Some years back there was a Flash Your Stash meme doing the rounds of blogs. Since then I’ve dragged out all my stash and photographed it every six months. Yesterday I was recovering from aches and pains after painting the guest room, so I took all the yarn out of the bookcase and spread it on the daybed.
Well, most of the yarn. I have a small stash of acrylic for ’emergencies’ and another box of project leftovers, but since those yarns aren’t waiting to be used I don’t consider them ‘stash’.
Each of the bookcase hollows holds one large and one small tub. I have eight of these ‘pairs’, plus one underbed storage box full of Inca, the yarn for Starsky and the s’n’b handspun.
A year ago I had four pairs of tubs and enough extra yarn from an adopted stash to fill another two.
So I think I can say the stash has increased by a third to a half in the last year. That’s a relief, as I was worried it might have doubled. I’m pleased to find most of the new yarn isn’t useless odd balls or yarn bought only because it was cheap. I’ve developed good yarn buying habits.
Stash flashing advantages:
* It stirs up enthusiasm for the projects I want to knit (though the pressure of wanting to knit them all NOW can be a disadvantage)
* It sometimes results in seeing ways of combining yarns that I hadn’t thought of before
* Skills I’ve developed in the last six months had me considering new ways of using stash yarn
* I realised I need to ease off buying knitting yarn as I want to buy more warp yarn and haven’t got anywhere to put it.
* I found some yarn to offer up if the s’n’b has a swap
* Time allows you to realise you really don’t love some yarns, and cull them
* I updated my stash spreadsheet, which has proven to a be surprisingly useful tool when wondering if I have enough of something for a project that just caught my eye
* Breathing in yarn fumes is a inexpensive, harmless way to enhance your mood
The disadvantages include rampant startitis, brought about by too much stirring up of yearning to start all the great projects I have lined up, enhanced by guilt at having not started them for so long, and exacerbated by the knowledge that once they’re out of the stash, the weight comes off the total on the spread sheet and everything fits better in the storage tubs.
I LIVE to be able to photograph the entire stash in one hit (or even get it one room)!
Wide angle lenses are wonderful things : )
Hmm, your stash organisation needs bottling and selling – wonderful work! and do we get to see the Vivid Orange in situ?
Unfortunately the moment the guest room painting was finished the room was filled with furniture so we can make a start on the bathroom. But I will take pics of it, all the renovated downstairs rooms, once they’re done. Especially as the ‘library’ is going to be Chilli Red and the bathroom Purple Blaze.