I'm done buying yarn. I really mean it this time. I haven't bought that much in the past two years, certainly not as much as I would have liked, so honestly I thought things were pretty much under control. I bought three skeins (and, okay, three sweater lots, but I used two of those lots immediately, and four pounds of merino/silk/cashmere for $100 was an insanely good deal) in 2009, and six skeins plus one sweater lot (also immediately put to use) in 2010. That really doesn't seem too bad in the scheme of things.
Tonight I finally grasped the true state of affairs. I was looking for a skein of undyed Malabrigo that I was pretty sure I had put into my personal stash, so I went on the hunt in my cedar chest.
First I had to remove all the crap on top of it. I know I should post a photo, but it's just too embarrassing, really. There are two big tote bags filled with half-finished projects, odds and ends of skeins, and dyeing disaster skeins that I entertain a feeble hope of salvaging through overdyeing. There is a large wicker basket overflowing with more of the same. There is a flat-rate priority box full of yarn that I got two (three?) years ago and haven't even opened, because I haven't gotten to the project I was going to use it for. There is a box of undyed samples from various yarn companies--okay, I'll give that one a pass. Maybe that actually has a legit reason to stay in the house.
Mind, this is after I pruned all the yarn I was absolutely, positively sure I would never get around to using. I gave some to friends and much more to my child's preschool. They don't care if I had a sudden coughing fit and my hand twitched at the wrong moment and dumped black dye in inappropriate places, or if the spin dryer ate a chunk of a skein and felted it beyond all hope. That was an 18-gallon Rubbermaid tote's worth of fiber that I offloaded last year.
After moving all the crap onto the sofa, I opened the lid of the chest. It was like Pandora's box in reverse--beauty and admiration came spilling out, leaving only broken promises and hopeless dreams behind. I was going to make mittens out of that yarn. Those skeins were supposed to be transformed into longies. That set would make the perfect stripey child's sweater. And those other 20 or 30 or 40 skeins or, um, more--well, when I decided to bring you home, I promised I would love you forever and make something beautiful out of you. I don't know where it all went wrong but I swear, it's me, not you.
It is just criminal to have so much beautiful yarn and to never have time to knit it. Time to face reality--I need to destash. This round is going to be tough; I did all the easy stuff last time, and now there's going to be some pain involved. I'd like to have my living room back, and it won't be easy.
It might be fun to do a Survivor: Scarlet's Stash Edition. I feel a little spark of hope amid the despair after all.
Showing posts with label stash. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stash. Show all posts
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Friday, January 23, 2009
Rogue
I can barely remember a time when I didn't long to knit Rogue. I finally bought the pattern about a year ago, and since then I've been wrestling with what yarn to use.
For a long time, I thought I'd use the colorgrown black Blue-Faced Leicester yarn that I've been hoarding. It is the softest, fluffiest BFL I've ever seen--and many, many kilos have passed through this house, from various vendors. I have a kilo of it that I've been saving for just the right project, and I thought Rogue was it.
Then I realized that the cables might not show up that well in a black yarn. And since I haven't done much cable work, I should probably use a lighter-colored yarn so that I wouldn't go blind trying to figure out my inevitable mistakes. I already seem to be on the fast track to bifocals, so no sense in making it worse.
I thought about dyeing my own yarn. Not variegated--Rogue needs a plainer yarn, to show its cables to best advantage. But I thought I might do a solid or semi-solid. However, the more I browsed other people's Rogues on Ravelry, the more I wanted something tweedy. Or maybe heathered.
I considered Bartlett Rangeley, which sounded like it might be on the coarse, scratchy side, but the price was right and I really liked the Blackberry colorway. I remembered Blackberry Ridge's heathered lines--they had beautiful spring and autumnal heathers that I always admired, but never bought. Alas! They have discontinued their heathers, due to lack of interest. I have never been one to stash sweater quantities of yarns, but I might have to start, lest any other longtime favorites disappear into oblivion.
