The socks are my only current WIP (work in progress).  I managed to finish up everything else and trying to work at one thing at  a time.  They are for my daughter, she asked for them.  The yarn is Knitpicks Felici and I had two balls of this colorway, my last two and since Felici has been discontinued I was hoarding them.  For some reason I decided to use them.  I have been decluttering all month, using the Konmari method from the book “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up” by Japanese author Marie Kondo.  The secret to her method is to only keep what truly brings you joy.  Own only what you truly love and cherish and it will be enough. 

I had already gotten rid of most of my yarn stash, all of the things I didn’t like got sent away to the charity place.  Even my extra needles and hooks were sent.  All that is left is yarn that I really like, that truly brings joy, so it did not make sense to save it anymore.  I bought it to use it, so I might as well just do it. 

I thought that I got rid of things easily, and in general I do.  I try not to attach sentimental value to objects and things.  I try to keep attachment in general to a minimum.  But sometimes some items slip by.  When I was tidying up, I found movie ticket stubs to when my husband and I first got married.  I found notes we had written to each other.  Forgotten at the back of drawers.  So why had I held onto them?  Why was it hard to throw them away?  Maybe deep down we feel that these things become talismans of happy memories.

Marie explains why we don’t get rid of things “But when we really delve into the reasons for why we can’t let something go, there are only two: an attachment to the past or a fear for the future.”  And to drive the point home she also wrote “Truly precious memories will never vanish even if you discard the objects associated with them.” and “It is not our memories but the person we have become because of those past experiences that we should treasure.”

She is right.  The memories didn’t go away when I got rid of the stuff, the preciousness of the beautiful moments that I was tried to preserve did not fade away.  Symbolically, to me personally, it felt that I should work harder on making more beautiful memories with the people I care about instead of trying to find mementos to preserve old memories with them.  It works for the yarn too.  Yes it will probably be the last time I will enjoy the yarn, but the socks will last longer, well maybe not for the 7 year old, who grows out of her socks in the blink of an eye. But the enjoyment of knitting them and seeing her wear them for some time is much greater than the yarn being left forgotten in the bottom of my yarn basket.  There will always be more yarn and more beautiful memories, I just need to remember to make a conscious decision of choosing the joy of experience over the joy of possession.