Stash

Early 2012 I said I wouldn't buy any yarn. I had helped pay for my brothers surgery and needed a down payment for my apartment and yarn just wasn't in the budget.

This is all I bought.

It's not zero but it's not much either. It's nine small projects worth and two, maybe three, months of knitting. It's that long only because the blue sock yarn on the right is for a lace shawlet and lace is slow going.

Back in 2010 I tracked all I knit and what I knit. I found that I really won't knit a yarn until it's been in my stash for 3 years. It takes that long to go from too special to knit, no project is good enough to live up to it's potential, to being usable yarn. So while I may knit some of that sooner most of that is for 2015. The thought that is all I have 2015 makes me all gaspy and light headed. I keep telling myself it will be ok. I did get gift yarn too and when I add in that yardage in and I have five, maybe six, months of knitting.


Mulling that over, I decided it was time to look at my whole stash and evaluate.

Yarn that is older than three years old. This yarn is well aged and ready to knit. This is from 2004 to the end of 2009. I've been knitting since 2000 but I don't have any yarn left from before 2004. At 21,617 yards that is thirteen months of knitting.

2010, 2011 and 2012, gift yarn and all. The yarn that is marinating and most of it is still too special to knit, although a few of the balls on the bottom from the beginning of 2010 are almost ready. This is 26,180 yards and fifteen months of knitting.

Add all that together and I'm going to be completely out of yarn 3 months into 2015. On top of that, the yarn I buy this year would really be for 2016 for it to have aged correctly. It's all a bit terrifying.

When I started tracking my stash on the blog in 2006 I had seven years of knitting on hand. I decided that was excessive and put myself on a yarn diet. It's now been seven years of limited yarn buying and I'm down to two years and three months. That is less than I'm comfortable with. I miss going to my stash and finding what I need to make whatever I want. The stash dresser I couldn't fit all of the stash into now has plenty of room. However, my budget isn't ready for me to start buying yarn again, so 2013 is another year of no yarn.

Instead of fretting about it, I've pulled my spinning wheel next to the computer and I spin while playing Sims 3. It has ponies!

I'll just make my own yarn. I have plenty of potential in my fiber stash.