Obsessions?

Here we are...another Thursday night...time for cogitating and ruminating! This has been a week of recognizing my obsessions all over again. When you smoke, you put up a smoke-screen between yourself and everything else. When you quit, you have to face what smoking allowed you to hide from yourself. I'm approaching 13 months quit, so it's time to face some of those things.

Whenever I find a new interest, that interest consumes me to the exclusion of just about everything else. Sewing and knitting have been my passions for the past several months, and show no signs of letting up! That is a Good Thing, (welcome home, Martha!!). But for years before that, even while I was still smoking, it was voluntary simplicity (yes, I know, it was one more reason I needed to quit long before I did - doesn't mesh well with the philosophy, does it?). So now I find myself returning to old habits. My knitting has propelled me into an area where I'd like to use yarns I truly cannot afford, feeding the Affluenza bug, yarns that really don't mesh with my beliefs (not to mention my allergies!). I am happiest using basic, acrylic yarns, and cottons, knitting profusely and not breaking the bank!

It's amazing to me that the very activities that for years were considered a means to save money, are now hobbies to pour money into, hand over fist, simply by virtue of their being fashionable. To paraphrase a friend's signature line (from a sewing list I'm on): I'm going broke saving money sewing! It just doesn't jive with my lifestyle and philosophical proclivities. As much as I missed Martha, I hold her somewhat responsible! It is chic to create, but to do so, we must use the very best materials possible, and the price be hanged...

So my obsessions are going to have to be fed another way. Where my sewing business is concerned, I will not scrimp. My bags are top quality (which also tends to mean top dollar in this day and age). But when it comes to my knitting, since it is mostly for myself and for charity, I will use lower-priced materials, and will save my skin in more ways than one . But there are other ways to cut materials' costs: Freecycle, yard sales, swaps, shopping sales, clipping coupons. All tried and true tightwaddery.

Good ol' Yankee tightwaddery! That's my heritage and my birthright. So I can keep my obsessions as long as I follow those rules. {sigh} Unless, of course, I win the lottery!