My Rogue fantasies finally settled on Queensland Kathmandu Aran. As luck would have it, it's also been discontinued. Still, I hung onto my little dream, and stalked people's Ravelry stashes in an unhealthy way.
All that OCD behavior may have paid off. I found two people who were willing to part with their Kathmandu. One lovely person offered to send me a snippet of the yarn, since I can't tell which of the myriad online photos has the most accurate color of it. The other person has the colorway that I love best, at least on screen. So that batch should be on its way to me soon, and I may buy the other lot as well. I've learned my lesson--your sweater stash can never be too big.
For a long time, I thought I'd use the colorgrown black Blue-Faced Leicester yarn that I've been hoarding. It is the softest, fluffiest BFL I've ever seen--and many, many kilos have passed through this house, from various vendors. I have a kilo of it that I've been saving for just the right project, and I thought Rogue was it.
Then I realized that the cables might not show up that well in a black yarn. And since I haven't done much cable work, I should probably use a lighter-colored yarn so that I wouldn't go blind trying to figure out my inevitable mistakes. I already seem to be on the fast track to bifocals, so no sense in making it worse.
I thought about dyeing my own yarn. Not variegated--Rogue needs a plainer yarn, to show its cables to best advantage. But I thought I might do a solid or semi-solid. However, the more I browsed other people's Rogues on Ravelry, the more I wanted something tweedy. Or maybe heathered.
I considered Bartlett Rangeley, which sounded like it might be on the coarse, scratchy side, but the price was right and I really liked the Blackberry colorway. I remembered Blackberry Ridge's heathered lines--they had beautiful spring and autumnal heathers that I always admired, but never bought. Alas! They have discontinued their heathers, due to lack of interest. I have never been one to stash sweater quantities of yarns, but I might have to start, lest any other longtime favorites disappear into oblivion.
My Rogue fantasies finally settled on Queensland Kathmandu Aran. As luck would have it, it's also been discontinued. Still, I hung onto my little dream, and stalked people's Ravelry stashes in an unhealthy way.
All that OCD behavior may have paid off. I found two people who were willing to part with their Kathmandu. One lovely person offered to send me a snippet of the yarn, since I can't tell which of the myriad online photos has the most accurate color of it. The other person has the colorway that I love best, at least on screen. So that batch should be on its way to me soon, and I may buy the other lot as well. I've learned my lesson--your sweater stash can never be too big.
Monday, December 15, 2008
protecting the stash against moth invaders
I know in my head that only certain types of moths will harm my yarn and wool clothing. But around here, no moth is shown any form of mercy--just in case.
Given my paranoia about moths, I was very interested in a recent article by Oregon State University Extension on alternatives to mothballs. If you're not familiar with Extension, each state was granted land by the federal government to fund a designated university to conduct research-based outreach to that state's citizens. Extension was originally focused on agricultural issues--pest management being a significant element, of course--but has since expanded to include home gardening (the Master Gardener program is a prime example), water quality, 4-H, nutrition, and parenting, among other issues. There is also a new program to train citizens in climate change issues--but I digress. (I used to work for Extension on water issues, and I think it's a fantastic program.)
Anyway, one of the two major problem moths in this country is a specimen by the name of Tineola bisselliella. When they are at rest, they don't spread their wings like the winter moth, which is the species active in these parts at this time of year, but fold them up into a rectangular shape.
One of the article's recommendations is to sun your clothing once or twice a month. It doesn't mention the most common recommendation that I've heard for safeguarding yarn, which is to freeze it, let it warm up, and then freeze again to kill any larvae that might have emerged during the thaw. We recently bought a chest freezer to store some local grass-fed beef that we just purchased in bulk, as well as the gallons and gallons of berries that we picked this summer, but to tell the truth, I have been toying with the idea of using it for mothproofing my stash. It's big and it's airtight, and it sits oh so temptingly next to my dyeing table. My husband asked if I could move all my undyed yarn in the garage, now that I have dedicated work space there, and I said only if I could put it in the freezer.
