Sheep Shots: A blast from the past

Sunday, January 05, 2014

A blast from the past

Does anyone remember when Wendy Johnson declared that 2007 would be a Knit From Your Stash? The original rules (abbreviated) were:

1) The challenge (knit only from stash) was to run for 9 months, January 1 until Stitches East when we would restock (laughing, laughing)

2) Exceptions to the "buy nothing" rule included sock yarn (Wendy's special baby), yarn for gifts, yarn to finish a project started from stash

3) Spinning fiber didn't count

4) Yarn received as gifts and traded yarn did not count

5) There was one "get out of jail free" card

I remember that! I participated in the KFYS original. My stash decreased by a mere 20% or so (from 521 to 444 balls--see sidebar on the right). Since then, it’s continued to expand, and though I no longer track it on the sidebar of this blog (stopped that nonsense in 2008), I continue to track via my spread sheet inventory (I use this to locate yarn that is in my stash when I have a project in mind, color, weight, amount, all in one place with the location to find it right there, too).

I am embarrassed by the wealth of my stash. At the end of 2013, I show twice as many balls of yarn (1039) as I did at the start of 2007. That doesn’t include weaving yarn on cones. I am not bragging. This is a shameful admission. The ball count has expanded (doubled) but the yardage has not (or at least not to the same level) probably because I have bought more balls, but smaller ones. Or thicker ones. Or something.

When I check my shopping history on the various on-line vendors I frequent, I find that some of this stuff has languished for years. Perhaps I should add a "date acquired" to my spread sheets and attempt to practice FIFO (first in; first out) .

Or maybe I should just keep plugging away with what I have, buying what I like when I want and help the economy along any way I can.

Labels: ancient history, kfys 2007, stash busting