Jessie: In New Hampshire where the twenty inches of recently fallen snow have almost completely melted!
I don’t know if this happens to you, but I seem to experience things on some sort of a looping system. There are waves of work, of leisure, of energetic pursuits, and of inertia. I find there are times when my calendar is filled to the brim with social engagements and other times when I have long stretches of relative quiet. Then, the cycles seem to start over again.
Every spring, at just about this time I am overcome with the urge to whittle down the contents of the pantry and the freezer. There is something so satisfying about using up a well-intentioned, but ill-considered purchase of spelt flour! Just seeing the back wall of the freezer for the first time in ages lightens my heart and mood.
Lately, I am in the grips of a stash-busting frenzy. If you are someone who knits or crochets I expect you can relate. For those of you who don’t, a yarn stash is something akin to a reader’s to-be-read pile. Like its towering, toppling literary cousin, the yarn stash is both a source of joy and of guilt. Skein after skein of squishy wool and shimmering silk, lofty mohair and cloud-like cashmere sit waiting for their turn on the needles just as the TBR pile books do for their time to be read.
Just like books, yarn calls out to be acquired. It whispers or it shouts, and once it is in your house, it cannot be entirely ignored. My stash is mostly organized in my studio, a room on the second floor of the ell connecting the main house to the barn. It ought to be out of sight and out of mind in a room tucked a bit off the beaten track. It isn’t.
I am of two minds on the subject of stash. I love to always have something readily available to cast on the needles on a whim. After all, when you live in the country, especially in a place where 20 inches of snow in April can leave your home without electricity or internet for days at a time, a new knitting project might just be the only thing to keep despair at bay. If it is storming there is no way to make it to the nearest yarn shop, especially since it is fifteen miles away.
That said, perhaps just quite so much stash is not necessary. In fact, it can feel a bit unwieldy. After all, I easily have a lifetime supply of power outage knitting already carefully stored here, there, and everywhere. I could likely knit a cozy hat for each of the residents of my village without adding a single yard of fiber to my collection. I might even be able to make them each a pair of matching mittens. That realization makes it difficult to justify purchasing anything new no matter how lovely it may be.
So, like all my other waves of interest, I am currently ruthlessly working my way through my supplies. I decided last month to launch into a 24-in-24 project and have included 24 knitted items in the mix. I am absolutely determined to use yarn I already own to meet that goal. Maybe I will make a bunch of hats for the neighbors for the next time our power goes out! And you know, like that teetering to-be-read pile, it is much more fun to dive into it than to leave it untouched!
Readers, how about you? Do you have a teetering to-be-read pile? Do you have a stash of some sort of your own? If so, do you occasionally feel the need to reduce it? How do you go about it if you do?
What beautiful yarns, Jessie! I have a similar cloth stash for quilting and other sewing projects. Much of it is from West Africa and is lovely. I haven’t had the urge to add to it in quite a while, although remnants from sewing projects add up. I did want to bring home some traditional Japanese fabric but never found the right place.
The books? Let us not speak of that!
Fabric stash! I have some of that too! I can understand why you keep, and seek fabric from your travels.
Ouch!!! You peeked! I have all those. The TBR table is somewhat full along with another shelf in the bookcase. I have the yarn stash, some of which a friend gave me and parts of that were added to a baby blanket for one of the grandkids. But there is still plenty more. The freezer has been on the TO DO list for so long, I try to trick myself into doing it in pieces. The problem is that those “pieces” get refilled too quickly, so it is a zero net gain.
You said it eloquently and lovingly and we breathe a sigh of affirmation. And I like seeing your favorite reds.
Aww, thanks, Doris! I am glad there are other stashers out there!
Socks! This past weekend, I decided to clean out and reorganize my bureau and dresser drawers and realized my socks have been somehow breeding lol! I emptied out a small trashcan bags worth of special holiday socks (I have a pair of Halloween socks for each day of October) and stashed them away in a closet.
Socks do that! And so do sock yarns! I have so much sock yarn!
