Hooray!

Whew!

I expect I’ll only have a few yards left over of the blue yarn after I’m done with the collar, but all main pieces of the HoJo are blocking away. Thank goodness! Also, hubby’s side of the family decided to do a secret santa-type thing this year, so I’ve only got the HoJo to do instead of two sweaters.

Which, of course, has led me to the obvious choice of knitting a bunch of small things for the holidays instead of another big sweater. So once HoJo was blocking, there was nothing else to do but cast on for a couple of new projects. A lace-edged woman’s hat out of some Boise from the stash, which I’ve already had to rip because I didn’t like the fabric on US 6 needles, and Jacob’s baby alligator scarf. I like the idea of these small projects–they’re going to be stashbusters, all. Which is nice, given the way I’ve been feeling lately about my stash…

Now, you’ll never find me advocating a small stash across the board. I love my stash, and I’ll never apologize to anyone about its size, nor do I think anyone else should feel badly about the size of their stash, as long as they’re enjoying it. But lately, the sheer amount of yarn I have that I want to knit RIGHT NOW has been getting me down, a little. How am I ever going to find the time to knit all of it? I get kind of sad when I scroll through my Ravelry stash page. And that’s not a good relationship to have with my yarn.

On top of that, certain life goals will be much easier if we can take the next six months and really buckle down, financially. So, aside from a trade that I hope will score me some Cork for gift log cabin slippers, I think I’m going to try avoiding any new yarn for at least a few months, maybe more. We’ll see how it goes. Have any of you felt overwhelmed by your yarn before? What did you do, if so? Do you love your stash?

19 thoughts on “Hooray!

  1. I have to admit, I don’t really understand the “stashing” thing. I pretty much buy yarn when I’m ready to start something, and then I work on it until it’s done. I’m starting to feel like I’m the weird one, though…

    P.S. Since this is my first-ever comment, I’d just like to say that I’ve been enjoying your blog for a while, so thanks for writing it.

  2. Overwhelmed, gluttonous and guilty are the words that come to mind when I think of my stash…

  3. I love being able to trade for new yarn – it makes it feel like you bought something! I have a pretty small stash, and it is really hard when I want to cast on for stuff that I just don’t have the yarn for. I haven’t felt overwhelmed, but guilty sometimes….for letting stuff just sit and marinate!

  4. Absolutely overwhelmed here. It’s not that I don’t love my yarn, it’s just too much right now. Plus I’m tired of the very uneven input/output problem. I can only knit so fast.

  5. Your stash comments echo exactly how I feel right now. I reorganized everything on Sat. and I have realized that I love my stash and all of its possibilities but I am getting a wee bit overwhelmed by the sheer amount. I find when I get overwhelmed, I tend to view knitting as something to ‘get done’ and not something to enjoy. I think I’m in the same boat of not purchasing yarn for a few months and trying to enjoy my knitting again.

  6. I do love my stash, and I haven’t felt overwhelmed by it yet, although sometimes I feel like it’s staring at me 🙂 Over the summer I came to the realization that I actually wanted to “visit” my stash and use all the wonderful yarn I really intended to use than buy new. I’ve made a handful of purchases, I’m not trying NOT to stash. But it was quite a change in POV!

  7. I mostly felt guilty by it. I participated in the Summer Stashout and after several months of a yarn diet, I felt better. I still have stash–it’s just less. I’m buying yarn again, but only stuff that gets casted on right away. I’m also buying more from my LYS instead of online. It’s more expensive, but they have a liberal return policy. So if I buy something and change my mind about doing the project, I just return it instead of having it accumulating in my stash. So in the end, even though each skein costs more, I think it saves money.

