It’s a good thing I splurged on yarn before this Saturday because now I have to be good for nearly a whole month. My beloved younger sister bought tickets to a Collective Soul concert in Jackson Hole, Wyoming on July 18 and is completely to blame for the yarn withdrawal.

How is this connected to yarn? My favorite yarn shop is in Jackson, Wyoming: Knit in Pearl. Knit on Pearl is this tiny yarn shop on Pearl Street; my family room is bigger than this place. But this place is literally packed from floor to ceiling with wonderful, yummy yarns. I know shops 4 times as big that don’t carry as much wonderful treasure as this little shop. Oh, and the shop owner, whose name escape my memory at the moment, is wonderful beyond words. She spent 3 whole hours with us last time we went and let us play with skein after skein of yarn: Noro, Mountain Colors, Interlacements, Berecco, and on-and-on. She is the role model all other yarn shop owners should model themselves after.

If that alone was not enough to make this whole trip worthwhile, there is rumors of a mythical yarn shop I keep hearing about in Driggs, ID: Mountain Knits. I can’t find them in the phonebook but I keep seeing them listed as a vendor for various yummy yarns’ websites. Do they really exist or is this yarn shop a shimmering mirage? If anyone knows anything about them, please let me know. I’m willing to go hunting up obscure yarn shops if there is a chance that they exist. I will find them. There is no hiding of the yarn from me!

So in anticipation of this yarn crawl/concert, I’m on a yarn diet, knitting supply and anything knitting related diet until July 18. This is going to be hard, very hard for me. My last two shipments of yarn: one shipment of Knitpicks Memories because it was on clearance and then of course, Little Picks, a mix of Fleece Artist Sea Wool and Schaefer Anne, will have to give me enough of a fix to last me nearly a month. I will be strong, I must.

I have officially not bought any yarn now for 10 days. Or does it count from the time the package arrives? Any input on when the yarn diet officially starts would be helpfully. Hell, some rules for a yarn diet might be extremely helpfully.

To make it through the yarn withdrawals, I’m going to have to disconnect the internet when I listen to Lime & Violet (I always end up buying something listening to Yarn Pr*n), quit visiting my favorite yarn shops on a regular basis (Okay, can we say nightly sometimes?), ignore all L&V mb messages saying the Loopy Ewe has been updated, and very carefully skim certain blog posts in order to avoid caving after reading descriptions of wonderful newly acquired yarn. If I can do all this and remember all the great wonders that await me in the mountains, I might make it through this yarn diet.

I don’t know how people are doing the Knit from Your Stash thing that Wendy and L-B started for 9 whole months. I would shrivel up and die, go insane, knit with cheap acrylic or novelty yarns in a fit of withdrawal. Hell, the withdrawal symptoms began kicking in last night as I realized what I needed to do so I could afford this trip without remortgaging my house. The only ones thrilled about this yarn diet are my husband and my credit card. My cats are down right pissed because they love checking out new yarn acquisitions. Ashley has to inspect each package as soon as I open it. She was not happy when I told her no more new yarn for a month. I will not repeat what she said. It is not fit for human ears.

So for now, I twitch and try not to dwell on how I can’t buy yarn for a mere month. I’m trying to daydream about what lies ahead instead. Help me be strong.