Nudge nudge, wink wink!

Flash your Stash, I mean. Yes, it’s January, and that means there’s a new thread on Ravelry’s Yarn forum where people can pull out their yarn, photograph it, and show it off. There’s actually a good reason to do this. If you have a lot of wool, it’s good to “toss the stash” every now and then to check for moths or carpet beetles. (Not an issue for me, obviously.) Also, you get to see what you have. It’s easy to forget the treasures if they lie buried most of the time. My yarn is mostly on view in clear zip top storage bags in cubbies in my craft room,  but when I laid it out on my queen size futon it surprised me how  much I had. And that’s another good reason to pull it out – to stop you from impulse buying a craptonne more yarn when you’re not using up what you have.

So, I flashed my stash in January last year. At the time, I had a lot of worsted/aran weight yarn but had just bought some DK colour packs from Deramores. I was a bit nervous about the skinnier yarn, wondering how I would get along with it.

This year’s stash flash shows a heavier emphasis on DK, then worsted, then the usual random skeins of bulky, super bulky and novelty. I didn’t buy the novelty yarn – it was given to me. May end up clearing that out.

Anyway, here’s the main photo. This is my queen size futon, and it only just fits. I think I’d be uncomfortable with more than this as I’d feel like it was too much pressure!

I did  a lot of stashbusting this year with projects that used multiple strands of yarn, like a pouf, rugs, wraps, blankets and more. Since my large Deramores order at the beginning of last year, there have only been a few small purchases, like the Red Heart With Love and the souvenir yarn from my holiday. Plus one Wool Warehouse order where I bought extra gold for the Demelza blanket and extra black for the granny square coat.

The only colour pack I haven’t broken into is the Stylecraft Special DK Coast Pack. Fifteen balls of loveliness which may eventually become a sweater.

And now it’s all packed away neatly again. The only WIP I have going right now is the Hungry Caterpillar blanket. I didn’t think to include that in the flash, but there will be a fair whack of Impeccable left over when I’m finished.

Have you ever flashed your stash?