Given my paranoia about moths, I was very interested in a recent article by Oregon State University Extension on alternatives to mothballs. If you're not familiar with Extension, each state was granted land by the federal government to fund a designated university to conduct research-based outreach to that state's citizens. Extension was originally focused on agricultural issues--pest management being a significant element, of course--but has since expanded to include home gardening (the Master Gardener program is a prime example), water quality, 4-H, nutrition, and parenting, among other issues. There is also a new program to train citizens in climate change issues--but I digress. (I used to work for Extension on water issues, and I think it's a fantastic program.)
Anyway, one of the two major problem moths in this country is a specimen by the name of Tineola bisselliella. When they are at rest, they don't spread their wings like the winter moth, which is the species active in these parts at this time of year, but fold them up into a rectangular shape.
One of the article's recommendations is to sun your clothing once or twice a month. It doesn't mention the most common recommendation that I've heard for safeguarding yarn, which is to freeze it, let it warm up, and then freeze again to kill any larvae that might have emerged during the thaw. We recently bought a chest freezer to store some local grass-fed beef that we just purchased in bulk, as well as the gallons and gallons of berries that we picked this summer, but to tell the truth, I have been toying with the idea of using it for mothproofing my stash. It's big and it's airtight, and it sits oh so temptingly next to my dyeing table. My husband asked if I could move all my undyed yarn in the garage, now that I have dedicated work space there, and I said only if I could put it in the freezer.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
organizing
Spring cleaning fever has hit our household. Today we rearranged some furniture in the house. We have a Lane cedar chest that was full of random junk and never-worn wool sweaters, which we were always bumping into when we tried to go into the master bathroom. Now it's out in the living room and full of yarn. I didn't think that I could get my undyed yarn in there, but I did hope that it would consolidate all of my dyed stash, which is all over the house.
Well, not quite. The stuff that is most easily organized--my yarn from other indie dyers (Beemer Knits, Mosaic Moon, Three Irish Girls, Wooly Wonders by Nada), my Noro, a few skeins of commercially dyed yarn, some colorways that haven't sold yet--are now tidily sorted into little bins inside the chest, and I get a little glow when I look at it. But I still have a Rubbermaid tub and a couple of big tote bags full of odds and ends. I'm a little appalled to find all this fresh evidence of my pack-rattiness.
I've got skein remnants that maybe I could use "someday" for trim or accents or embellishments. Ugly dye jobs that are not fixable. Experimental dyeing partial skeins that are too big to throw away or compost, too small to sell or give away. What on earth am I supposed to do with all this stuff?
I did hear about someone on LJ who solicits yarn donations for her senior center in Massachusetts, so I might contact our local center and see if they'd want it. Or maybe the local preschools could use them for art projects. It seems so wasteful to just junk this yarn, but it's taking up so much darned space--I hope I can find a useful home for at least some of it.
Well, not quite. The stuff that is most easily organized--my yarn from other indie dyers (Beemer Knits, Mosaic Moon, Three Irish Girls, Wooly Wonders by Nada), my Noro, a few skeins of commercially dyed yarn, some colorways that haven't sold yet--are now tidily sorted into little bins inside the chest, and I get a little glow when I look at it. But I still have a Rubbermaid tub and a couple of big tote bags full of odds and ends. I'm a little appalled to find all this fresh evidence of my pack-rattiness.
I've got skein remnants that maybe I could use "someday" for trim or accents or embellishments. Ugly dye jobs that are not fixable. Experimental dyeing partial skeins that are too big to throw away or compost, too small to sell or give away. What on earth am I supposed to do with all this stuff?
I did hear about someone on LJ who solicits yarn donations for her senior center in Massachusetts, so I might contact our local center and see if they'd want it. Or maybe the local preschools could use them for art projects. It seems so wasteful to just junk this yarn, but it's taking up so much darned space--I hope I can find a useful home for at least some of it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
