Since this whole stashie thing began after New Year's, I have had a lot of time to reflect on my stash.

I decided I really needed to organize my stash so that I can use it. I organized my magazines too so that while rifling through looking for a certain pattern I would be less likely to be distracted by a few other patterns and somehow acquire the yarn for them.

I also started a spreadsheet that tracks my projects. I have a page for In Progress, Planned (have yarn), Someday (love the pattern), and Yarn Needs a Project.

However, since organizing my stash, I have acquired yet more yarn. For example, at Christmas I agreed to make a certain sweater for my brother. I found the yarn CHEAP on Smiley's, $15 for the whole sweater! But you have to order at least $40, so somehow I ended up with a bunch of skeins of silver Moonlight Mohair. That is just ONE example. Furthermore, having my knitting plans all written down has allowed me to plan MORE projects, not fewer.

But I think I have figured out why I continue to acquire yarn much faster than I could ever help to use it. The yarn and the patterns are so beautiful, and sitting there in skein form they have the potential to be ANYTHING. It is like in Good Will Hunting when he lets the girl go before she "learns who he really is".

Once that yarn is on the needles, I can really mess it up. I will be confronted by all my shortcomings. Maybe I don't read the directions so closely, or maybe I don't do a certain technique well enough. The finished product may be everything I had hoped, but it might also be an overpriced piece of crap that took me hours, sweat, blood and tears to finish.

You would think that by now I would have successfully finished enough projects to get over this. On the contrary, every successfully completed item 1) Raises my expectations of the next finished product and 2) Encourages me to seek out even more difficult patterns.

You know how they have sports psychologists? I wonder if they have craft psychologists! I obviously need some professional intervention ! :wink: [/i]

who needs a shrink...you have all of us khers who can relate!!!

I think you are right on many of y our points.. To ME part of the JOY of knitting is looking at the yarn in my bag, store, online and looking at that pitiful lonesome looking string and thinking HHHHHHHmmmm what could you be??? then my imagianation soars.. and I love it :heart: :heart: My creative juices start flowing, my opitimism returns and I get genuinely EXCITED just thinking about WHAT I could make.. :happydance:
I think many artists and craftsmen feel the same way.. They look at something for instance a block of marble and they have to "discover" what is inside.. I :heart: :heart: my knitting and the creative process that I use to make a beautiful piece of art~~

Organziation is key: if you don't know you have it.. you can't use it~~ :eyebrow:

I agree on the creative aspects (and many other things). Since the yarn is the knitters medium, it replaces paints, colored pencils or what have you! My brother runs a design company and he has this wonderful suitcase of color chips. TONS and TONS of colors to play with and check against other colors etc.

My problem is I want that with my yarn! When I'm ready to make something I want to try out the possiblities and get going. Creative urges don't wait well for the postman ;)

To add to the issue, I may have the color I want, but the design in my head might call for it in a different fiber. I may even have the color AND fiber I want, but I need a different weight!

I have a sweater sitting here ALMOST finished. I need an edging color (I ran out of yarn JUST as I finished the main body and it needs a front/neck edging). I have the right colors, but not in the fiber I need. SO frustrating.

I also have another sweater sitting here basically finished, but I need just the right button! Am I going to have to start a button stash too?

I love having my yarn where I can see it. Where I can sit and look and think about colors and what might go with what else. The problem is, I'm not happy with the 24 box of colors. I want the GREAT BIG box of colors and in a wide variety of fibers.

Mama Bear

I have a different outlook on stashing. I'm an engineer, so very logical, and less creative in artistic ways. I love the yarn for just being the yarn. I love the color, the texture, the beauty of the yarn itself. I buy yarn because it needs to be in my home, in my yarn basket. I just can't leave it at the store. It needs a good home. Kind of like puppys and kittens without the downside.

LoAnnie

who needs a shrink...you have all of us khers who can relate!!!

Relate? More like enable, lol. Constantly posting amazing patterns, gorgeous yarns, new techniques. (that's why I love it though!)

This all is reminding me I ordered an interchangeable set a few days ago and it should arrive today (hooray!). The reason I ordered it was because I found a blanket to make that uses 100% yarn that I already own. But by the time I actually started making it, I had replaced three of the 15 colors with NEW colors that I didn't already own. The pattern starts in the round and you add 4 sts every round so it stays flat. I started on DPNs and then swapped off to my circs....now that I'm at 400 sts around, I need longer circs! Do I buy longer circs? No! I buy a whole set of interchangeables, lol. (but I needed them, right? I was just thinking ahead and being practical).

So much for stashbusing![/i]

It needs a good home. Kind of like puppys and kittens without the downside.

LoAnnie

OMG, I LOVE this! We need to start a yarn rescue :roflhard:

Me thinks ya sound like The Yarn Wisperer. :teehee: :eyebrow: