knit Detroit."  Both were life altering experiences.  I felt so validated.  

I thought one post would be enough to talk about my four years with Knitting: A Love Story, but it's not.  In Part 2 of celebrating Knitting:  A Love Story's 4th anniversary, I will talk about all of the knitting retailers I have talked about in Knitting: A Love Story.  See you soon.

Today, March 20, 2018 is the 4th anniversary of Knitting: A Love Story.  My plan was to have this tremendous post up today but. . .   Well, I started reading past posts and well, before I knew it I was reading every one.  So the actual writing will be done later in the week!

Can't wait to get nostalgic! WOW!  That sounds a lot like a disease!

My love of color is not secret.  I am a ROY G BIV girl.  That's why I thought color was what I needed to get my mood on the right track.  So, I went to this. . . 

How could I loose?  Made from Kauni (my favorite yarn for color) in mosaic knit (which I love) in beautiful greens and yellows.  You know I moved on from Crystal Falls to . . . 

Euphoric.  It is beautiful but it still didn't feel right.  What was I missing? The pattern was challenging but not difficult.  The outcome would be spectacular, but something just wasn't right.  Then I got it.  I needed more comfort than either Kauni or Wisdom Yarn Pix could provide.  I needed, I needed. . .  something tried and true.  Something with an A+ for soft and I knew just what it was.

It's the beautiful, cushy, velvety, scrumptious Noro yarn I brought out a year or so ago to make Mom a wrap.

I got about right here in the knitting and realized the large amount I thought I had was really two subtly different colors.  So, I stopped right here and put it in a  tub.  My hands told me this was what they were looking for.  This yarn feels so good.  Kind of like petting Tess my adorable 10 month old Wheaten Terrier.  

If you could reach in the blog, you would know that the beautiful Noro yarn and the adorable Tess feel just alike. Eureka! That's just what I needed.  I needed to not only be relaxed and happy when I knit right now, but soothed and comforted.  So  I found the yarn that would make me happy, what about a pattern!?!?!?!

Almost simultaneously to needing to change yarns, Amazon (as if by magic) sent me this book.  It might have been a pre-order I forgot about but there it was.  If you don't have this book, you must get it.  It is full of shawls or wraps or scarfs whatever you want to call them that you will want to knit.  The designs are very unusual and utterly mesmerizing.  As I was looking through it, I came upon  this. . . 

I love it AND it called for worsted yarn.  

Since my Noro was wound into a ball, I really didn't know how much I had but it felt like it would be enough for the 370 yards called for.  Just in case there wasn't enough, I found a cake of Twisted Fiber Arts Catnip in Gypsy which would complement nicely.  Then I started to knit.  I  can't describe how amazing it felt to knit with this yarn.  I loved every minute.  The pattern was addicting.  It could be travel knitting because after you are comfortable with the pattern you don't need to refer to it much.  You do have to count.  With the YO's and K2T and picots and SSK, there is ample opportunity to mess up.  I found that counting every couple of rows just became a part of the process.  This is what I ended up with.

Isn't it beautiful!?!?!  I decided that this is for me.  No give away here.  But I said that about the Lucky Penny scarf, too.

I finished with a little to spare.  I wasn't ready to move on to something else, so I decided to make another out of the Twisted Fiber Art Cat Nip in Gypsy.  I knew I didn't have enough to finish but thought I would improvise by adding the Noro when I ran out of TFA.  This is what I created.  

I love it!  I think this is knabbling at its best.  I will be working Friday and Saturday at Ann's By Design and can't wait to wear it.  Now about Crystal Falls and Euphoric, I will finish them.  They are just too awesome not to.  But right now, I am looking for a little more comfort.  Let's see what I can find.

Jocelynn calls this the Yarn Lover's Diet but I can feel a cold sweat beginning to break out as I read through the guidelines.  Her suggestions are great.  If you really want to go on a Yarn Diet you might want to try this 11 step program.  You really need to Google the Friday, February 16 Handmade column for the complete diet.  I am going to just pick the points that grabbed me to talk about.

"Set a goal.  Do you want to reduce your stash by a third, half or completely?"  I must admit I really don't want to reduce my stash because my stash is really my "collection."  That word really changed my buying yarn into something acceptable.  I'm a collector.  The bigger the collection the better.  But I must admit, sometimes when I am looking through my collection, I scare myself.  How did I get so much yarn?  And what did I think I was going to do with that yarn?  Those are statements you would say about a Yarn Stash but a Yarn Collection is meant to be looked at and touched.  I guess I haven't flipped all of the way over into being a collector.  If I had I wouldn't have night terrors about having too much yarn.   

"'Shop' only from your stash, and as often as you'd like.  Think of it as 'calorie-free.'"  This is the best idea in the world.  There is nothing more fun that finding a pattern and going shopping in your stash.  Or picking a yarn from your stash then finding a pattern that is perfect.  When I made the first Survivor Shawl, I designed the shawl then went to the Stash Studio to find the perfect yarn.  That was the rule: the yarn had to come from the Stash Studio.  It was there.  I think I knit 2 shawls before I became addicted to pink yarn and bought every skein I could find.  Twelve tubs later, I decided I was finished for the moment with Survivor Shawls.  I should do the post on all of the things I've knit using just yarn from the Stash Studio.   Or all of the projects like Survivor Shawls that made the yarn stash grow.  

"Knit/crochet as fast and often as possible, so you'll see results (a smaller stash) sooner, keeping you motivated."  I've said this before, knitting is my yoga so why would I possibly want to knit faster.  But knitting more often, I can buy into that.  One way to knit more often is to find more social knitting groups or knit nights or or knitting classes.  Nothing causes me to knit even more than learning a new technique.  In most towns, I bet you could find a knitting group most days of the week.  In addition to knitting more, thereby using your stash, you'll make new friends.  I've never attended a knitting group that I didn't meet someone with friend potential.  After all, you start with a mutual love.  

"Invite other yarnaholics to join you on your mission. (Yarn dieting alone is no fun, I'm sure.)"  I choose Linda Kaufman to join to on my mission.  Oh, wait!  I think Linda and I have been on this mission before and it didn't work.  What we ended up doing is picking out yarn for each other.  

And then there is my yarnaholic friend Thea.  We love the same yarn, the same knitting needles, the same patterns.  I don't think Thea and I could ever stop each other or want to stop each other from buying yarn.  I think we want to see the "yarn sparkle" in the other person's eyes when we first see a new yarn, or see a a yarn we absolutely must have.  We like to see each other happy.  

​Jocelynn has seven more great ideas for a yarn diet. If you think you are in need of a Yarn Diet, Jocelynn is your woman and Handmade is the place.  As for me, any kind of diet depresses me so I think I will have a piece of cake, glass of wine and visit the Twisted Fiber Art website to see what I can add to my collection.