Stash Delusions: An Illustrated Confession

I have often read on other knitting blogs about the shame and the gluttony of the overstash, and truly never thought very much about it. Never thought it would apply to me, never thought it did apply to me.

This past two weeks however, have shown me a much different story. . . Our landlord has been fixing the ceilings in a few places that leaked this past winter, oh and the winter before (another longer more infuriating story, but onward) and one of the places is in the living room. I had to pack up and move all the loose bits and pieces, baskets and etc out of the area, so he could plaster and paint.

The baskets, how they have accumulated, the shelves, how they have filled, and this does not include the 2 uber-large tupperware containers that are packed full of sealed plastic bags, that sit on shelves in the storage loft.

I recently "stash-busted" (the word does make me giggle) a bunch of sock yarn and some other purchases made and never used through one of the wonderfully multi-dimensional and handy groups at Ravelry. I think I need to do a bit more. . .

All the sock yarn purchased after the first rush of joy upon finishing my first pair of socks. Yeah, well, I made 3 more pairs, started another 2 pairs (they still languish in one of those baskets, 1+ years after starting them). The Lesson: No over-purchasing during the early euphoria of learning something new. I think it was that contact high after turning my second heel successfully that led me down the path of over consuming sock yarn. The high died quickly, leaving not so much a headache, as a plethora of sock yarn; ne'er to be used, a small dent in the check book, and a husband's one-raised eyebrow, as he inquires if perhaps our abode is zoned for a commercial business.

And then there was my felting period. There was that one year where I made umpteen felted bags, and thought perhaps it would become my new calling. I think it was a brief calling. The calling was there, but paled in the face of Anne Hanson's lace, oh and the fingerless mitts (which I could use much of the sock yarn for, but I fear I could never make that many fingerless mitts, since Anne hasn't posted any new patterns for me to make 6X over, and truthfully, since this is my own brand of mania, I think I burned myself out on the mitts this past holiday season).

Bits and pieces, yarns to swatch, yarns to test, yarns to check out (this is just a very small glimpse into the swatch and test skeins, it's actually more frightening). What does one do with onesies of 4-5 skeins, in different colours, all purchased to swatch and knit little colour testing squares? I haven't a clue, but I can't bring myself to throw away the outcasts. Do you throw away your partially used one skeins? Seems somehow blasphemous. What do you all do with them?

I have thought about afghans, but all these odds and ends are different weights, different gauges, and very different fibres. Hmmm. Must be something to be done with all of this.

Ideas?

Comments

[Lotta]

And I thought it was just me... :D Why is it, that one gets so fixated on a thing, such as felting, spends hundreds of dollars on yarn for it, makes a project or two, and then is over it. With all that yarn still sitting in the stash. Why, oh, why? You would think a person of normal intellect would just buy yarn for one project and get the mania over with... sigh...

What comes to all those lone balls, I would still use them for afghan squares. One day you'll have enough for a whole afghan. Or give them to somebody who is into that sort of thing, and might already have a stash of their own to complement your lone balls.

[Janet]

We just go from mania to mania, collecting evidence along the way, right?

I obsessively save my leftover bits and balls and I don't know what I'll do with them . . . though the thought of knitting doll clothes seems to resurface often.

[Jennifer]

I can't say a thing, as my stash is so big, it's turned on me. I think an afghan is a good idea, or making knitwear for charity in order to use it and have it go to a good cause.

[Anne]

Seems like a whole lotta purple too. Just sayin. :)

[Marina]

Put my name down if you're going to destash some Finullgarn ;-)

If you come up with a solution, please share. I have all this Spindrift and J&S which I'm not sure what to do with.

[maryse]

sorry lady. i've got nothing for you. other than to tell you that your stash is nothing. ;)

check out this lady's stash

http://www.theloopyewe.com/sheri/2008/03/capi-in-the-loopy-limelight#comments

[Debi]

I live in a glass house so believe me I am not judging :)

Take a look at the Colinette Ab Fab afghan kits...all different weights, textures, fibers mixed together brilliantly for a lovely throw. Perhaps those will inspire you.