They call me Dr. Wool - posted at 10:59

My favorite new stress reliever:

Yarn.

I know I'm not the first knitter to proclaim the stress-relieving properties of the craft from the mountaintops, but when I'm stressed I crave simplicity, and really, it doesn't get any more simple than just holding a really wonderful hank of yarn.

For example, I'm working night shifts this week and it's been really tough on me. I can't for the life of me stay asleep until my alarm goes off. To top it off, my shift technically ends at 9am, but I have to give a brief at 9 and that's been going like an hour every day. So this morning at the end of my busy, stressful 13-hour shift I went to the post office and picked up the package waiting for me - seven skeins of the second-most luxurious yarn I've ever touched (I regrettably have yet to add qiviut - the hairs from the undercoat of the Arctic muskox - to my stash). I ripped the package open and on my drive home, I just held a hank of the yarn - in my hand, against my face, (almost) anywhere with a high concentration of nerve endings, and I felt the pronounced edge that had steadily been gnawing at me all night just melt away.

A more extreme instance occurred a couple of weeks ago when my parents were in town. I got home from work in a vile mood. I was so pissed off that I was getting even more pissed off at myself because I hated being so pissed off. Vicious cycle. I was so sick of myself after about fifteen minutes that I declared "That's it! I'm going to a yarn store!" So I went, just wandered around and touched all the wonderfully sheepy and other woolly goodness for a while, and came back home a happy and well-adjusted Staceyfish.

What can I say? I'm a tactile person and there's something so simple, so down-to-earth about a great skein of yarn. It's like it's my own private shrink (a shrink that should start paying rent because of the amount of space in my house that it is rapidly taking over, but a shrink nonetheless!). I can almost hear the yarn corner in my house calling me over and declaring "They call me Dr. Wool!" *

My new arrival and my favorite (semi) affordable yarn - Blue Sky Alpacas Royal

* I know Cory is laughing at me right now, but I can't think that without breaking into song. Which song? They Might Be Giants' Dr. Worm, of course!

Marissa commented:

I just started spinning (as in, I started on Saturday) and it's now my second favorite thing, to sit there and hold the loose fiber as I pull it into the right sized chunks to spin with it.

Jitterbean Girl commented:

I'm glad to know that I'm not alone :) I'll have to watch your Ravelry page to see if you start populating it with your handspun!

You spinners are brave. I'd like to take it up since it seems like a natural progression from my yarn obsession, but I don't do it for the same reason I don't dye my own yarn: I would never ever use the stuff because it's one of a kind and irreplaceable and stuff :) Neurotic, yes, but at least I know myself that well :)

Marissa commented:

I decided I'll only make stuff for me. that won't get dirty.

Like a headband. Or wristers for cold weather knitting.

No socks. Socks are not made of handspun! :-)