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There should be a whole entire decluttering book just for knitters. This is another battle that I fight every day.
1. Swatches, do you have a giant pile of them? You have two options: either admit you’ll never refer to them after the project is done, and throw them all away. Or admit that you have a reference material fetish, label every swatch with the brand and needle size, and get a nice box where they can live. (I’m in the latter camp, by the way.)
2. Accessories and implements and needles, how many do you need? What size box should it all fit in? Get a box that size, and put in it all the things you’re going to keep. Then get rid of the rest.
There are a lot of organizational tools out there for DPNs and circular needles. I like the idea of the circular needle holder that hangs on the back of a door. But A) I only have two doors, the front door and the bathroom door, and I don’t want shit hanging off the back of either of them. And B) those things just look way too flappity.
Here’s what I did: I took a big handful of quart size Ziploc bags and labeled them by needle size. Size 0, size 1, size 2, etc. Into each bag goes all the needles I have of that size, whether they’re DPNs or circulars. The circulars can be… encircled… so that they fit nicely.
Then I put all of them in a plastic storage tub that I happened to have on hand. It’s not the most Martha Stewart solution, but it works pretty well, and keeps everything from getting jumbled up with everything else.
3. Volume of yarn. It has come to my attention that some of you have a lot of yarn. More yarn than you would ever admit to a non-knitter. Possibly more yarn than you would admit to a knitter.
Here is my advice for you:
Owning yarn does not make you a knitter.
Buying yarn does not make you a knitter.
What makes you a knitter is the act of knitting.
Did you know that Ravelry will let you download a spreadsheet from your Stash page? You can do neat stuff with this, including add up all of your yardage, and add up the amount of yardage you’ve used. If you’re not technically inclined, then you can just estimate. The important thing is that you arrive at a number of yards you knit in an average year.
Be honest. Not the number of yards you WISH you knit, or the number you’d LIKE to knit, but the number you ACTUALLY knit.
Without looking at your stash, decide how many years’ worth of knitting you want to keep on hand at any given time. One year? Three years? Five years? There is no right answer here.
Now go through all of your yarn and pick out that amount to keep. And get rid of the rest.
I know this sounds like sacrilege, but listen. You’re never going to knit it all, and that is the stone truth. It’s just going to take up all your room and make you feel bad.
Many people decide to go on a yarn diet until their stash is a manageable size. This is a sucker’s game. It’s like an alcoholic saying they’ll only drink beer, or they’ll only have vodka after 8PM. Don’t kid yourself.
When I say “get rid of it,” I don’t mean throw it in the trash, of course. You could hold a stash sale through any of a number of online sources. But let’s be honest – that’s a huge pain in the ass.
I can hear you thinking, “But I spent all that money! I can’t waste it by giving the yarn away!” Let me tell you another hard truth: you’ve already wasted your money by buying yarn that you’ll never knit. How is that not a waste?
I advocate giving it away, either to a charity which accepts yarn, or to your local (and soon-to-be-very-grateful) knitting friends. It’s fast, it’s easy, it doesn’t require you to deal with printing out shipping labels and making sure the right skein is in the right envelope, and it will make you feel really really good.
Tags: decluttering
Comments (17)
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tough love, erika!
I have a lot of fiber. spinning fiber. It has overflowed it’s container(s) and now I must face the fact that my husband has NOTICED.
So, I might have to g-g-g-giv…. (I can’t even type it.) Okay I am not talking about this any more. good night! ;o)
Comment by Lori —
July 16, 2009 @ 10:57 pm
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SWATCHES???? You KEEP your swatches?? Isn’t that a waste of yarn? I always rewind mine into the ball and use it
Comment by Devon —
July 17, 2009 @ 6:27 am
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I am soooo enjoying these posts on decluttering, as I’m in the midst of trying to declutter a house after several years of neglect. I’m starting to read or reread your blog every morning as inspiration! I especially appreciate what you say here about using the ravelry spreadsheet–I didn’t know it could be downloaded. That will help a lot.
BTW, I have had great luck selling my excess stash (excess stash?!? sounds like an oxymoron, but I’m not going there) on ravelry. Somehow the thought of making a particular yarn available to someone who needs a little more to finish a project or has fallen in love with it and would like to get it cheaper than usual is great motivation for me to get it to the p.o. But I also think what you say about charity is very very wise.
Please keep this kind of blog entry coming, if you’re not tiring of writing about it! Many thanks!
Comment by Jan —
July 17, 2009 @ 7:01 am
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Whoa there honey! This is YARN you’re talking about. YAAAARNN!! This is not cookbooks or family photographs, it’s yarn!!
