Knitters, indeed fiber artists in general, often discuss their stash.
Now before you develop visions of Colorado dancing in your head, let me say something. It’s NOT that sort of stash!
This is a family show, people!
A knitter's stash is our yarn collection however large or small that collection may be.
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Going to a yarn shop (or a fiber festival or convention) is the knitter’s equivalent to a child visiting a candy shop or a toy store. It’s very much the same feeling. And perhaps that’s part of the attraction for fiber crafters; it lets us revisit happy childhood memories. Only with less calories!
The color just sings to us and has this crazy tendency to jump off the shelves into our waiting arms! Really, it does.
A shopping basket in the LYS will fill as if by pure magic.
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Don’t forget the tactile experience of yarn petting. Yes. That’s a real term. Often times if we are unsure about a certain fiber, the petting of the skein will seal the deal.
If we didn’t know whether or not we wanted it before, then the right touch will have that skein leaping into the basket.
All that lovely yarn comes home with us and then we have to put it away somewhere! This is how the stash develops. It’s a collection of sorts
“Why don’t you just buy what you need when you are going to make something?”
Excuse me? I am going to make something with it. I just don’t know what that is yet!
A lot of yarns are very special and unique. They are made in small dye lots, so the color isn’t perfect across lots. Some of the skeins are literally hand painted. They are never the same twice. Different animals produce different kinds of fiber and the combination of their unique fiber with a small dye lot could be one-of-a-kind. This is the truth.
So if you see something special that really draws your attention, you better grab it. It may not come around…
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I am, of course, talking about Local Yarn Stores here and not craft emporiums. Although, even the craft stores carry different stock year to year. So while the yarn make be exactly the same, the stock may not. If you want it, you better get it.
You knew I was going to ask this. What’s in your stash? Share your stories and photos and you might wind up on the blog for all the world to marvel at the awesomeness of your very own private stash!
Patty McGuire is a knitter who designs beginner knitting patterns. Video tutorials and online classes are currently in the works. She resides in the resort city of Virginia Beach where she has a small container garden and knits for her much loved Golden Retriever, Willie. She photographs and writes all the content on this blog (including this byline which seems weird because I’m writing about myself in 3rd person, but people like this sort of thing so I’m including it.)