An Ode to Yarn
This post has been sitting in my drafts for just under a year.
For one reason or another it never got posted, reasons I can’t remember anymore (good chance the mood just wasn’t right that week). This post is originally a post that I made on a forum in Ravelry that got some conversation going and gave me a new perspective on stash and loving my stash. I’ve gone ahead and copy-pasted the whole post down below for simplicity, or if you’d rather see the whole thread you can find it here. Give it a read-through and then I’ll touch on where I’ve come from then.
May 25, 2022
I love having a stash. I love having a personal little curated store that lives right in my living room. Who could want more? What’s better than seeing just the right patterns and knowing that you already have just the right yarn. All you have to do is hit download and then boom! the night is yours to knit or crochet away.
But then my little personal curated store outgrew its little house and started living in a little basket too, and then in a little bag on top of the basket, and then in a big bag on top of the little bag, and then in the back of the closet, and so on and so on.
How does this always happen? Maybe it’s the ADHD? I like to think there’s a little fish in my brain that takes over when I see something shiny and new (we have similar tastes little fish, good job). I did it with fabric, beads, and of course… yarn. Recently I moved across the country and reduced my yarn stash to fit in one medium size box. Everything in that box was chosen with a purpose and had a clear plan for what it was going to be. I have since forgotten all of those plans.
I turned 25 this year and decided it was finally time for me to take a breath and organize my yarn stash and actually start using my Ravelry to help me do so. Oh man, I was not prepared. After logging my most recently acquired yarns into my stash I realized I was in way over my head. As my eyes scanned the boxes supposedly organized by yarn weight my thoughts raced from “oh yeah, totally forgot about that” to “didn’t I buy that when I was 17???”. Yarn kept falling out of parts of our home that I forgot existed. So, I had no choice but to go full-throtle. The local library is ready to take my yarn for their crafting classes and I’m ready to start destashing so I can reach the ideal “personal curated store” status again. How is this going to happen? By following these rules:
Do I see myself not only reaching for this but being excited to use it? (fiber, color, weight, etc)
How do I see myself using this? Is it a knit or crochet item that I would wear or would be a good gift?
Is this yarn giving me Marie Kondo vibes? aka does it bring joy in general
Now that’s all well and good. As a serial de-clutterer, I know that its only a matter of time before we’re back where we started. So let’s set some moving forward rules. The first of which being…
NO MORE IMPULSE BUYING: As I started going through my stash I started remembering the mindset I had while purchasing.
”I don’t really wear a lot of green, but I kinda like this green”
”since when is yarn this soft?!?!?!?! clearly it must come home with me”
”PINK!!!”
I swear, walking into a yarn shop is like entering a trance state. No idea what goes on while I’m in there but my bag is full once I’m in the car.
Someone once phrased it to me as being entranced by the possibilities to create more than a desire to actually acquire more yarn or tools. I haven’t had that leave my head since. So no more impulse buying, we are shopping MINDFULLY now. This yarn is being purchased for this pattern because it forms this fabric which will be beautiful and comfy to wear.
Rule 2: The yarn must be a FULL SLAY. Color? must slay. Fiber? slaying. Weight? it better be Buffy level… slaying. I better be holding that yarn in my hands and that TikTok audio that goes “slay whatcha wanna slay, and let the slay slay out” better be playing in my head. I want my new yarn acquisitions to be dying to be cast on.
I’m going to be keeping myself updated on this thread because I will forget what I’ve been working on. Hopefully, by the end of the summer we’ll be in a good place!!
Spring 2023
The main thing that sparked me wanting to revisit this topic is the disucssion about large stashes, destashing, yarn stashes and the ties to overconsumption and capitalism, and the questions that brings into play. At that time I definitely said goodbye to some yarn I was holding onto out of guilt, and also gave away more yarn through Instagram and in person as I parred down my stash. But one thing I never really mentioned is I’ve never had a small stash by any measure. I would venture to say I’ve maybe had a medium sized stash for a month or so at a time. If I had to estimate a number, I likely have 150+ skeins of yarn in my stash. But I LOVE having a large stash. I LOVE that my yarn shelving unit is a fixture of the living room and catches people’s attention as they come in. I LOVE collecting yarn.
If you’ve spoken to anyone in your LYS (or on Ravelry) you’ve probably heard a saying that goes along the lines of “fiber arts and yarn collecting are two separate hobbies”, and it really couldn’t be more true. There’s people who buy yarn to work with it right then and there, and there are people who see something so eye catching that it must come home.
Going forward with the rules I set for myself in the original post I made actually didn’t help me keep the size of my stash down. The more I knit, the more I understand what my favorite yarn types, colors, and weights are and that makes it even more exciting to go out in the world and collect yarn. So then the question was… why do I feel like my stash needs to be small? Why do I feel like it needs to be limited to just what I need to use in that moment?
The only real answer is social media.
Recently, I was catching up with one of my yarny friends (@lordhenriknits on instagram), eventually we started talking about our WIPs and I brought her to my WIP basket where WIPs go to… retire. She said something that’s stuck with me and it was along the lines of “I love seeing someone else who has an unabashed unhinged stash”. It made me think about how 99% of the time I hear someone reference their large stash, whether its online or in person, it generally has a negative air surrounding it. It’s almost like “stashin down” or “downsizing stash” has become a trend in social media. While there is plenty to be said about amassing yarn at random and the stress it can cause people, I thought it would be fun to hear people talk about their large but still curated stashes. So I’ve summarized a few reasons why I love having a large stash, and included some pictures of my original post that can echo some of these sentiments.
Possibilities
Having so much yarn in stash means that I can start almost any project at any time without having to spend any additional money. You never know when the month’s finances will be tighter than usual, or when you just need a little something to break up the motonony of your current project. Having a large stash makes it possible for me to easily switch from my current WIP to a new cast on. Just this last week we were discussing moving into a new home at the end of our current lease. I was so excited at the prospect of having more space for ourselves and our pets that the best way I could think of to get the energy out was to knit a blanket for our new living room. Guess who had all the yarn in stash to knit a multi-color blanket at that moment ;)
2. Sparking Creativity
If you have a large stash, you typically end up with a collection of odds and ends to some extent. Whether its the single skein leftover from sweater, or lots of scraps that are too big to toss guilt-free. Feeling my problem-solving skills kick in to work with all of my odds and ends has resulted in some of my favorite projects to date, like my cropped sweater No. 14, and my marled Oslo Hat. It has also pushed me to explore techniques that I was previously intimidated by, especially things like colorwork!
3. Fostering a different kind of relationship with yarn
Now, this might be a little more specific to myself and isn’t limited to people with large stashes, but I noticed that as my stash got bigger, my attachment to specific skeins became diminished. If you follow me on Instagram and have seen some of my de-stashes you’ll notice that I usually sell yarn for FAR below market value or just ask people to cover the shipping cost. My goal with these destashes is always to make the craft more affordable and accessible. I feel that part of the reason I’m comfortable doing so, besides being in the financial position to be able to, is that I see yarn now as more of a tool and something that holds as much weight as it did in the past. I have very few “too special to use” skeins and am always willing to share the love by giving away yarn. Another major reason I started my online presence, yarn-wise, was to help other people learn about and enjoy fiber arts with me. Being able to share yarn has been a great way for me to meet people and share in the community aspect.
Final Thoughts
All in all, buy the skein of yarn that’s been staring at you from across the room.
Display your yarn stash!
Don’t pass up that perfect shade of pink
Share the love!
