Thursday, April 26, 2007

Taking Stock

I was off from work today. I had plans to get together with a couple of friends and knit, but I woke up feeling under the weather so I stayed home. Feeling a little better by the afternoon, I started organizing my stash. This has been something I've procrastinated doing for a long time. It seemed so daunting. Today, however, with new acquisitions that needed to be put away, I decided now is as good a time to start as any. So I downloaded the Stash-O-Matic Template (in the sidebar under 'Spreadsheets & Such') from knitting guru Jillian and started inputting data. At first, I was only going to list my newly acquired yarn. I decided to keep going and complete one whole bin.


In that bin I have 182 skeins of yarn with a total of 35,197 yards. That's 20 miles of fiber! (It's a big bin.) I had no idea so much yarn could fit in that thing. I could probably stuff some more in there too now that it's neatly organized.


In addition to making me feel productive, I also had some revelations during this excercise.


1) Fondling yarn for long periods of time is good therapy. I already knew this, but actually doing it was a good reminder. It made me feel better. Okay, maybe not physically, but emotionally. I'm feeling much happier despite my stuffed up head. I'm actually looking forward to going through the other three bins.



2) This is how much sock yarn I have (minus 2 new skeins of Koigu that didn't make it into the picture). Actually, this is just from one bin. I just remembered I have more in the other bins. All this beautiful sock yarn and I still have not cast-on. I'm beginning to think I have a knitting-sock-phobia. (sigh)




3) After giving it much thought, this experience has confirmed that alpaca is my favorite fiber. It's so soft. Now, I admit, I've never knit with 100% cashmere. If I ever do, that might change the way I feel about the subject. At this point in time, I'm an alpaca girl all the way.


So tell me, what's your favorite fiber? If you could only pick one type to knit with for the rest of your life, what would it be?

6 comments:

Shar said...

I love super soft merino, or cashmerino. I think, although I haven't confirmed it yet, that I'm allergic to alpaca.

mehitabel said...

I lurve me some alpaca--but a nice merino, yum. And I have some cashmere/silk blend that ought to bloom and soften nicely after it's washed. I could never choose just one fiber--hey, I did good to stick to one man! (Okay, that wasn't hard, but still!) That's why I have a favorite oldest son, and a favorite younger son, and a favorite oldest daughter, yadda yadda and so on!

mehitabel said...

PS--We missed you today, and we were really sorry you had a stuffy head! Feel better, please!

Madge said...

I love 'em all, but if I had to pick one fiber, I'd have to go with wool. Solid, dependable, no frills wool. I'd be happiest if it was a Scottish tweed.

We missed you today, but I'm glad some yarn therapy helped. Get better soon!

jillian said...

Oh no - feel better! Sounds like it might be a quickie virus :)

So glad you found the Stash-o-matic helpful! I am fully on board with yarn fondling (or yarning as N calls it) as therapy. Sometimes I like just poking through the stash instead of knitting.

And one fiber. I love alpaca too. But realistically I'd have to say wool. Alpaca would be my second choice!

Ellen Bloom said...

Oooo....I love seeing photos of stash! I'm a stash junkie and yours looks yummy!