Holiday Goals, Part 2: 60km

My second goal this holiday was to get my stash into Ravelry so I could get a sense of what I have.

Well, that proved to be an interesting task.  I got all my tools together today and started cataloguing.

The handiest thing (besides the coffee) was this nifty new scale I got for Christmas.  It helped me calculate how much of those leftover balls of yarn I had hanging around.  I love how small it is; it fits in my knitting bag.

(Those smudges are Lindor tracks to check scale accuracy)

Small amounts went into the bag of cast-offs for the daycare to use for crafts.  The rest is in a bag for a crazy weaving project or something.  But now at least I know that those things exist.

The rest, well, there's a lot.  As I write this, I realize I forgot a box in the basement, so let's say I have about 60km of yarn stashed.  That's 60,000 metres.  Ouch. 

I found some real gems in those baskets: 500 yards of cashmere/silk fingering weight yarn, three 2000m cones of worsted weight wool tweed I bought about 5 years ago for a song, a sweater's worth of Rowan yorkshire aran tweed in a beautiful colour and lots and lots of possibilities.  It made me want to swatch and cast on a bunch of new projects (though that could also be due to the fact that I've been knitting my Grey Mist Bohus exclusively for a few weeks now).

And it made me happy with what I have.  I like that part.  A lot.

I'm not going to commit to knitting exclusively from stash, because I already know that doesn't work, but I have committed to seriously thinking before I buy more yarn, especially single balls that are pretty but seem to just sit in my stash being pretty (not that there's anything wrong with that; I'm just running out of room).  And I'll also be posting a tiny stash sale of sweater-lots of yarn soon.  While I found some really pretty things, I also found some beautiful yarns that I don't care to knit with, or just aren't me and it's time to let them become part of someone else's stash.

BTW, I didn't photograph anything.  I will photograph things when I pull them out, or if I acquire something new, but it was just too much work to do everything right now.  And it wasn't really the point for me--I wanted the spreadsheet so I could compile some statistics on my stash (I'm geeky that way).

Comments

[Seanna Lea]

I haven't used Ravelry to check where my stash is at, but I wouldn't be surprised if I have about the same amount of yarn that you do. I try to use it up, but buying yarn can be hugely gratifying!

Plus I can get about two pairs of socks out of the standard 100 gram skein (provided the second pair is a bit short), so I have a lot of odd bits and dobs all over the place.

[Melissa A.]

I loved putting my stash on Ravelry, but it wasn't very hard for because my stash is fairly small. Now that's it's up to date it's a lot easier to add things. Though I have to wait until the weekends to photograph things in daylight :P

[kmkat]

I love the spreadsheet feature of Ravelry. Geeky here, too. I still need to photograph and list the yarn I bought during 2008; happily, it can be contained in only one laundry basket.

[vanessa townley]

I honestly wish i had a big stash but mine just seems to get smaller lately, although over the past week i have felt the need to buy wool at every urge and keep buying new wool every few days when i find some that catchs my eye. so most likely it will start to gather greatly. buy they way love your blog i have just started one myself about a week ago
i'd love for you to check it out it's
www.nessa-knits.blogspot.com
thank you for the great reading you give
Vanessa Townley

[JoVE]

500 yards of fingering weight yarn will make a very nice small shawl...

Sounds like a useful exercise. And I think you are right that being more aware of your patterns around buying and knitting from stash leads to much more sustainable change in behaviour than big plans to deny yourself new things. The single ball of pretty stuff thing is particularly difficult, I think. Because a single ball isn't useful for much. But sometimes you don't know what you might make and it might cost too much to buy more than one...

[not an artist]

So I told my husband that if he thought I had a big stash, listen to how much yarn my friend Stephannie has.

And then he asked what that really meant, 60K of yarn, volume-wise. For example, a pair of socks takes about 400-500 metres of yarn, so 60K would only be 120 balls of sock yarn.

At the end of the day it turns out I have something in the neighbourhood of 62K of yarn, and I've got a lot of "no yardage listed" balls in my stash on top of that. And here I was thinking I was the one with the small medium-sized stash!

[Jacquie]

I love the spreadsheet part of Rav too! My New Knit Resolution is to use the queue feature. I haven't really been doing that. I joined a stash down group and they came up with a great idea to create your own sock (or sweater or ufos or whatever) club and I thought that was a great idea as I have great sock yarn and lots of faved sock patterns. I now have some nice projects - and it kinda feels like I went shopping. I'm also toying with the idea of gift knitting this year. I know, shocker!!

And just so you're not the only one sharing... I've got about 12km worth of yarn.

[diane]

I am with you I intend to do this . I haven't this year because I thought that I would scare myself , but 2009 I want to USE this stash so I had better document it . Happy New Year.

[CatBookMom]

The last time I checked, my Ravelry stash had over 150 miles of yarn. Yikes. My purchases in 2008 were definitely less, even DH noticed. I felt proud that my Elann purchases in 2008 were less than $200; they used to be my biggest fiber expenditure.

That looks like a terrifically good scale. I use mine for so much: weighing yarn (how much do I have left), packages to be mailed, etc. etc. If the package is too large for the maximum weight, weigh it in bits and combine.

[Knittripps]

I've been meaning to photograph/add to ravelry/destash myself. Good luck with your goals!

[Elinor]

I didn't know there was a spreadsheet function of Ravelry's stash! I've entered new yarns I've bought but I'm not ready to face the mileage of my stash. Not yet! Good luck with your record keeping and happy new year!