Sunday, November 13, 2011

Stop the Insanity


"Stop the Insanity!!" - who was it on tv that always said that?

While I was cleaning out my craft room closet I came to the realization that I really need to stop buying craft stuff and start using up some of what I have. I'm lucky I don't live alone ... I might go missing one day and be found under a pile of yarn.

I think one of the biggest problems with having such a large stash is that its easier to go out an buy something for a project rather that go through the stash to find something suitable. Obviously if one doesn't have the correct weight, well then, you must make a purchase. But just because you forgot you even had something is no excuse to get more.

Here's my plan of attack for this problem: go through my entire stash, catalog it on Ravelry. Not with photos, because then I'll never complete this, but just listing the yarn types and quantities (maybe where they reside in the house) so that I have a list and can look it up easily if I am looking at a pattern.

Off the top of my head for example, I know I have 8 sweater quantities of yarn around here and over 100 skeins of sock yarn and 20 skeins of laceweight for shawls. And I'm still buying yarn ... really!?!?!

I think I am just really getting sick of the overwhelming abundance of choices everywhere. I went grocery shopping yesterday ... 40 different types of laundry detergent. I don't really care as long as it cleans my clothes, but then you have to sort through and find a good price (if you are me and don't care what brand). Typically I spend a lot more money when I shop by myself and I think I figured out why. When we walked down the detergent isle I went to grab the brand we usually get at Wal-Mart as the cheapest, hubby said, whoa that's $7.99 and I said, huh? He said look, this one is $4.99. Then I looked down the isle and saw the rows upon rows of different brands and versions within those brands and prices. UUgghhh! Too much!


My knitting is getting that way. Too many new and exciting patterns, too many books, too much stash (no you can't have any, I'm not trying to give it away here). Its just too much.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate choices and variety, but sometimes its just information overload.

With what was already on Ravelry and about 1/8 of my stash in my room I'm up to 169 skeins. I'm systematically going through the room in small intervals so I don't get burn out and give up on the project. I'm not going to post photos of everything, then the list would never be completed. But this way at least I have a listing of yarn weights, approximate colors, yardage, etc all in one spot.

I'm making good baby steps in getting organized. This weekend I went grocery shopping and got things I would run out of this week. I made three meals that have left overs for lunch and dinner during the week. I also packed my lunch up and its waiting in the fridge for tomorrow morning :o)

6 comments:

Deb said...

What a great idea!

I have tons of yarn (not quite literally) and I've been wanting to catalog it on Ravelry, but cringed at the idea of taking all those photos.

It never dawned on me to just log the yarn and do photos later if I desired. I might do photograph some of the unusual stuff, though.

Thanks for the great idea!!!

Minding My Own Stitches said...

Wow! I've put all my sock yarn together. I always have at least one pair of socks on the needles, so I pull out my shoebox of yarn and pick the best match for the pattern. So far I've cut my sock yarn stash in half!

And usually once or twice a year I get myself involved in some sort of charity effort - squares or hat or something - that gives me the opportunity to use up oddballs or colours that would otherwise never be used. That helps a lot!

Cataloging is definitely a great first step!

Sarah {The Student Knitter} said...

Good for you! Getting organized is one of the best presents we can give ourselves I think. :)

Anonymous said...

I think I know exactly how you feel.

I have GOT to start using what I have. The cedar chest is so full of yarn you have to SIT on it to engage the lock.

Your stash looks pretty though. Nice colors in there.

Typstatting said...

I also have a heap of yarn and also what I bought back last week from our trip to the U.S.A. Do you plan on making a heap of socks. L.O.L. at least you wont run out of socks!

autumngeisha said...

Whoa, that's a lot of great looking yarn! I really like your idea of cataloguing the stash on ravelry. I had tried to do that a few years ago, but stopped because taking photos of everything was too time consuming. Breaking the process down into a little bit at a time and not using photos would make the task more achievable.