At Knit's End by Stephanie Pearl–McPhee

career, he hits this point of yarn ownership. He discovers that he has so much yarn that even if he were never to buy even one more ball or skein, and even if he were to knit full-time from now until the hour of his death, he couldn’t knit it all in his lifetime. This amount of yarn is highly variable, of course, and depends on factors such as knitting speed and the age of the knitter in question.
    Achieving the state of SABLE is not, as many people who live with these knitters believe, a reason to stop buying yarn, but for the knitter it is an indication to write a will, bequeathing the stash to an appropriate heir.
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    To stay ahead, you must have your
next idea waiting in the wings.
    â€” R OSABETH M OSS K ANTER
    T his idea is one of the foundation concepts behind keeping a substantial yarn stash. Although it may seem unbelievable to those who have not lived it, every potential project in the stash, no matter how long it has been there, was at some time supposed to be “next.”
    Things change. I will be flexible.
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    I find that the harder I work,
the more luck I seem to have.
    â€” T HOMAS J EFFERSON
    I t is a little known fact that swatches, often portrayed in knitting books as “tools,” are actually magic charms. Knit a swatch and you will be protected from any number of knitting mishaps. Be arrogant enough to mock and neglect the swatch and nothing good will come of it. Necklines will fail to go over heads, sweaters will itch, and sleeves will be 9 inches too long.
    I will remember, should I think that I am above knitting a meager swatch, that knitters can be punished.
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    It is said that gifts persuade even the gods.
    â€” E URIPIDES
    E very time somebody gives me a gift that doesn’t suit me, I remind myself that it is the thought that counts. Still … if they were thinking, they would think yarn. I have trouble convincing people that even though I have tons of yarn, the best gift they could give me is more.
    I will remember, when someone does not give me yarn, that she was still trying to please me.
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    As a general rule the most successful man
in life is the man who has the
best information.
    â€” B ENJAMIN D ISRAELI
    S ometimes I wonder about modern patterns. I wonder whether, back when knitters devised their own, they didn’t learn more about knitting. Truly, to knit a sock without a pattern you need a really, really good understanding of how knitting works. It seems to me that having all the information handed to us at every turn means we don’t really need to think too much.
    I reserve the right to change my mind when it turns out that knitting without a pattern teaches me about knitting way too slowly and results in a collection of knitted garments that need to be donated to the circus.
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    Opinion is that exercise of the human
will which helps us to make a decision
without information.
    â€” J OHN E RSKINE
    T here are two ways of providing information in a knitting pattern. The first way is written text of stitch-by-stitch instructions for each row. The second is a chart of the pattern, where the knitter follows the graph for each row, using a system of symbols. There are diehards in both camps. Some knitters will tell you that charts make them nuts; they can’t remember the symbols and wish text were provided for every pattern. On the other side are the knitters who would rather lick a cactus than try to follow written instructions, citing the advantages of “seeing” the pattern reflected in the chart.
    One passionate wish all knitters share: whether words or charts, publishers should just make them bigger.
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    Cure for an obsession: get another one.
    â€” M ASON C OOLEY
    I t is a particular curse of my knitting career that I am destined to love shawls beyond all reason, consumed by the need to knit them, enchanted by the yarns and patterns for them, possessed by urges to buy books about them and stash many, many skeins of yarn