The yarn stash

It's a familiar phenomenon to any knitter or crocheter: that astonishing collection of leftovers, impulse buys and relics of projects either abandoned or yet to be started.


My own yarn stash, rapidly acquired in the year or so since I took up crochet, has taken ownership of a corner of my lounge, setting my natural hoarding impulse at war with a preference for uncluttered spaces. Even sorted tidily into bins, (which, in any case, tend to get scattered around the room when I'm looking for something) the collected yarn takes up a prominent position in the room.


You see, I've recently been handed my Nana's yarn as well - the accumulations of a lifetime's knitting and spinning, along with a huge array of knitting needles and sundry associated items. My comparatively modest collection was dwarfed by this influx of yarn, which includes many old-fashioned items I wouldn't have chosen myself, but hope now to find a use for.


The thing is, looking through your yarn stash with a project in mind is like contemplating your wardrobe when you've got a wedding to go to. Sure, there's plenty of stuff in there, but nothing that really suits the purpose. So what do you end up doing? You go out and buy something suitable (and add the leftovers to your stash when the project is finished).


I propose to do the opposite, i.e. come up with projects based on the yarn that I already have, instead of finding a pattern I like, then checking to see if I have any yarn that will work. It's the only way to shift the clutter in the corner.


Am I going to stop buying yarn? Don't be silly. There will still be things I want to make that necessitate further purchases, and if necessary I'm fine with adding new-bought yarn to a stash project, if it helps me use something up. This does of course mean that I'll still occasionally be adding to the stash, so I'll have to be careful to use up yarn faster than I'm adding it.

Inevitably, some of it will end up in granny squares. I had in fact begun a stash-busting granny square operation, prior to the arrival of the Nana stash. After all, it's the traditional use for odds and ends of yarn. However, I hope to come up with a few things that are a bit more inventive. After all, there's plenty of scope for creativity in crochet.


Actually, I don't intend to stick exclusively to crochet either. It's certainly my comfort zone, but I may just take this opportunity to expand my horizons a little. Perhaps it's time I took up knitting, or macramé - whatever uses the yarn!


Because after all, yarn is not for hoarding. It's for using.