In all seriousness though, yarn can become overwhelming (300 skeins talking). After looking at it in Ravelry I realized that I was buying yarn because I was getting caught up in the potential for more projects than actually starting them. So I quit buying yarn. Unless I travel out of state (souveneir) or a to finish a project.
Soooo…what’s a kniter to do? There’s no way I can get rid of a lot of my yarn. I love it! I leave it in a glass case so i can look at it. I have the perfect solution for all you stash-laden knitters. Learn to crochet!
I learned to crochet to make the Babette Blanket. That tiny thing took almost 20 skeins! So when I looked at my 12 skeins of cotton classic and 4 skeins of King Tut cotton I started crocheting granny squares. A month later and it’s half gone. And I’ll need to get a little extra for the border.
The moral, keep your yarn, just learn to use it faster
Comment by Meg McG —
July 17, 2009 @ 8:00 am
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You wrote this for me, didn’t you?
My personal solution to the excess stash thing is what someone else mentioned: crochet. Although I haven’t started yet
But I do very much like the idea of calculating the number of miles I knit in the average year and comparing that to the mileage in my stash. Depending on the results, I may need to donate some yarn. (Or maybe just buy more…)
Comment by kmkat —
July 17, 2009 @ 8:47 am
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5.2 years.
Comment by kmkat —
July 17, 2009 @ 9:41 am
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The hospital where I work has a group of women that knits baby clothes and blankets for babies that need them – if a person wants to de-stash and needs a recipient, I suggest calling the local hospital to see if they have a similar group!
Comment by lisa eaton —
July 17, 2009 @ 11:37 am
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I will TOO knit it. Someday. Someday when I’m a faster knitter.
Swatches? Who knits swatches?
Comment by Carrie K —
July 17, 2009 @ 12:23 pm
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Awesome post. I’m printing this post and the previous one and taping them to wall in the “workroom” which I publicly announced I was decluttering. They’ll be my guidelines and inspiration.
Thank you for giving me permission to get rid of the yarn. I have a Ravelry group I can donate it to as prizes. (Yeah, that’s prizes plural. I have a lot of impulse-purchase yarn.)
Comment by daisy in the shenandoah valley —
July 17, 2009 @ 1:52 pm
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I like your method for needles! I use an old CD clamshell for my circulars and an actual handmade needle roll for my DPNs.
As to the yarn, I do, periodically cull the stash to get rid of the stuff I don’t believe I’ll actually use. But I DO like to keep some stash (a couple small sized tubs) because sometimes I have money for the knitting and sometimes I don’t. I went a year and a half once without buying yarn and I was glad for the stash then. But you’re right on the most important point–one shouldn’t keep yarn out of a sense of obligation. Or false ideals.
Comment by Sarah —
July 17, 2009 @ 5:16 pm
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I have a big binder with plastic pocket dividers, one for each size of circ. It’s not pretty, and it’s not always neat, but it’s better than a drawerful of tangled, unsorted circs.
Comment by Becca —
July 19, 2009 @ 6:46 am
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I always unravel and knit with my swatches, but if I didn’t, I would do this with them:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3535/3737112978_29fb57e070.jpg
Comment by Danica —
July 19, 2009 @ 4:00 pm
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Correction.
I would do this with them:
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/swatch-ornaments
Comment by Danica —
July 19, 2009 @ 4:01 pm
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My friend and I just donated a huge stash of yarn we no longer *needed* – we dropped it off at a local nursing home. They were THRILLED. We even got rid of needles we never use.
For book destash, I use http://www.paperbackswap.com – for the price of postage, you can mail your book to a new home.
All of your posts about getting rid of clutter are great – and have made me feel guilty. I have a basement of boxes I haven’t unpacked since our move 5 YEARS ago (hangs head in shame). Clearly, I don’t need anything in those boxes!
Comment by Christine —
July 20, 2009 @ 8:56 am
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I store my circs in a pretty paper (red flowers, I think from Target) accordion file — 13 sections, I labeled each one and I just keep a gauge checker near it. I figure out what size it is and throw it in.
And, um, swatch? I rip mine out as soon as I’ve decided I’m close to gauge and reknit it. I never even considered keeping a swatch! (It’s only ever 22 stitches wide about about 20 rows high, if that….)
Fast and loose, baby, fast and loose.
Comment by Rachael —
July 20, 2009 @ 6:55 pm
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Also –
LOVE DECLUTTERING! Need to do some, that must be why I love it so. It can lull me sleep on sleepless nights, just thinking about how great it’s all going to be….
Comment by Rachael —
July 20, 2009 @ 6:55 pm
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Agree x5million about getting rid of the stash. Why hang on to guilt?
Comment by yoel —
July 21, 2009 @ 6:50 pm
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