I made some impressive strides in that general direction. I put some of my yarn up on Ravelry, with the intention of offering it for sale. That got a tad overwhelming, and after an entire day of photographing and cataloging, I had to take a little break...which is now dragging into its eight month.
I successfully undertook the Great Giant Granny Square Scrapghan Challenge of 2009, which used up an impressive 10 pounds of stash yarn and netted me a blanket big enough to work as a car cozy.
I even cut waaaaay back on my yarn buying from WEBS and Little Knits and Smileys, and all the other pushers--I mean sellers--online. This reduction may have been offset slightly by a corresponding increase in purchases from Rav destashers--but come on, how can anyone resist those deals?
Last December, the stash closet looked like this:
This morning when I decided to pull a few single balls of yarn from the stash closet for an afghan square swap I'm taking part in, I was astounded to see this:
Is it me, or did I somehow acquire even MORE yarn in past eight months?
This does not appear to be an improvement.
Normally, I don't mind yarn piling up. I love yarn. It makes me happy. It inspires me. And as habits go, it's pretty benign. But when the yarn becomes a public safety hazard, it's clearly time to take action.Destash? No. We've already established that destashing does not work for me. Yarn diet? Ditto.
But I had to make a pilgrimage to CostCo today (on a Sunday--save me!), and I happened across these nifty storage boxes at three for fifteen bucks:
I bought two sets. I debated buying more, but my husband was with me, and I didn't want to call attention to the full extent of the yarn issue--since I like to allow for a little plausible deniability on my part, and a little self-delusion on his part--so I kept it to just the two. Even that drew a little more negative attention than I really wanted, but I moved swiftly to the alcohol aisle and defused the situation with a little creative redirection.Once safely home and closed up in the guest room, I dragged out everything from the floor of the closet. There was a lot. No pictures, because my husband does sometimes read the blog, and, well, see above re: plausible deniability.
After an hour of sorting and packing, I achieved this:
Okay, so I still have more yarn than I can feasibly knit in my natural lifetime.
But at least now I know what I have.
Small victories, right?
21 comments:
yay! Victory for organized yarn stash closet! I'm a yarn stasher as well. I have 3 XXL bags full of yarn...I feel ya.
Well done on sorting this, you just might have given me the inspiration I need to sort out my stash.
I just had new fitted furniture in my bedroom. The wardrobe has deep shelves at the back off it so I can store (ok hide) 8 huge plastic boxes, all of them full. They all need to be taken out and sorted - and I need to acknowledge just how much I have!
Great job organizing! At least your stash is in a closet ~ mine is all over the house...
Hilarious. Oh to shop in that closet :)
Oh yeah, I wanna shop your closet too! My entire "stash" would probably fit in one or two of those totes. I don't know that your stash is so unreasonable, though, given the speeds at which you produce gorgeous knits. Maybe you just need to reacquaint yourself with some of those yummy yarns, and then you'll see the levels start decreasing.
Yarn is soft like rabbits - maybe it multiplies on its own?? I have one small drawer of yarn, but many, many stuffed drawers of fabric.
It always gives me pleasure to play with my stash (which is roughly the size of yours, not that I am admitting to anything). For one thing, I can achieve something significant, like sorting and organizing, or winding skeins into center-pull cakes, or photographing and cataloging, in far less time than it would to actually knit something. Plus it is just fun to handle yarn -- that's one of the reasons we enjoy our hobby, right?
I have also achieved SABLE and have no plansto stop buying/acquiring yarn. This weekend I did destash about 3/4 of my roving stash. Now there's more room for yarn.
Sometimes all we get are the small victories so we should savor them!
Hehe. Nice going on re-organizing. I must admit I got sucked in by one of those "pushers" over the weekend too...
I blame spinning for the increase in my stash. It occupies time possibly used for knitting, and produces more yarn to boot. Not to mention adding another level of complexity to stash; because besides yarn, I now have roving, batts, and unprocessed fiber of various types taking up space in the closet.
You can always blame puppies...
Holy cow!! Okay, I feel a little better about my ever growing stash, although I'm not far behind you. I live alone but I still find myself hiding yarn. Its easier to be in denial that way. And buy more!
I have sold a few hundred kilos of my stash and one still cannot see any reduction in the amount. I beat you, ya boo sucks! ;-) (I also just bought another sock yarn collection from Online. Oops)
Organizing and documenting the stash is a lot of work! Mine hasn't grown too much since I did mine a year or so ago.
It's all about the organization, baby!
You were smart to get the containers....I fell for the lure of the vacuum-packed containers, with sad results. After loading up the largest size available with all my yarn stashed for Aran sweaters (I do so love Aran knitting), I followed the instructions to use the vacuum cleaner to suck out all the air. My simple plan was to create a compact, storable mass. I ended up with a huge, rock-hard yarn-structure that could knock out a sailor, 5'X4'. And that was just the Aran bit of stash. sigh.
I donated a whole bunch of yarn to the public library knitting groups. They often make charity items for hospitals, shelters, etc. so I knew it would go to a good cause. I also just plain gave stuff away! It feels good to be "lighter."
Kudos to you for organizing your stash! I don't see anything wrong with having a lot of yarn; it looks like you have the space for it and are taking care of it in a logical manner.
I, on the other hand, hide my yarn from myself. Then I forget I have it and keep buying more by the bagful.
I'm a truly sick cookie.
if it helps, you are welcome to send some of that yarny goodness my way at any time :). when you get a chance, i could use some advice on my petal halter. can you check out my blog when you get a chance. thanks! hope the puppies are well.
I'm with ya sistah!
I don't think you acquired more yarn. I think it was simply arranged differently, thus creating the illusion that there was more then there actually is. (Works for me...)
Post a Comment