The Stash

I was just over reading (and laughing at) the Yarn Harlot's guide to what to get your loved one that happens to be a knitter for the Holidays.

And I'd like to put my two cents in for anyone reading MY blog in hopes of getting gift ideas for ME. Please. Don't buy me yarn. Let me show you why. I'm very proud of my stash, and I've finally hit a point where adding to it makes me cringe a little. I've got plans for nearly everything in here, except for one drawer- which I'll get to later. Enjoy your tour of my stash (this isn't all of my stash- somehow the giant drawer of Cascade 220 got missed, plus there are small deposits of yarn spread over 3 rooms, but these have moved over from the "Stash" category to the "Project" category.

Here is my tub of roving, or for the non-knitters reading, the not-yet-yarn pile. This is all going to be spun someday, and then I'm going to find all of the roving that doesn't fit in to the tub, and then spin that too. It's not a short process, but I'll get there.

The sock stash. There are some that believe that sock yarn doesn't count as stash, and to that I say, "Bless your heart." I have enough sock stash to make a pair of socks a week (which is knit-suicide) for almost 2 years. For non-knitters: a large sock stash is a common occurrence. This example is a little larger than normal, but I can explain. Sock yarn is really easy to buy. Most yarn shops have a large selection of sock yarn, and odds are- there's a brand or color you've next seen before and therefore must have. It is also very easy to buy because you know exactly how much you need to make a pair of socks (or mittens, or hat, or shawlette). You need 1 ball or 100 grams. It's really easy to get sucked in to the "it's only one ball!" thing and before you know it, you have to keep your sock yarn in the bathtub to accommodate it. I also find that it makes a great souvenir. See the sparkly blue ball, front and center? A trip to the Marine base last year to visit a guy. The guy didn't work out, but the local yarn shop sure did. The orangey-red above that? A trip to the upper-peninsula of Michigan, also with a guy that didn't work out. (I swear, those are the only two). The pastel-colors under the white box full of beads? From my favorite dyer in England. I've got three more of hers in there too. See how easy that is to accumulate? In order to stop buying sock yarn, I'd have to stop traveling, stop meeting fascinating knitters and dyers, and stop visiting new yarn shops altogether. It's impossible, but I am trying to slow down the process by knitting more socks so that the stash can once again fit in a drawer instead of a cedar chest. The sock-yarn-eating blanket also lives in there. I keep hoping it will "help itself" to the stash and start knitting itself, but so far it's resisting.

Not yarn, but I'm quite pleased with my needle organization system. See that top drawer? Size 2 needles. Size 2 straight needles, size 2 dpns, size 2 circulars, all size 2. The next drawer is all size 3 needles and it continues in this manner until you hit size 10 on the bottom. It's bulky, it's not a cute little bag, but darn it, the system works so it's staying there. This is also a handy place to keep spare size-checker-things, tape measures, stitch markers and things like that, but keep in mind, it's the needles we're talkin' about here. The crap yarn. Or the baby yarn. Let's rephrase this: the machine-washable yarn. The acrylic yarn.See this cluster of bags? These are projects-to-be. Inside each bag is a project's (most commonly a sweater's) worth of yarn, wound and ready to go with the pattern and needles inside. There are 10 of these bags total, this is merely a cluster of 3.
One of these bags on the inside. Needles to be picked, pattern to be improvised but the folded bit of paper is a collection of cable patterns that I like. The special stash. I've got 2 drawers of the special stash, and it's yarn that I'm terrified to use. That's because it's from people that I don't want to disappoint by knitting something ugly with the lovely yarn they bought or made for me. In the drawer below this, there is yarn from a knitter who has since "cast off" (non-knitters might say, "passed away"). In short, I'm waiting until the heavenly light shines on to a pattern and the angels sing "for the vintage rowan in the drawer......". The lace drawer, 1 of 2. Any knitter who knows a thing or two about lace, know that there's 10 years of knitting in this drawer. So naturally, I've got 2 drawers. I'm a planner.The handspun drawer, 1 of 3. I have issues making things with my own handspun, I'm working on it. Don't be too judgmental. So that was a super-quick tour of the stash with over-exposed pictures. Naturally, there's more but if you want to see that, you're welcome to stop by and see for yourself.

While we're talking about stash, here's a couple of my stash-busting projects.

And that's all, folks!