Well, it looks like I’m back in business, for the time being at least.

This weekend I went and sorted through all of my crafting boxes. Including the three (mmm…maybe 4?) that were sitting on the floor since my crafting marathon at *blush* …. Christmas time.

I sorted them all. Yes, even the box with over twenty little balls that the baby had gotten into and tangled in a big mass, and even the box with the two skeins of yarn that the boys tried to ball without me, which managed to produce very large clumps of intricate knots. My entire this house stash is all nicely balled.

The other house I’m not so sure about. Someday I will have to go down there and sort through things and figure out the best way to save what’s left. The problem is that I don’t want to bring contaminated yarn up here to knit, I also don’t want to waste it, so it’s tricky.

All yarn in this house that is not currently in use is neatly tucked into a rolling under-bed storage container. All of my fabric is neatly folded in an identical unit. I also cleaned out and organized my knitting bag so that it not holds all of my needles and accessories, crochet hooks, needle felting and hand sewing needles. We picked up a couple of little boxes and things for me to stash my fairy fleece, spools of thread, sewing patterns, embroidery floss and such in. Having an organized work space lets me be far more creative and productive. I’m really happy to finally have this taken care of!

I’m actually someone who keeps a stash of yarn…though I know there seems to be evidence to the contrary. I guess what I mean is that I don’t intentionally keep a stash of yarn. What can I say? Yarn happens. Well, at least to me anyway.

It’s not that I wouldn’t love to pick up every pretty yarn that strikes my fancy to have around “just in case”. Oh no, it’s not that…I would love to do that. But I pride myself on at least attempting to be practical. After-all I’m not just doing this for kicks. I have little people that actually need clothes and this is the main way that they get them.

When I order yarn it is always for a specific project, but things happen…. For example a large percentage of my stash is Peace Fleece yarn. A while back I had a chance to buy Peace Fleece at whole sale. Knowing it was a great deal I planned a bunch of little sweaters and stocked up. Thing is, after spending a lot of time making little outfits from it I discovered that the boys had deemed it “too itchy” and were totally boycotting all garments made from it. No longer such a great deal!

Then there are all the bits and pieces and half skeins leftover from a project here and another project there and before you know it, you’ve got a quite of a collection going.

One of my goals for this year is to clear out my stash. But I don’t want to just do it for the sake of doing it, I want to be sure that it goes towards useful things. That is going to take a bit of creativity. The scratchy yarns are going to have to go towards things like outerwear, and non-wearables. I’m thinking about felted containers to store stuff in. Possibly a new diaper bag for me. Then there are the little bits of odds and ends, some of which are really gorgeous yarns that I want to see used well. Perhaps I should get into patchwork knits? There is always little socks, toys, things with stripes, and I can add trim on just about anything.

I’ve started making a step in the right direction. Galen’s socks and all of the v-day kittens were stash babies.

I wanted to commit to not buying any yarn until I use all of the yarn that I already have, but that’s just not practical. The kids need certain things now and I don’t have suitable yarn for those things. But I’m going to make a real effort to use as much stash yarn as possible for all of my upcoming projects.