The Girlchild is on her way home to Tallahassee, after another fun, expensive, tiring whirlwind visit. I always feel sort of blue after she leaves - not that we spend every minute of our time together when she's here, but we have fun when she's here, and it's just so nice to have her in town and not four freaking hours away. I'm glad she will graduate Summer of '05 and come back down this way, at least for a while.

My Lenten Yarn Fast is triggering some interesting thought processes, which is what giving up something for Lent is supposed to do. I've been thinking a lot about conspicuous consumption, and how Americans live in a culture of "If some is good, MORE is BETTER!" Yarn stashing is just a symptom of my consumption habits, which run the gamut from "How can I get along with only ONE (fill in the blank)" to "Oh, it's on sale, it makes sense to buy it." It seems like a small thing, going cold turkey on knitting paraphernalia, but it's an eye-opener.

I am being more strict with myself this year - on last year's No Yarn for Lent plan, I could buy pattern books and needles - rationalizing all the way that this would help me use yarn from my stash. This year I went cold turkey on knitting-related anything, no books, no needles - I have plenty and I don't need more, and I need to remind myself of this truth whenever the urge to rationalize strikes me. So now that I'm here with my stash and my patterns, I'm actually looking at what I have, and planning how to use what I have, rather than shopping for MORE, MORE, MORE. I understand now how shopping for and planning a project is often the most exciting part, and this too is an issue that crosses over into other areas of my life. I love to plan projects. I do not love the work of carrying them out. But being more strict with myself this Lent has been easier, not harder, than allowing myself wiggle room. Rather than feeling bored with my stash and counting the weeks until I can SHOP again, I'm actually revisiting what I have and thinking of good uses for it. The urge to actually sit down and knit gets stronger every day, surpassing the urge to daydream about future knitting projects. I'm cranking along on the Lo-Tech Sweat, but I'm getting a bit tired of weeks of green. Much as I love green, it's getting old. And I have the urge to try something new, like maybe a top-down cardigan. I've decided all the wool in the stash must be either felted or made into cardigans for next winter - because nobody needs a wool pullover in Florida - so now I'm thinking of a top-down cardigan in one of my eBay yarns. We all know how fast I finish things these days, I figure if I start a wool cardie now it might be wearable in December when I need it.