Yarn Hoard

Most of us have one – one of those closets or storage areas that you only really get around to going through once or twice a year when the seasons change or so.  My back closet it my catch-all place for children’s clothing that is too quickly outgrown, (or mama-clothes that are somehow shrinking, ahem).  But with the seasons changing, I figured it was time to pull out the warmer weather clothing and inventory what still fit my little ones from last summer and what we’d need to stock up on.

I knew it was all in there, this yarn hoard of mine.  When I moved in here last year, I had removed a box or two of yarn that I was using to work on projects and put the rest aside, in order to focus on getting everything else unpacked and organized.  I had great plans to put in an overhead shelving system around my bedroom, so I could pile the yarn on top and it could do double duty as coordinating décor while waiting its turned to be created into something beautiful.  But that got derailed when other projects came up and the yarn stayed in the closet, waiting patiently.

Now, I have the opportunity again to spend some time going through each skein, and admiring just how much luscious goodness there really is.  There’s so much yarn and so little time.  The best part about this stash though is that I paid so little for it.  A couple of years back, there was a Joann’s that was quite close to me that was going out of business.  I just so happened to show up for the sale the day that they marked all the yarn down to 75% off.  So – 25 cent cotton?  Why not buy a dozen?!  60 cent Red Heart Yarn?  Ok!  90 cent Vanna yarn?  Done.   I left the store that day with a shopping cart heaping full of yarn.

The very next week, one of my girlfriends who was moving out of town decided that she wouldn’t be packing up and bringing her yarn with her and asked me if I knew of a good home.  Did I!  She brought over two plastic bins filled to the top – this time not with Joann-style brands of acrylics, but yummy woolen goodness like Peace Fleece and Noro and KnitPicks.

In two weeks, I literally created my yarn stash.  And yes, it is rather a hoard.

Of course, I don’t have a craft room to store it all in, so I had to get creative.  Besides the back closet, I have yarn tucked away inside dresser drawers, various shelves throughout my home, and in baskets all over the place.  I like to say that my home is decorated in yarn.

Once you get a stash like this, you have to spend the time to actually use it up!  And so, rather than spending the day cleaning out the closet like I originally intended, I pulled out and cataloged all the yarn, going through my queue and favorites and matching up yarn to project.   And next comes the happy process of using it!

How about you?  Do you have a hoard of anything wonderful?