Full Disclosure Part Two – Stash Reduction

From my 101 in 1001 list:

23. Sell or use entire current yarn stash

Oh, wow. I don’t know what I was thinking when I wrote that one. That will definitely be a challenge, yes, but not impossible.

Last weekend, I went through my entire yarn stash and added everything – even those random single balls of leftover yarn – into my Ravelry account.  I then exported the information to an Excel spreadsheet (I love my spreadsheets!) and totaled up exactly how much yarn I have on hand.

The grand total: 25.8 miles of yarn.

Gulp.

Then, I broke it down into 4 categories:

• Yarn I have plans for – either WIPs or planned projects, but isn’t sock yarn: 7.5 miles
• Yarn I plan to sell: 6.2 miles
• Sock yarn – I swear this reproduces in the drawer when I’m not looking: 7.4 miles
• Yarn that I like but I have no idea what to do with it: 4.7 miles

I haven’t put all of the “for sale” yarn up for sale yet – I probably will do that here and there via my Ravely “trade/sell” page or via Destash.

For the curious, all of the yarn that was included in this spreadsheet has the comment “Part of 101 in 1001 Stash Reduction” on my Ravelry stash pages. Right now, it’s pretty much everything.

Again, I have a loophole. I can still buy new yarn, and trade old yarn for new yarn. It’s just that these current skeins/balls/hanks of yarn must be out the door by the due date (December 2010). 

In reality, the goal is to shrink the stash considerably.  I’d like it to fit just in the yarn cabinet I already have.  Over the past couple of years, the yarn has breached the confines of the cabinet and is now located in several closets and nooks throughout the house. While this works for many folks, it’s starting to overwhelm me, so the stash-busting will be an earnest effort for the next 1001 days. Or, 992 days, as the clock is already ticking.

The good news – I sold a hank of sock yarn today. That means – 360 yards down, only 25.6 miles to go!