Have you ever said to yourself, I have too much yarn? Do you have bags or bins of yarn in every nook and cranny in your house (and garage, under the stairs, in the closet, under the bed, in a storage locker, hanging out at a friend’s house)?
Well, me too. And this year, I am committed to doing something about taming the stash, so I am putting it in writing, with you all as witnesses, to help me be accountable – lol!!
So come join me on my Stash Busting Journey – 2019. I will be posting regular updates on methods that I will be using (hopefully successfully, but I’ll be honest and post any that don’t work as well). I know I won’t get through all my stash this year – and, frankly, I love having yarn to look at around me, but I have got to tame this beast!!
Ok, let the journey begin!!
Stash Busting Journey – 2019 #1
Ok, some background information for those of you who don’t know me. I started my crochet journey back in the early 1980’s while at university. Up until about 1997, I purchased yarn when I had a project in mind, made the item, and usually used up most of what I purchased. I was also machine knitting (from 1992) and had a few cones of yarn, but not a great stash. I was doing a lot more sewing in the 80’s and 90’s, so I had a larger fabric stash. In 1997, my aunt was ill, and my cousin was helping her sort out her craft supplies. They knew I crocheted, and very generously gifted me with 2 large (garbage sized) bags of yarn. And so the stash began….
Fast forward a few years. Early 2000’s, my focus started to switch from sewing (kids were getting older), to machine knitting. Machine knitters tend to like to use yarn on cones (usually 1-2 lbs each). I joined a club (Burlington Machine Knitters Guild – great group www.bmkg.ca ) and started hearing about sales of cone yarn. So went to one close by, and came home with about 250 cones of yarn! Then heard about another one, a bit further away. Came home with about 5 large bags of cones. And so the stash was quickly built.
This was all new to me – having yarn and not a project planned to make it. And I think this is one of my creative weaknesses – seeing some yarn and not knowing exactly what I will make using it. So the yarn sits and waits for me to be inspired.
So now we are at January 2012, when I decided that I would like to share my knowledge of crochet with others. I became a certified crochet instructor and starting teaching privately and at a local Michaels store. I also started being more active on social media sites, which is great for the wealth of information available.
However, the downfall is that you also get information about great yarn sales! And one of the biggest that is less than a 2 hour drive from me, is the Spinrite sales in Listowel, ON. So, in August of 2015, I went….and I shopped….and 5 extra large bags later, over 400 balls of yarn later, my stash was now huge. Also around this time, Coats and Clark were closing their outlet in Mississauga – had some great deals that I couldn’t pass up.
When I taught at Michael’s, frequently it was at a table in the yarn department. I used to joke with my students that I had more yarn by weight than the store did. I may not have been joking-lol!
Yarn also has a way of finding me – I have been gifted yarn from someone moving out of the country, and by a neighbour, whose wife passed away the year before and he was having difficulty finding homes for all her supplies. Now, I have shared the wealth of a lot of the donated yarn. Members of the Milton Sit and Stitch group had fun in the fall of 2018 selecting yarns they liked. I also donated a couple of large bags to a recent refugee in Canada, as crocheting is helping her with all the stress she is facing in her life as her family is currently in separate countries.
Which now leads us to 2019. I have never denied I have a lot of yarn, but, I think, seeing the difficulty of my neighbour dealing with his wife’s stash, has been a wake-up call for me that it really is too much. So my goal is to use up as much as I realistically can this year. I have lots of ideas – now just to implement some of them.
Need to reduce your stash? Come join me on my journey. Make sure you have signed up to my newsletter list to receive notification of new posts.
Until next time,
May all your yarn be knot-free.
Sally