Elka Knits: Organizing Stash

February 25, 2005

Organizing Stash

So I am trying to talk somebody out of their Classic Elite Maya yarn. Should you happen to have any stashed away, even a partial ball, consider my deap love of this yarn. Now I have been asked about laceweight yarn for swapping purposes. Thats the third swap in row where lace yarns have been specifically asked for. Fine and dandy~ I keep my lace yarns seperate from the rest of my stash and organized by whites vs colors. I also keep my shetland yarns seperate from other yarns and my Rowan DLT and Jo Sharp DK[original formulation]. Anyway in my desire to tempt poor Teresa out of her Maya I am taking pictures of my stash. Not the panaramic view you alls are used to but the inventory type of pictures such as Mare's or Teresa's Note I am nowhere near as arty with my photography tending to just put stuff on a white pillowcase. So here I am taking pictures like a madwoman and I have realized my yarn stash is very poorly organized. I need to buzz Mare and talk to her about this since she mixes different brands of yarns in nice colorful medleys... medlies? I just don't have the eye she does. I consider her a great art knitter and myself a nice technical knitter. Nevermind I am digressing. So OK I have my lace and shetland and such yarns in seperate bins and everything else in drawers per color. Ala Fassett. At least that is where I first read to do that way back in the 80's. And I am taking pictures and here is a lone hank of yarn X in blue drawer and another lone hank of yarn X in purple drawer and another lone hank of yarn X in orange drawer. No wonder I never think I have enough of a yarn to make anything! The three together would look smashing, to my untrained eye, but I never see them together so think lone hank of WW yarn for hmmmmmmm what already?

Anyway this long chit chatty post is my way of asking How do YOU organize your stash? I realize I am not miss comment garnerer but I would appreciate some thoughts on the subject. Keep in mind I don't usually purchase sweater lots of yarn or even yarns for a specific purchase. You will get to see the yarn stasharoonie soon enough since I asked Liz to hyperlink it. I am nowhere near having it all photographed yet which is a bad thing. I don't think I will ever be able to snarfle yarn out of anybody pleading poverty again. I mean I don't ever have much cash working sporadically the way I do and always try to swap before shelling out mulah so either people will be more likely to swap seeing the full stash or people will be disgusted by the excesses of fiber and figure they might as well find a buyer with a pocketbook instead of humoring my 'would you puh~lease consider a swap?' Oh well speak up on stash organization please.

Thanks, Elka

PS scroll down for yarn pictures taken for this mornings post if you havent' peeked in yet today. My camara is fixed woo hoo!

Posted by Elka at February 25, 2005 09:06 PM

Comments

i'm not as good at this as you imagine i am, good at putting together a photo, but i started the picture thing because of my messy stash nature. sigh. i like the idea of separating into color, i do think that is a fassett thing...hear him saying ~ why knit with one red when you can use 50 shades ~anyway, you and i are in this together, i am afraid my thoughts for myself were to not have so much stash, so i intend to not buy yarn for awhile, such a sad statement. i think open shelves would be better than drawers, i am wondering about a floor to ceiling model the length of a room (got any handy builder types near you?)another idea (from fiber raven soiree) for chosing combinations together is to put things into a basket that you think will work, and notice it for a few days... passing by you will see what stands out well or ill)

virtually should be easier, by putting together some database, like some on line stores, you put your mouse over the yarn and it shows how much is in stock... you noticed on my photos, that under amount i tended to write goo-gobs : )

sorry that i have no maya for you.

Posted by: mare at February 26, 2005 05:45 AM

I think the picture documentation probably works best, but I'm too lazy for that so I just wrote everything down in a Word file about how much of what was stored where (and i have no closets so it's like bookshelf #1 contains...). It's pretty depressing and time-consuming.

Posted by: Lauren at February 26, 2005 12:40 PM

Haha organize stash? How about when something new arrives, stuff it into the nearest spot big enough for it? I did once make an attempt to be organized, so one tub is now leftovers and oddballs and one tub is Galway and similar yarns... but mostly the yarn is just all THERE. Oddly enough, after moving the entire stash recently due to laying linoleum in the basement, I put stuff back exactly where it was because that is where I was used to seeing it, not because it made any sense.

Posted by: CarolineF at February 28, 2005 10:09 AM