Let’s just talk about stash, shall we?

I was thinking about how much yarn I have in my stash, but I NEVER have the color, fiber, style or weight that I want. I have tons of sock yarn and when I say tons, I mean it.  Hubs made a joke that we don’t even need furniture. We could just sit on mounds of yarn or I could make a knitted cover for our house.

I thought that he was exaggerating, but when I try to find something that I know I’ve purchased, I find myself digging through bags and bags of yarn.  I really have to organize my stash.

Why do knitters stash?  Well, I can say for myself that it starts when I go out looking for yarn for some outlandish project that I want to do.  For me, outlandish means a sweater.  I have far too little patience to knit an adult sweater unless it’s on size 15 needles in super-bulky yarn that I shouldn’t wear because it is way too bulky for my frame.  I end up at the yarn store, wallet in hand, to purchase yarn for the outlandish project.  Inevitably, I see the section with the sock yarn and it’s all over. I end up leaving with a huge bag of sock yarn.

I have a rather large addiction to making socks.  You can afford to make them in more decadent fibers because you’re not purchasing a ton of it (yeah… ) and they satisfy the instant gratification for someone like me.  You can also experiment with different, more difficult stitch patterns and if you screw something up, you don’t have to get disgusted and scrap the whole project.  Well, you can, but it won’t seem like you’ve wasted your entire weekend. 

I keep telling myself that I’m going to go through my stash before I buy any more yarn, but I still find myself standing in front of the Mini Mochi, Lorna’s Laces, Panda Silk, or <insert name here> with eyes glazed over and drool running down my chin.

This is the internal conversation that goes on.

“I must HAVE that! It’s so pretty!”

“No, you don’t need that.  You have all you need at home.”

“No!  You don’t understand, that is GORGEOUS! I have nothing that color! I NEED that color!”

“Well, you are right.  You don’t have that shade at home.”

“SEE?! Well, it’s on sale.  I might as well buy two of that shade and LOOK, they have some in Kelly Green!”

“Sigh.”

This is why I have bags and bags of yarn, some of which I have not touched since I purchased it.

Hoard much?