  8. I love my stash. While it has definitely gotten bigger in the last year, I only feel overwhelmed when it gets horribly disorganized. I did a big stash organization several months ago to maximize storage space. It felt great but it took two days! I thought it would take an hour or so. Ha. I recently cast on for a sweater for myself. I almost bought new yarn for it and only hesitated because we’re about to move house so I’m being very conservative in all my purchases right now — anything I buy, I’ll have to pack and move. I “shopped the stash” instead and found a perfect yarn substitution. I had bought a “sweaters worth” with a specific sweater in mind. It felt really good to admit that I’m not going to make that one and use the yarn right now for the one I do want to make. I’m so glad HoJo is in the home stretch and you’ll have enough yarn.

  9. I can’t handle having more than a few balls in my stash. Eventually – and here I am talking a couple of months max, it’s presence in the house just makes me feel inadequate as if I’ve failed by not getting through it sooner or faster.

    I actually went through a phase that was started by repeated difficulties with one project that had me refusing to buy any yarn for 7 years! I was determined that until that one item was done I would not indulge in any purchases.

    I’m nothing if not a ridiculously stubborn Type A! I kind of envy the happy exuberance of the idea of a big stash but I just know eventually it will make me crazy!

  10. I have to say I am an advocate of the small stash. More like the minuscule stash. Should I get more then a few skeins of unknit yarn in the house I feel too much pressure to get stuff done. Like completely overwhelming. So I just don’t do it!

  11. I totally felt overwhelmed by my stash (and the amount of $ it represented) a couple of years ago. I had a big stash sale, and was still left with way more yarn than I could knit in the next 20 years. With a very few exceptions for baby knits, I’ve only bought sock yarn since then–and not all that much of it. Admittedly, I haven’t had all that much knitting time, so maybe that’s part of why it was so easy. But now that I’m knitting more often again, it feels good to be able to be able to reduce the stash with each project.

  12. i started feeling overwhelmed by my stash the other day when i was uploading it to ravelry. i just stopped uploading it and started organizing it instead. it forced me to remove a few things, but overall, it helped me see that what i have is mostly stuff that will really get used, someday. THAT i can live with.

    ah, better get back to that knitting, then.

  13. I love my stash, just going through it and organizing it makes me really happy. The idea of having large stash in the house does not make me nervous but lately I have been feeling somewhat overwhelmed by it too. Space is not unlimited in one bedroom apartment and the bigger the stash gets, the harder it is to keep it organized. I have planned to knit small Christmas gifts out of stash yarn too and it feels good to move it in my Ravelry Stash to the used/trade category. Besides, I need a house and I can`t build one out of yarn so buying more yarn makes me feel a little guilty now.

  14. Only very recently have I been a bit overwhelmed by my stash, I have bought a few bargains and it just seems to be too big now. I did think of selling some but it all has a project waiting! I am going to have to stop buying any by January anyway as I will be a poor student again!! At least I will have loads to knit with!

  15. Hooray for one less sweater to knit! I have to hold off on adding to my stash too. Yikes.

  16. You know, when you spin yarn as well as buy it, you end up increasing your stash much faster – it could be worse. [1 crate of handspun, 3 of commercial yarns…]

  17. I love my stash, but I’ve definitely got some weird, guilty feelings associated with it. I just wish I could knit faster so I can use all my lovely yarn, and I wish I stopped finding great yarn on super-sale that I can see future potential in….

    Argh.

    I really love the Hojo sweater, and can’t wait to see it blocked!

  18. I love my stash, too. I’ve pared it down to only having things that I really love– Ravelry has helped me sell off the things I don’t. I go to my Ravelry stash page a lot and just look at my pictures! One reason I decided to go on a “diet” is so that I can actually play with the yarn I’ve had for a long time and have yet to use.

  19. I love my stash, but I am also overwhelmed by it at times, basically because I easily buy faster than I can knit. I’m also very acquisitive, and have tonnes of things on my to buy list, even things that I have no immediate plans to knit (e.g. I really want the Venezia pullover kit, even though stranded wool sweaters are of no use to me at the moment). However, being able to see it seems to help me use it, because then I remember that its there and can be inspired by it instead of always looking at new stuff on the web. Anyway, enough rambling…

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