Saturday, September 6, 2008

They used to tell us that cocaine wasn't addictive either

I decided to "toss" my stash today, as one should every so often, according to the advice of Stephanie Pearly-McPhee.  Not toss, as in 'throw away', but toss like a salad - move it around, check it out, pull what's hiding on the bottom up to the top, etc.  I really did it just because I was searching for some partial skeins at the request my friend Catherine who's working on some traveling scarves and wanted something in a colorway she didn't have (and I'm still not sure I understand what color she's looking for, but I had fun looking nonetheless!)  That searching turned into a desire to reorganize my stash by weight.  It seemed like a good idea.  I put things in ziplocks that weren't previously in ziplocks, I rearranged, I neatly stacked ( I can pull out the bags like books now and see 5 skeins or so in each one!)  It's beautiful.  I have 3 shelves of worsted, 1/2 a shelf of lace wt., and 1/2 a shelf of DK/sport in one cabinet. Then 1 shelf of bulky, one of fingering weight (enough for 16 pairs of socks!), 1 of assorted weirdo acrylics for amigurimi, etc., and one of crap/acrylic that I'm not super crazy about but might use on some project if it just happens to come up, in the other cabinet.  I don't even want to add up the yardage like those stash and burn girls, but I did estimate that it's about 52 gallons worth if I count up the bags!  I like that better just because it's a ridiculous unit of measure that keeps me from thinking about how many projects I've got sitting there!  This wasn't on my to-do list for today, but making a list for the upcoming Woolgathering was.  Not sure it's a good idea to try to do that after just counting 52 gallons of yarn I already own!  As I was going through it all, I'd see stuff and think "oh, that'd go great with this" or "oh yeah, I wanted to make a cabled hat with this!" so I really really need to start working from my stash instead of from my queue, because I can do it.  I know I've said it before!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love the bookcases (or are they yarncases?). Makes me want to toss my stash like a salad too (but I need some yarncases of my own - or something!)

...and thanks for looking for yarn for me!

Anonymous said...

I'm coveting your oh so organized stash....

Julia said...

That's a lovely looking stash! I wish I had a nice case like that to store my yarn. I have to dive into big Rubbermaid bins every time I go hunting for those partial skeins! The stash toss is essential - I'm going to try it bi-annually!

Dharma said...

I wish I could have my stash as well displayed as that. One day. Though my stash is smaller than yours, I too need to start working through what I have. We can do this if we support each other.