On New Year's Day I woke up postively giddy: I was going to organize my stash! The first step was to dump everything out on the floor (see the first picture in the nifty Pictobrowser below). From there it was an iterative process. Piles of wool, piles of silk, piles of sock yarn. I took a number of breaks to knit, watch a movie, eat, and by the next morning I had a much more manageable situation (see the second picture).
Manageable though it may be, it is a large stash. You, my knitting friends, know where this is going . . . Knit From Your Stash 2007. My basic goal is to get my stash down so that it all fits in my newly contracted yarn corner (and not in overstuffed boxes!). Ideally, I would like to get it to where there is some breathing room in each of the boxes. So, here it goes, my rules:
- No yarn purchases until Stitches West
- Try my hardest to knit through 30 skeins by Stitches West
- After Stitches, no yarn purchases until I have knit another 30 skeins with the following exceptions:
- Yarn purchased with gift certificates
- Yarn for gifts that I must knit and that I absolutely do not have the yarn for
- I get one pass
To make things a bit easier on myself I gave myself a few guidelines:
- If a project takes a partial ball to complete, that counts as a full ball. Why should I be penalized for diligently purchasing enough yarn for a project?
- I get credit for yarn that I sell, gift (from my stash), donate, or otherwise get out of my house (i.e. leave out for local birds to cushion their nests with).
- Remember the one skein projects!
Nice stash.
And the rules sound so reasonable. Even I could follow those :)
Posted by: Amy Boogie | January 04, 2007 at 04:22 AM
Good stash resolutions. I would do the same thing, but I'm afraid to photograph everything in my stash. The shame and embarrassment! My resolution is also to not buy more yarn until Stitches (with your exceptions as well as a souvenir skein exception for traveling) and to finish up a few machine projects that will empty out some bin space. Hurrah! Can't wait to see you later.
Posted by: Jenny | January 04, 2007 at 07:46 AM
The photo-browser thing is very cool. Nice work on the organizing -- you have so much lovely stuff that I'd think knitting from your stash would be lots of fun!
Posted by: alison | January 04, 2007 at 08:43 AM
You have quite the stash. I can't even apply the 30 skeins rule, I don't think. Maybe I need to assess my own situation.
Posted by: Susan | January 04, 2007 at 09:33 AM
Good luck!! I'm not going to commit to that because I've tried so many times and didn't stick to any of it.
Posted by: monica | January 04, 2007 at 11:59 AM
Girl, this is perfect. And timely. I found this book at the SBPL called Odd Ball Knitting. You may have already heard of it, but if not I'll lend it to you. There are some seriously cute patterns. Plus, you're so good with color. Plus, if I get the full-time lib job there, you know who's buying the 740's.
Posted by: anne | January 04, 2007 at 12:17 PM
Holy cow, I'm amazed that stash didn't up and swallow you whole! Incredible organizing, I might add.
Posted by: Jackie | January 04, 2007 at 12:25 PM
I love the pile. I do organizing by messing as well.
Posted by: Gina | January 05, 2007 at 02:05 PM
Wow, you're so prolific making a dent in the stash shouldn't be a problem. Hey...Grace is here. I'm famous! The corset pullover is amazing!! I'm inspired.
Posted by: erin | January 05, 2007 at 06:35 PM
That is one big pile-o-yarn. Good luck! I love the idea of the Knit from your Stash but my stash is so pathetically small I would only get one or two projects out of it, and that's just sad.
Posted by: knitannie | January 06, 2007 at 03:33 PM