Knitters with a big stash will completely grok this:

So that's where I am today. At least in my head. Remembering how I felt when I bought this stuff. Remembering what I planned on making with it. Remembering all the emotions I was sure I'd feel when the projects were finished. Beating myself up for never getting around to starting the projects. Beating myself up for not even winding the yarn yet. Beating myself up for beating myself up for all the projects I wanted to make but never got around to.

My friend learned to knit and crochet right when her husband left for Iraq. A year later, she had a serious obsession. She made her husband come over to my house to see my stash so that hers would look small by comparison. Her husband was a bit stunned by my skein collection; my husband just shrugged his shoulders and sighed.

I've been making a conscious effort to use up yarn I already own, but somehow the stash keeps growing. Sometimes is grows slowly, as when I find one lonely ball of mustard yellow on sale for 60 cents that can be used to make HCC squares. Other times it grows in leaps and bounds: one of the ladies in my charity group has been ridding her stash of yarns that bother her arthritic hands, and every two weeks she brings me a new big bag of yarn for me. So even though my stash is growing mostly due to free yarn, it's still starting to overwhelm me.

It takes several hours and about 1.5 oz of yarn to make a preemie cap; thus, bags of yarn every two weeks will take me ages to work through. But somehow I have this stupid mental image that I will use up everything I own someday, and then dust my hands off and go buy more.

Working through my stash is like digging in sand.

Posted by: Sarah at 08:02 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 327 words, total size 2 kb.

1 I'm this way with my scrapbooking supplies. (Note to self: organize and put away your scrapbooking stash before Sarah steps foot in this house!) Oh, well. That's what hobbies are about, I suppose, and as inexpensive as the supplies can be, they mulitply fast!

Posted by: Guard Wife at April 28, 2008 10:02 AM (BslEQ)

2 I promised myself a while ago that I would not buy any more yarn until I had all of my projects with specific yarns completed. So ABW and I walked into the thrift store the other day and found a HUGE bin of Rowan wool yarn for $1.75/skein (brand new, with tags). We went a little crazy. And I felt guilty the whole time. There was a point right before I got to the register that I almost put them back. But I couldn't part with the scrumptious colors I picked out, even though I had no current ideas for the yarn. Hey! Maybe I'll make some wool soakers with the pattern you sent...(I already have three projects on the needles that haven't been touched in weeks). Argh.

Posted by: Erin at April 28, 2008 10:52 AM (y67l2)

3 Well... there's always junior knitters who may or may not be pregnant and may or may not be headed into a deployment and may or may not lust after yarn every time they enter a hobby lobby or michael's who may or may not appreciate your passing on some of the stash to them. Not that I know anybody who may or may not fit those criteria. Nope. Nobody.

Posted by: Sis B at April 28, 2008 11:18 AM (0ZS+T)

4 To Erin's defense she really did almost put it back. I told her to keep it. I couldn't let her put back her measly couple of balls of yarn when I......gulp.......bought 34. (but some of mine were only 75 cents a skein!) No excuse, no excuse..... just don't ask me to count my needles..... I'm off to knit...wait....I'm cutting quilt squares.....tomorrow I knit.

Posted by: ABW at April 28, 2008 11:50 AM (Y3JJK)

5 Shoot, Erin and ABW, no need to gulp...if I had been there, I would've fought you for the yarn myself. I sure don't need 34 new balls, but I would've taken them in a heartbeat, and maybe punched you out if you tried to get me to share.

Posted by: Sarah at April 28, 2008 11:53 AM (TWet1)

6 I've been talking to a company that may be donating yarn to Soldiers' Angels. When I talked to the crochet team about it, the team leader was so excited. She said that most of the knitters and crocheters (who usually make blankets for the VA) are retired and can't afford to buy as much yarn as they would use if they had the opportunity. So... perhaps I could help you find a good home for all that yarn...?

Posted by: FbL at April 28, 2008 12:58 PM (rW1/8)

7 OMG, can I just say that I hate you all. And I mean that in the nicest way possible. I lost my whole stash in the stupid Nor'Easter flood on April 07' and have been aquirring some stuff here and there. If I saw that sale I'd beat you all off with a stick for that yarn. There's too many knitters here in Philly to really be able to get good sale stuff, it's always picked over.

Posted by: Mare at April 29, 2008 09:44 AM (EI19G)

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