Have you ever had a hobby that you loved but you had to let slide to the wayside while you were in a certain season of your life? For me that was my knitting, crocheting, and spinning. Life with two girls who were in the throes of teenagehood and a mom (that’s me) who was struggling with mental illness, working fulltime after being home for over 15 years, and finding who she was without her children attached to her hip meant that I let somethings drop. (And when I say somethings I mean pretty much everything.)
For more years than I care to count I really had no idea who I was or what I liked. I easily picked up things and wanted so desperately to fit in with people around me that I picked up hobbies that I wouldn’t have otherwise started. Thankfully the husband was wise in telling me to just store my hobbies and not rashly get rid of everything that wasn’t currently bringing me joy. (I was Marie Kondo-ing before it was a thing)
For many years I used my spinning wheel daily, spinning copious amounts of yarn. Most of the yarn I gave away in its yarny state or in the projects that I knitted with it. Imagine my surprise when cleaning out the craft room that I discovered a skein of yarn that I had spun over a decade earlier. It was a lovely worsted weight yarn and after weighing it there seemed to be enough for a hat.
I had just gotten my knitting mojo back and started making up hat patterns to give to my sister-in-law’s mother. After knitting up a half a dozen or so hats I decided that I really wanted one for myself. I picked up the alpaca yarn that I had discovered and got to work. It was an enjoyable knit but after knitting so many hats in such a short time I was starting to slow down a bit.
About three-quarters of the way through the pattern I realized that I may not have enough yarn to finish the hat. After searching through my house I confirmed that I didn’t have any more of this yarn spun nor the fiber to spin more of it. I’m not sure what it is about a potential game of yarn chicken but for me it gets me to knit even faster than I already do.
Yarn Chicken?
Yarn Chicken is a game that knitters and crocheters play when the amount of yarn for they have may not make it to the end of the project. If there is yarn leftover there is usually a very small amount. As you can see in the above photo I won this game of Yarn Chicken with less than a foot of yarn left after weaving in my ends. There is something about winning said game that kicks your knitting mojo into high gear and makes you want to knit all of the things.
Have you found yourself in a game of Yarn Chicken lately? How did you fare?
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