it's a sickness

I’ve always considered myself to have a healthy stash when it comes to my fabric and yarn. Its not too fat, not too skinny, its just right. I work hard to keep a balance with it and I’ve really become much picker about what I decide to bring home with me when I’m shopping. (Mostly its based on how much room I think it will suck up to just have it hanging about if its not for a specific project that is coming up quickly.)

In comparison to some people I know (or blogs I have read), I don’t feel like my fiber addiction is out of control. I don’t have 40 rubbermaid containers full of fabric (but I would love to shop through a stash like that) nor do I have enough yarn to open my own shop (although secretly I wish I did). I’m by no means judging, just saying that if you put those collections next to mine, mine would be the mini-me of stashes.

Then two things came in the mail today that have me all twitchy and thinking about shredding my credit card.

The first was a catalog from Keepsake Quilting. I’m not really sure what my deal is lately but I’ve become interested in some of the more graphic traditional quilts. Nothing exuberant and usually the patterns that are so simple Dooley could sew them are the ones I’m attracted to.

But I’m beginning to wonder if there is some kind of magical crack spell on that catalog because it doesn’t matter how complicated something looks, I start to think I should give it a shot. After all, a Baltimore album quilt is a snap, right? (That was laced with heavy sarcasm, I have nothing but awe for the artists that make these types of quilts, they look more complicated then brain surgery.)

I usually treat these catalogs as nothing more then a nice distraction to browse through. Now its like throwing gasoline on a fire and I’m starting to want to make some of the things in there. From what I understand, this is how the uncontrollable collecting of ten yard cuts of one particular print begins. Ack.

The other thing that came in the mail today that is just, well, cruel, is the latest issue of Craft magazine. I used to just pick this up when I came across it but decided to go ahead and subscribe to it since I’ve enjoyed the last couple issues so much.

That may have been a mistake.

This issue is all about weaving. Which is something I’ve been peeking at for a long time now. In fact, its something I’ve been experimenting with with fabric lately. (No successful attempts so that’s why you haven’t seen any of it. Pitiful looking work is doomed to reside in my studio only for the rest of its lifetime until I get tired of moving it around and introduce it to the trash can or tear it apart and re-purpose its guts for another project.)

So now I’ve got this cute magazine sitting here staring at me saying, “Go ahead, weave something. You know you wanna. Not sure? Here, look how neat it is and how simple too….”

Devil magazine. (Where are those matches?)

I will be strong. I have to draw the line somewhere when it comes to the areas I work in, right? Currently I create art quilts, knit, crochet, embroider, tat, make plushies and now spin. And with all those, I could work until the day I'm a hundred-years-old and not exhaust everything they have to offer.

So why would I even consider adding in something else?

I’m beginning to think it’s a sickness. A wretched addictive consuming sickness that makes you crave hits of fiber (in any form) and really flares up when you discover another facet of the medium that you hadn’t been exposed to.

I’m not really sure what to do. I mean, I’m a strong minded woman, I should be able to resist fluffs of fabric, no matter if it’s a big wad of sheep hair or twisted up into yarn.

Its not going well so far.

If someone is aware of a 12-step program for this, I would appreciate some literature on it. It would be nice to be among those who understand (especially if anyone in the program is a weaver, I'd love to sit next to him/her at the meetings)...