I don’t have a teetering To Be Read pile. I have a To Be Read corner of my room.
I also have a ton of music CDs that I haven’t yet organized as well.
I hadn’t even considered music as a category! Good luck!
There’s always the fabulous stack of TBR books. At times, I think I take on off to read and turn around and there’s two been added. But that brings joy to my heart.
Through the years, there’s been many stashes, but as I’ve “matured”, I have found that if it doesn’t bring joy to my heart then it has to go. There really is a thought to spring cleaning in my house. Although not necessarily every year, but every few years at this time, there seems to be this urge to declutter of what doesn’t bring me joy any more. It means going through draws and closet and reassessing what’s there. It always amazes me that with new eyes, I wonder why had I been holding on to something. Out the door it goes with the statement “I’m not bringing anything else in.” However, we all know that last for what – 6 months – and then things start to slip in until “I’ll deal with it later”.
Thankfully, I stash can continue to grow because it takes up no physical space (other than a small external drive to free up the computer) and always brings me joy. That would be the photos I took with my camera that are stored in a computer folder. However, even that when seen with eyes that have learned more about settings and subjects has me ditching a bit.
With that being said, what brings one joy is worth keeping. Otherwise ditch it.
2clowns at arkansas dot net
Digital stash is a whole category unto itself! We have many photos too, and like yours, they bring me joy! I try to apply that joy test to my yarn as well. A couple of years ago I donated a bunch to a homeschooling group and it felt wonderful to release it to someone who would value it!
I have a whole drawer of socks I haven’t worn in ages – they are boot socks and I just don’t wear boots like that these days.
I also have a drawer full of various nail polishes in all sorts of colors, but alas, I don’t paint my nails much these days, either. And most of it is probably dried beyond using.
Socks seem to have lives of their own!
What wonderful colors! Makes me itch to finish that sweater I began this winter. Yes, I have a yarn stash, I’ve caked all my yarns and they’re in Rubbermaid tubs – note the plural! Using them up is on my to do list – we’ll see.
My TBR – ah, tackled that last year and have only three book collections left of the bunch. So, what am I doing? Ordering more, of course!
Caking the yarn feels like progress, doesn’t it? Good luck with the sweater!
I love seeing all of your yarn. It’s so pretty. I have books stashed in drawers, in stacks — one holding up a lamp — on shelves. And we’ve donated over two hundred to our local library over the past couple of years. And I also have too many vintage postcards, many a friend gave to me. I’ve given stacks of those away too.
Holding up a lamp! Now that is fun! I can imagine you with all those postcards too!
Spring must be coming if you’re feeling the urge to clean! I used to be a scrapbooker. For a variety of reasons, I haven’t been doing that lately. I periodically have talks with myself where I say, “You either have this hobby or you don’t. If you do, you must do something. If you don’t, you must get rid of this stuff.” That got me to a scrapbooking weekend last fall, where I did complete a book. But I haven’t done anything since, so I am back to having the talk with myself.
I totally understand that talk! I have had it with myself about any number of things over the years!
I have a yarn stash, a TBR pile, and most recently started scrapbooking. The only one I’m making headway on is the TBR pile!
Your yarn is beautiful!
Thanks, Rose! At least you are making headway with one out of three!
I have a tettering TBR pile. And, despite my best efforts to read quickly, it just grows. I really need to go through and sort out Christmas ornaments and get rid of some I bought I no longer want. But that’s just too much work, so it remains on a lofty set of goals I’ll do “someday.”
Lofty goals! Maybe that is how I should speak to myself about my stash!
I have books and yarn. My brother-in-law, sister and niece helped me move – boxes and boxes with books in the bottom half and yarn in the top. I’ve been banned from buying more yarn and books. Yeah, like that’s going to happen. 🙂
Yes, I have both a teetering tbr pile and a ridiculously large yarn stash! Recently I’ve added some alpaca to my yarn stash, I have lots of lovely wools that I knit for others and acrylic for myself because of allergies – but alpaca is hypoallergenic.