Flash Your Stash

Non-knitters may not know that knitters have stashes. Unlike the typical "stash" one hears of, knitters' stashes are not made up of illegal drugs. Like those stashes, however, they are often expensive and hidden from loved ones. When I first heard of "Flash Your Stash," I didn't think I really had enough of a stash be a part of it. Other knit-bloggers were writing about having dressers full of unused yarn, even whole rooms. I have only a few milk crates full in the corner of my bedroom. And one small bag. And part of a shelf... "OK," I thought, "Maybe I really do have enough of a stash." Still, I was surprised to see how much a year of knitting and collecting yarn could produce.

First, there is the reclaimed wool from 2 sweaters that I ripped out.

Then there is my acrylic fiesta. Some of these have been sitting around for years, some were bought in a frenzy when I first started knitting because I liked the colors, and some are leftover Gryffendor scarf colors.

I thought that I had 2 other ladder yarns somewhere, but they are hiding on me. My sister saw a scarf she wanted that was made with these for $80; I bought these for $5 apiece.

I put these together just because I like the way black, white, and red look. The red is really red and not the orangish that it appears.

More novelty yarns. I don't know what will happen with the fuzzy stuff; I have worked enough with them that I don't want to anymore. The ribbon yarns, however, are calling to me.

Then there is the Lion Brand Homespun, the yarn with the deceptive name. Whose home was this spun in, anyway? They are on hand for the Perpetual Prayer Shawl. The bluish and the Mexican colored ones are leftovers; the red is up next.

At this point, I was running out of ways to categorize that made much sense. Not to mention the fact that my assistant photographer, the Preschooler, was getting bored. The pink is all clumped together because she liked it that way; the multicolored skein is going to be the next pair of socks that I make; and there are several balls of dishcloth cotton thrown in to round things out.

These made lovely stripes on a blue hat. Or I made a hat of this color with lovely blue stripes. Whatever.

Below is wool, with one ball of ripped out acrylic hat and one ball of mohair. The mohair and the small red wool came to me from across the country and made a beautiful hat together (a photograph of which is my page background), but I digress....






That's it. I leave you with my first attempts at Yarnography.