Recently, I organized my stash. I try to do this once or twice a year. It gives me peace of mind that anything with wings or more than four legs and whiskers have not made a nest in my wool. It also allows me the opportunity to discover that I have purchased the same yarn for the same project twice or even more if I was overly excited about the possibility of the project.
I am consistently surprised at how hard organizing your stash can be. The visual side of me wants to put all the like colors together. The engineer in me wants all the like fibers together. The knitter in me wants to put all the like fiber weights together. Usually the knitter wins the first round, but by the next time it is clear that the engineer and visual side have had their say. I was finding red lace alpaca next to red bulky wool and another cubby hole had nothing but wool - dk, aran, and lace. And true to form, I also found multiple purchases of the same yarn for the same project, but let’s not dwell on that.
So, how do you organize your stash? I am clearly of mixed opinion as any given purchase ends up getting put away differently than the ones before and after. It is only a matter of time before I find some teal green superwash sock yarn cozying up to some burnt orange silk lace.
8 responses so far ↓
Laura // Sep 13, 2007 at 6:10 am
Organize? My stash? LOL Some of it’s in Rubbermaid containers on shelves in my home office/craft room. Some of it’s in plastic bags in the closet in the same room. The rest is on top of a bunch of old sweaters that I can’t seem to part with in my great aunt’s steamer trunk. There’s no rhyme nor reason to any of it. Except that *most* of the time, like balls are together. But not always. LOL
Brenda // Sep 13, 2007 at 4:23 pm
I don’t have a huge stash: 1 small plastic tub with laceweight and fingering weight yarn (not for socks). One larger tub with heavier yarn for sweater sized projects. Two medium tubs one with solid and monochromatic sock yarns and one with variegated sock yarns. I don’t spin, and all my colors tend to be on the cooler side of the spectrum due to my coloring, so this works for me.
2paw // Sep 14, 2007 at 12:32 am
I have some big zippyuppy bags, but I only really have green wool, so it doesn’t matter so much. I do separate out the sock wool though. What I want is a wall of squares, like wool shops have!!
bells // Sep 14, 2007 at 2:50 am
Organising stash? Whoever heard of such a thing?
Wow.
Kate // Sep 14, 2007 at 6:37 am
We only moved in here in Jan, at which point the stash was well and truly organised into about 8 plastic tubs, based roughly on weight/content and intended use, but now - various parts of it have made wild bids for freedom and have thrown themselves into the bookcase on and between knitting mags and books, some boxes are sitting on a chair and on the floor, current projects are in a couple of bags around me… I think ‘organise’ is not a word I can adhere to for more than a day…
Miranda // Sep 14, 2007 at 10:31 pm
My stash all fits into one of those big Rubbermaid totes. Leftovers from old projects are layered on the bottom… and that’s about as organized as it gets. :P
Marji // Sep 15, 2007 at 5:34 am
I take another tack altogether - It’s organzied by quantity, then by fiber/season
All of my sweater quantity yarns are in the bins. all the “less than sweater quantity” are in those drawer things. Well, mostly - I have one big drawer unit that has sweater quantity yarns that are at the top of the queue….or at least I think they are.
Then I have another bin that is just cotton / linen yarns - IOW summer stuff - mostly enough for tops.
Oh, and then the baby stuff is in another place. Like I have SOOOO many babies to knit for that I need baby stash - Yup!
Be safe this weekend. He wouldn’t really, would he? hmmm
LaurieM // Sep 15, 2007 at 3:32 pm
I organize by quantity and potential use. I have a closet for my stash. Odd skeins go in the shoe organizer. Sweaters worth go into their own cloth bags. The sock yarns have a separate spot.
On second hand, maybe there isn’t a system, but I know where it is so it works for me!
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