I've been terrible about posting, I know...it takes me a while to establish new habits! I've also been so focused on knitting recently that I haven't been online much. I had to finish a couple of patterns to submit for consideration for the fall Knitty. And in the process, I somehow ended up with balls of yarn, knitting books, and other random things strewn all over my floor. It was actually starting to look like my bedroom is high school -- so completely covered that the floor was barely visible.
So for the past week, I have been trying to restore some semblance of order to my knitting supplies, as they are by far the greatest contributor to the overall untidiness. The knitting needles and tools were pretty easy...they all had homes, and I simply needed to return them to their places. I stacked the books near the bookcase for filing later (my next project) and then turned to my yarn stash.
I love my stash -- all of the beautiful yarns, the memories of when I added the yarns, the ideas for possible projects that each yarn inspires. But now that I've really spent some time figuring out what is in it, I have to admit that it is embarrassingly large. And what did I do as I went though it? I came up with a list of yarns that I needed to purchase before I start on one project or another. Really, I think it's an illness, this obsession with yarn.
I've been debating how to organize all the yarn. During my last reorganization, I had settled on sorting larger amounts of yarn by project, and the remaining bits by color. This worked well for a while. Recently, however, it has necessitated pulling out dozens of yarns just to find ones that I can use in a pattern -- that is, yarns that aren't discontinued or one-of-a-kind. (I think I'll use that as my excuse for spreading little piles of yarn all over my floor during the past couple weeks.)
So I spent the last week patiently weeding through all of the yarns, separating out ones that are still commercially available, sorting any that I could into separate little bags by project, and generally culling down the bags organized by color. Then, in a final spasm of obsessiveness, I stapled bits of each yarn onto index cards so that I actually know what I have. Of course, if I had less yarn, the cataloging wouldn't be necessary. But with yarn stashed under a table, in two cupboards, in a tray on top of some notebooks, and covering the seat of a squishy armchair, it can be difficult to remember exactly what I have.
Now I'm itching to start a new project -- I found so many wonderful possibilities as I was sorting all of that yarn! Still, I'm trying to resist. I really really need to finish some current projects for my family. I have a cardigan for my mom that is probably hours away from completion (just a bit of crochet on the edges and some loose ends to weave in), a sweater for my dad that needs a couple days of work, and a couple projects for my siblings. So I'll try my best to just look at my newly organized stash for a while now, and hold off for as long as I can before I dig in and start on something new.
