Year of the Stash
Posted by limedragon | Filed under knitting, yarn stash
You probably have read about Knit from your Stash 2007 or Yarn Diet 2007. This is pretty much the same thing; I’m not officially signing up but am playing along.
Moirae says, “I think the more you interact with your stash, the less likely you will be to buy yarn.” Wendy also explains, “the point of this exercise is to attempt to use yarn that has been marinating in our stashes. You know how it goes — you buy something you absolutely love and fully intend to knit x from it. Then you see something else and change your mind, and buy yarn for that project. Et cetera.”
In 2005, I started a spreadsheet to track my yarn inventory, but forgot all about it after I started my blog early in 2006. I recently rediscovered the spreadsheet and brought it up to date. I also refined it to include tabs for charts and 2007 tracking, and to allow me to better manage my yarn spending and plans. Not only is the amount of yarn staggering but the potential is also huge. (I sometimes block out forget the latter.)
It’ll take a while for my tally to become accurate; I didn’t include a few current WIPs, such as the Cropped Cardigan. My reasoning (and motivation) is that I’ll get back to work on these once I finish up other obligations. It’ll be easier to keep track and make adjustments now that I’ve cleaned up my spreadsheet, so I’m staying positive.
I’ve got enough sock yarn to knit 61 pairs of adult-size socks! (That’s an exclamation point of shock, by the way.) Two kits also reside in my stash, one a pillow, the other a Christmas stocking. I’ve got enough yarn to make four adult sweaters, a kid’s sweater, two baby blankets, and two new, secret gifts.
That’s a lot, right? Yeah. Which brings me back to the purpose of this post. I’m going to knit from stash as much as possible this year. I also plan to try alternating gift and personal knitting to keep me motivated and on schedule for any upcoming gifty events. I’d also like to reduce the sock yarn percentage of my stash. But in full disclosure, I have one order coming in from WEBS, because I used a gift certificate, and will be doing another year of the BMFA Rockin’ Sock Club.
If I successfully maintain good spending and knitting habits, I’m thinking of rewarding myself at the end of the year with a Hanne Falkenberg kit or something similar. That’s good incentive, right?
Stash details as of Jan 1, 2007
| Total Yardage:
|
66,763 (38 miles or 61,048 meters) |
| Sockage:
|
61 pairs, or 35% of stash
|
Tags: goals, yarn stash
January 2nd, 2007 at 3:27 pm
A very good incentive! I so don’t want to calculate how much yarn I actually have…
January 5th, 2007 at 8:22 am
Wow! Nice Stash!
Seriously, I plan to inventory mine today or tomorrow, and move it to a new location and new storage containers. It’s a good idea to clean (knit) out the old and bring in the new (more yummy yarns!).