Life Lesson

Some days, it's the little things that make a difference in our lives. I was reading an online post from a crafter, a woman who knits to be specific, and she said something that made such good sense that I wondered why I had never thought it.

For relaxation, I either crochet afghans or I knit washcloths. After gifting perhaps half the universe with afghans and washcloths, I sometimes wish that I could break the habit, but I buy all cotton crochet yarn and make washcloths and go into my happy place when I find 4-ply knitting worsted on sale. I have yarn, lots of yarn, but that's another post.

This post is about looking at things from a different perspective; specifically, knit washcloths. I usually have a pair of needles filled with an in-progress washcloth, with several balls of yarn awaiting their turn to become a washcloth. I browse websites looking for things to do and I came across a woman who also seems to compulsively knit washcloths, and she said something amazing: she decided one day, when she cast on the 50 stitches for on washcloth and still had lots of empty needle, to cast on a second cloth with a second ball of yarn -- and knit two at the same time.

Voila! What a great idea. In almost the same time that it takes to knit one washcloth, two are finished and ready to go into the "some day" pile. It also uses up yarn from the stash at a faster rate and does lead me to browse the yarn aisles looking for more washcloth yarn, especially on sale. There are new colors and new variegated yarn and always the temptation to just buy a couple of skeins.

When I knit fingerless gloves, I knit both of them at the same time, so I'm not sure why I didn't apply that same logic to washcloths.

The moral of the story is not to stop buying washcloth yarn, or to stop knitting washcloths, but to bathe in the glory of using up the stash faster by knitting two at a time so I can now justify buying more yarn when a bright color catches my eye -- or a sale tempts me beyond resistance. I have to live in the reality that I'm never going to use up my stash and/or stop buying yarn when something catches my eye ... but I can bask in the efficiency of simply knitting two at a time!

And my next post will be about the self-delusion of thinking that doubling the amount of knitting cuts the time in half for making two washcloths.