Crafters and Their Stash of Patterns

A few days ago, a cyber friend and I went back and forth about how many patterns we had and our need to decrease our stash.

In the beginning of the dialogue, she was very optimistic about downsizing her collection. We are not spring chickens - we have each had many years, over half a century, to accumulate our patterns. At our current ages, we are growing fonder of favorite patterns and less likely to try a new one. 

Unless you knit or crochet, embroider or something similar, you cannot understand the compulsion, that urge, that nudging, to get “that” pattern because one day, we would love to try it.

In one email, I shared with her something from my past. I worked with a gal back in the 70s who always said her idea of Heaven would be all the time in the world to work every pattern she had and to have all the yarn and thread she needed to make them...

But then, reason won out. In my next to the last email, I mentioned that, now, with our modern electronic and digital technology, we have TOO many places to weed out.

It used to be just hard copy - brochures, leaflets, sheets, booklets, books. That was bad enough. I still have 2 or 3 heavy cartons of them from when my friend, Jane, was still alive. And I think I have 1 carton of my dear old mom’s patterns, from back in the 40s!

But now I even have FILES - and BOOKMARKS - and PINS (sigh). I told her, we will NEVER get them weeded out before we leave this earth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Arggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And she wrote back: “Well in that case, I'm just going back to my projects.  No use wasting time on a doomed project!”

Now, that is a wise woman...