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At the end of this week, my magazine subscriptions for my Kindle Fire are up for renewal. If I were to renew them, the total would be about $100 (and this is after stopping subscriptions to the ones that charged monthly rather than yearly).
I think I have exactly ONE pattern from a magazine in my queue – and that was a magazine I bought at a store after seeing the pattern. Sure, the subscriptions are fun for a few minutes. Every other month, or once a quarter for some, I see that new magazine on my Kindle Fire. I read the 3 or so pages of reading material. I glance at the patterns. And then… do I ever knit or crochet any of it? Nope.
Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure the only pattern from a magazine I’ve ever actually done, was a magazine I borrowed from the library.
So when I totaled up how much it would cost to renew all the magazines, I decided I’m not going to renew them. I also decided to take a look at my other patterns and reevaluate my buying habits. This is the amount of patterns in my library right now
This is in addition to the about 650 free patterns on my favorites list, and a few magazines and books I own that I never added to my library. A lot of the patterns in my library were free with a coupon code, but still; I have over 3000 patterns to choose from, that I want to do. I’ve done a few of them – but it was very few.
This year I have purchased 28 patterns, and of those 28, I used ONE. Of course, I plan to do all of them, hopefully soon; but I realize now that I’ve got patterns I bought a year and a half ago that I planed to do hopefully soon.
Now I don’t like terms like “stash down” nor “cold sheep”, but I have to rein it in. I have enough patterns (for now); it’s time to stop looking for more and start knitting & crocheting them! I think I’ll set a goal of doing at least 1 item from a purchased pattern per week (and hexipuffs for the Beekeeper’s quilt don’t count… though I purchased that back in April of last year and only started it in January).
I don’t want to say that this is a goal for the year… I have no idea what patterns I may need down the line. But at least, for now, that is a goal.