Stashing

I recently had occasion to pack up about 70% of my knitting stash and realized exactly how much I have.... several shawls worth, a couple sweaters worth, countless balls of sock yarn, plus the recent acquisition of yarn towards baby projects. It is certainly NOT as much as a lot of yarn stash-ers have, but it has definitely outgrown the space I have dedicated to yarn, and that means I need to get knitting before I buy anything else.




See, knitters include people of all stashing types, and I just happen to be one of those folks that tends to stash for planned projects. When I get a little bit of yarn money together I plan the next few projects I'd like to make and then order accordingly. I don't have yarn money available to me at all times- it tends to come to me in chunks at a few different points in the year and  I try to take advantage so that I never go without knitting. Because of this buying trend I typically only have a few projects worth of yarn in my stash at any time. I'm not really sure how this big of a stash took hold- I know some of it was a gift from a friend, some from my mom when she de-stashed (she's a quilter who knits on great occasion and recently got rid of a lot of yarn she's sure she'll never use), and some happened when we moved suddenly to help take care of my father-in-law after my mother-in-law died. I took some things with me from the stash, but bought more when I didn't have what I needed at the time... so I kind of have two small stashes right now- the one at our house and one at my father-in-laws... but when you add two small stashes together it equals "not so small stash" and that is just not good for me (or the storage space I have for yarn!)


I'm planning to knit from stash for as long as possible in 2012, not out of some kind of knitter's torture, but because I have lots of yarn intended for projects that I *really* like and want to see made. I also have some WIPs that were started last spring or summer that didn't end up getting completed (even though I do tend to be a finish-the-project knitter) and I'd like to see those finished. I'll buy new yarn if necessary for something, but the bulk of my 2012 knitting will be knitting with what I have on hand.

What kind of stasher are you? Am I some kind of weirdo? I really don't buy yarn just because I see it and like it- I'm always worried that I'll find the perfect project for it and then not have enough of that perfect yarn, or worse that I'll never make it into anything and it will sit in the stash for another decade or two. I can't stand to buy something (especially something beautiful) that will go unused!