Introduction: Meet the Monster

The problem comes in two parts. The first part: My living space is being slowly but surely consumed by yarn.


There's a sock perched on my bed, ready to strike with its tiny stabby needles...


...Jaywalkers lounging on the little bookcase...


...bags of sock yarn laying around, waiting to trip people...


...and this whole shelf setup- and a scarf waiting on the chair.

I had managed to remain blissfully content with this system, ignoring the fact that I no longer had anywhere to sit or set things down. That is, I was blissfully content until today, when it occurred to me to wonder just how much yarn I really have.

I think in the knitting world this is universally considered a bad thing to wonder. I ignored the feeling of queasiness that came over me and counted. The totals?

146 skeins, balls, hanks, and wads of yarn.
12 works in progress.
9 items in the frog pond.

I had to sit down at this point; I was feeling a little dizzy. Because shortly after coming up with these totals, I realized the other half of my problem: I'm going to be moving this year.

Imagine. 146 skeins, ball, hanks, and wads of yarn, packed into boxes and hauled cross country. Imagine that shelf inside my little car. Imagine trying to get anything else in the car- like clothes, or a toothbrush.

Not a pretty picture.

After I recovered somewhat from the shock, I made a resolution: I am going to knit like crazy to get this stash down to a managable size. Ideally, I'd like to get it down to the point where it fits into one drawer.

There are a few additional guidelines. First is that giving away yarn is a perfectly acceptable stash-reducing strategy. I know full well that I am very, very unlikely to give stash away unknitted, but I need an escape clause for the few yarns in my stash- and there will be a few- that I simply cannot bear to knit with. (And I have a skein of poop brown acrylic in mind as I type this.)

The second guideline is this: It does me no good to knit the whole stash but take all the knitted objects with me. Lots of the knitted stuff will be going away as gifts or donations. Alternatively, if I'm knitting things I need, I will do my best to make sure whatever worn-out thing is being replaced actually goes away.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have some knitting to do. Toodle-pip.