29. april 2014

Too much stash-formation. A post on (dis)organizing stash

System? Kind of.


This is a reply to What's in a Treehouse's excellent post on stash organization.


I have only been a knitter for a good two years, even if I've known how to knit since I was a child, and occasionally knitted a sock and a half. I realized last February - according to Ravelry - that adding my stash to my notebook there might be a good idea, especially considering the speed at which new skeins mysteriously entered the house. I've got most of my stash there, except new yarn not catalogued yet, some old yarns with no labels, some yarns of shame, and the old winter sock yarn for knitting thick, slightly felted winter socks. (Those winter socks have so many names in Norwegian, it's amazing.)

The stash tab on Ravelry is genius. When I'm at a LYS, I can check if I already own that colour in that yarn. I often do. (My taste is quite consistent, as witnessed the second time I went to Iceland and came home with lots and lots of Léttlopi yarn; many, many colours and shades, but also many of the colours I bought last time I was there.) So, it saves a lot of duplicates. It's also a great help when I go shopping online, with preventing me from buying the same yarn colours and shades over and over. 

Taking good pictures of yarn is difficult, even if my smartphone has a pretty decent camera. I've learnt to make sure the centre of the photo is of the yarn, and not the labels. When you add yarn from your stash to projects on Ravelry, you see only a very tiny icon cropped from the centre of the photo, and if that centre contains the label, then you can't see the colour. For the same reason, I've made it easier for myself with adding the actual colour of the yarn, and not just the number, to the colourway field. That makes it faster to pick the right colour, particularly if I'm adding the project on the phone.


I like the boxes, they make it looks semi-tidy. The empty holes at the lower right belong to fabric boxes. Below, not on the picture, is more yarn and two boxes of toys waiting to become new and exiting again.

I recently bought the largest Expedit shelf from IKEA, and it's already almost full. One row of boxes contains fabric, and two boxes are for toys, but the rest is yarn related. Most of the yarn is stuffed in boxes in the shelf, but some is on display. It's a little reminder to knit with good quality yarn, and it's also my yarn candy basket. (In tray shape.) It may also be laziness. It certainly is a lot messier now than it was a mere month ago.


Living room stash. My bookshelves have doors, so I don't have to look at the mess.

I sort the yarn mostly by weight, and since I mostly knit for my daughter, I rarely have sweater quantities. It's good for sampling new yarns, but I try to buy at least 100 grams so I may actually make a garment of it. Even stripes and colourwork have the potential of becoming boring. Not a lot of it is bought with specific projects in mind. That's not how my creativeness works. I need to have the right weight and colour yarn ready when inspiration strikes, or else the spark is gone.

Yarns for specific projects are usually stored together, as well as the yarn that actually are sweater quantity. I also store yarn for hats and mittens together. Some yarns are stored in plastic zip lock bags, most are not.  I've seen no moths so far, and pretend they don't exist.
It has worked so far.


Yarn downstairs.
The stairs, an overlooked
storage spot.


Not all my yarn fit in the new storage. Some are stored among the books in the hall downstairs, others among the books in the living room.


Two poor boxes are still stuck in the stairs. Because toddlers and yarn are worse than cats and yarn. 

My stash is ridiculous I know. But at least my taste in yarn is getting better.  

How do you store your stash? Do you use Ravelry to keep an inventory of your yarn? 

2 kommentarer:

  1. Hey, I was on a holiday in Scotland, so I'm only seeing this know. What a fun post to read, thanks for the mention!

    I notice that I don't only agree with your taste of yarn, but also in your taste of books, by the looks of it! I think it looks quite appealing, the yarn and books together on a shelf.

    SvarSlett
    Svar
    1. You welcome, and thanks for the compliment! I had great fun writing it too. Books and yarn, they have a few things in common - they inspire, they create memories when used, and you can pick them up and pat them lovingly.

      Slett

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