A Yarn Dragon and Her Navy SELE

Hoarding a Hunter SELE, and a Greige SELE, and a Lilac SELE, and….

Ok, people, it’s time to put on your big girl/boy pants and have a legit conversation.

If you are still reading at this point, it means I haven’t scared you off… yet.

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Raise your hand if you have at least one tub of yarn stashed away that you are not currently using.

Keep it raised if you have three.

Five?

Twelve?

Twenty?

SELE status?

SELE: Stash Exceeds Life Expectancy

Friends, I’m not here to judge. Honestly, I don’t think I put my hand down during that exciting little exercise.

If you’ve ever perused social media, I would imagine you’ve seen the Yarn Stash memes.

The memes are cute, and they garner a chuckle.

But after my laugh—if I’m in a contemplative mood—I tend to feel a bit uncomfortable. I shift in my seat. My smile droops. My heart threatens to race.

I worry that the light jokes about sizes of yarn stashes are created as a way to mask our inner panic at the potential avalanche of yarn we may have tucked away into boxes and bags and shelves in our homes.

Here’s the question I often return to:

Are you a Hoarder if you only hoard craft supplies?

I will hazard a guess that Collectors think not, but their housemates would shout, “Yes!”

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Playing Stash’s Advocate

Ok so finding space to hoard house a yarn stash can be an issue. Also, we won’t bring up the financial investments sitting in your 401k/nitting stash.

BUT, maybe you have made a plan and are spreading out your yarn purchases in preparation for retirement. Or maybe this is a limited release of a colorway you canNOT live without. Or maybe you have been eyeing a certain yarn that went on a fantastic sale. You might as well save the money, right?

I know there are times when it “makes sense” to go ahead and Stash Up.

I have made all of the rationalizations before, too.

But isn’t that what addicts do?

(Asking for a friend.)

Perhaps these tendencies are part of human nature, left over from centuries past when humans had to plan out their future stores of food and shelter, or go without. Hoarding yarn might just be a manifestation of survival of the fittest!

I speculate that our bodies are hardwired for the acquisition of “needed supplies” to trigger the release of happy chemicals in the brain. People live out the tendency to stockpile in many ways in the modern world. It just so happens that obsessively buying/using/storing yarn is more socially acceptable than doing the same with illegal substances.

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The Solution

Totally kidding. I don’t have a solution.

What I do have is a sense that I need to start working through my Stash like I do my WIPs. (Because Stash, at its essence, is not-yet-cast-on-WIPs.)

Finish or Frog

Do I create a plan to cast on (and finish) the intended project, or do I Frog the Stash (aka sell the yarn, aka destash)?

Frogging is a challenge for me. Most of my yarn—cast-on or stashed—holds emotional attachment. It can be hard to get rid of those skeins I fondly remember purchasing. It’s like a living journal. Unfortunately, it’s a journal only I can read. Everyone else simply sees a crap ton of forlorn string.

Beyond the choice to Finish or Frog, I am working to educate my (one willing) child in crafting and yarn. That way, if my stash actually does outlive me, at least one person in my family will be able to use or destash responsibly my curated collection. (This is estate planning at its finest! Ha!)

Busting Stash

At this point in my life, my objective is to knit through my Stash Queue consistently.

Which yarn takes up the most space? Generally, that’s Sweater Quantities (SQ) and blanket yarn. So, let’s take a few months and turn that lonely SQ into wearable art, er, a sweater. Then let’s move on to the next SQ. And the next. And so on. In 5-10 years, I may have knit all thirty-ish of my SQs. (Fingers crossed, y’all!)

I can throw in 1-2 blankets per year, too. (Don’t ask me why I bought soooooo many blanket quantities of Caron One Pound… Perhaps because I adore those blankets once they are finished?)

And mixed in, I get to work on the innumerable smaller projects that use up pristine stashed skeins, as well as projects that allow me to find inventive uses for left overs.

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I’m currently designing a fun colorwork cowl that is ideal for two coordinating skeins, or for a skein plus a mini skein set! Who doesn’t have a bunch of fingering weight minis (or left overs) hanging out in Stash?!

Often when I design a knitting pattern, lurking in the recesses of my mind is the desire to create a pattern that can (likely) use stash.

Don’t get me wrong—I love knitting patterns that require me to purchase squishy new skeins. However, I also appreciate the ones that give me the option to raid my stash. (And feel ever-so-superior in the process!)

Want to see if my knitting designs will work with your awesome Stash?

Find Mountain Song Designs patterns and inspiration on…

Tell me how you Stash!

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