The Physics of a Yarn Stash

So a few days ago, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (aka The Yarn Harlot) posted about the troubles that knitters might encounter when packing for a trip (pretty much it boils down to not enough yarn, or incorrect tools for working with the yarn you have).  There are two obvious solutions: carry huge volumes of knitting related items with you at all times or purchase new knitting items while traveling.  I engage in both of these behaviors.  The latter often leads to the increase in the volume of the yarn stash.  One of the comments on Stephanie’s blog was extremely amusing to me, and I just had to re-post it.  It seemed to me the perfect union of knitting geek and “traditional” geek sensibilities.

The string theory involved with calculating the mass of your stash can be boiled down to – you must maintain either the volume or weight, which ever is greater or the universe will become unbalanced. More complicated calculations come into play when adult children move out and free up space, creating a vacuum that causes the stash to expand.
As a result, yarn stashes can only grow and never truly decrease. So the expanding yarn stash is not truly the fault of the knitter but is simply the equalizing of the universe.

-Posted by: kim at July 13, 2012 10:54 AM in response to Applied Experience on the Yarn Harlot’s blog

Kim’s comment put me in mind of an XKCD comic, entitled Depth.  For no other reason than it also makes a passing reference to string theory (or at least to  Brian Greene, its champion) who is depicted as a knitter in the comic.

Hope you enjoyed these two tidbits as much as I did.