When I was a new knitter and had no measure on yarn yet, I collected a bad stash. A bad stash is one of those full of odd balls, crazy colors and textures, a couple of good ones but in unhelpful quantities, and in summary…  an unusable stash. When I finally realized this about 2 years ago I took action and gave it all away, some to friends, some to charity. I promised to myself I would never built an unusable stash again!

2 years forward and I find myself with a stash problem yet again. This time is not that it is unusable, but that it is too much.

I have a beautiful Ikea Kallax unit of 4 cube spaces and I bought it with the intention of storing all my crafty stuff in there. That was thought to include my yarn, fabric, tools and works in progress, one in each cube division. It is now completely full of yarn. And my fabric, which is also getting a bit out of control, is taking an entire shelf in a closet.

The desperation that ensued after realizing just how much yarn and fabric I have was overwhelming. It all started with me not finding a particular skein of yarn, one that I thought could be my next project. So I had to take cube after cube out to find it and came face to face with the reality that I probably have enough yarn to knit for the next three years.

The shock is wearing out and I started planning ways to improve. The starting point of my plan of action was to read all of the Stash-less posts by Felicia at The Craft Sessions blog. I have now a rough idea of what to do. Here is my initial game plan list:

1. Inventory. A realistic, all yarn out in the open inventory.
2. Re-organize yarn, tools, books and fabric.
3. Write all the projects I still would like to do this year including gifts.
4. Match as many yarns from stash as I can to that list of projects
5. Stick to the 3-WIP rule and start knitting

The problem not addressed yet is how to control the part of me that buys the pretty yarn. That one requires more thought, but for now the shock has been enough to keep me away from yarn updates.

Virginia