The Year of the Stash
January is certainly flying by, isn’t it? I could have sworn that it was just yesterday that we were waiting for the clock to strike midnight so that we could welcome in a brand new year.
I have decided that this year will be the year of the stash. I intend to slow down on my accumulation of new fiber and try to work with primarily what is already in my possession. I know that I said roughly the same thing at multiple points last year, yet continued to acquire new fiber at astounding rate. It took me setting aside some time to organize and take stock of my stash to realize just how much I have. In the year since I’ve learned to knit, I have managed to squirrel away over four hundred skeins of yarn. Tucked away in my closet and one corner of my bedroom, there’s a pile of yarn that roughly amounts to over 92,000 yards (52 miles!) of good, usable fiber. This isn’t counting what has already been used (which isn’t all that much, honestly), nor does it take into account fiber for spinning. Yikes!
My goal is to use up somewhere around one hundred skeins of yarn from my stash over the course of the year. To help myself keep track, I’ve added a counter to the sidebar of the blog which I will be updating each time I finish a project. I’ve also joined the Stash Knit Down group on Ravelry so that I might be inspired by the quests of others in a similar conundrum.
The most important step for stopping a stash avalanche will be to asses and improve my spending habits as well as throttle my yarn budget This doesn’t mean I won’t be buying more, as I still wish to support my local yarn stores, but I won’t be able to purchase as much at one time as I have been previously. This should also help cut down on impulse buys as well.
Now, I’ve already bought my tickets for the Stitches West market place (I’m unable to take any classes this year, unfortunately) and I still do intend to shop my heart out. I am, however, going in with a limited amount of money in cash only and I will be leaving my debit card at home. This, paired with my husband’s voice of reason, should feasibly keep me from going completely overboard with my acquisitions.
Wish me luck!
