Despite telling myself that entering my stash contents into Ravelry was low on the priority list, I spent several hours two nights ago updating my stash spreadsheet. Maybe my real motivation was procrastination. Maybe I wanted to get a handle on all the yarn I’ve bought recently. Maybe I felt the need to cut out some ‘dead wood’. Maybe I wanted to check for moths (there have been quite a few fluttering about here lately). Maybe the whole Ravelry thing is making me want to list and record things.
Or maybe I wanted an excuse to fondle all my yarn and get high on yarn fumes.
The result was the discovery that I had over 20kg of yarn, 5kg of it purchased in the last month or two. The other result was that I had some honest discussions with myself, which led to culling over 1 kg. Here’s the resulting bag of yarn heading for the op shop:
I have to make a small confession. Part of the contents are made up of some yarn I culled previously, but which never quite made it out of the house due to the possiblity of a friend’s mum wanting it, and a few balls came from the box of acrylic, which is for ’emergencies’ and ‘crafts’ so I don’t consider it stash.
Most is yarn I picked up for free or very cheaply, so I’m not tempted to sell it. I don’t have the time or energy right now. It’ll end up in an op shop around Mitcham somewhere, most likely. Which is fine with me. Op shops kept me in yarn when I was broke, so it’s always nice to contribute to them in return.
Afterwards I opened the yarn section of Ravelry, looked at all the fields I’d have to fill in and inwardly groaned. It’s taking 9 seconds for most pages to open right now (yes, I do have broadband). I decided I was right at the start: entering my stash is low on the priority list.
But having an updated spreadsheet is sure to be useful. And I got to fondle all my yarn.
You brave girl! I haven’t dared face that challenge yet. I’m too scared to know how much I have accumulated.
Ravelry is a bit of a time bandit. Loading stash is terrifying – I’m only loading new stash, or items that haven’t made it into actual boxes yet but are readily accessible on the lounge room floor! After that, who knows, I’d never thought to catalogue stash until you described your spreadsheet.
Ravelry did influence how much and what sort of detail my spreadsheet included. I had to add new columns for colour code and dyelot, for example.
I have to admit, the thought did cross my mind that I could just enter the really nice yarn in the stash. Then it would look like I had a small but tasteful stash : )
I spent the last week doing a ‘yarn cull’, too. I managed to get rid of a heap of yarn in acrylic/colours that I’ll never wear/oddballs/’what the hell was I thinking?’. I donated them to a shop that sells locally made crafts.
I haven’t loaded my stash onto Ravelry either, and don’t have my own stash spreadsheet. Frankly, I’d rather not know exactly how much yarn there is.
It’s a job and a half entering the stash into Ravelry – I only did the sock yarn and got ‘over it’. I will do the rest, but can’t be bothered right now 🙂