I've Got Stash

Some might say that I've got more stash then shops have yarn.  Yes, like WIPS, I have a nice stash, so you can understand why it so often calls me to want to cast on something new.  And one might also understand why my stash and my goal for 2016 is a yarn store's nightmare. 2016 is the year of Love Your Stash/Go Cold Sheep.  

One of the podcasts that I regularly listen to is  The Yarniacs Podcast.  I am also a member of their Ravelry group.  One of the ongoing discussions on the board is to list your goals for the first quarter of 2016, http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/yarniacs-podcast/3339083/51-75#71, Love Your Stash Challenge.  I'll be knitting from stash this year as much as possible, because I really need to get this stash down a bit.

While thinking about the whole stash thing, I started looking at how important listing stash in Ravelry is and how helpful it can be for not only to the person whose stash it is, but to others who may need that certain color/dye lot of a yarn and may not know that there is someone out there who has just what you are looking for.

Let's start with adding stash - but beware if you add stash, it is going to show up on all of your friends feed and they may start wondering if you went yarn shopping without them!  Take a picture of your yarn one color, one brand, one name at a time.  Add your stash, be sure and include the color way name and number along with the dye lot.  This is so very important if someone is looking for a specific dye lot or even if you out shopping and know you need one more skein of something in your dye lot, you can open up your stash on Ravelry and voila, the info is right at your hands.  One other very important point, be sure and tag your yarn if you want to sell it, trade it or not.

 If someone is desperate for your dye lot, and they read that you won't sell it, that it is just stash, they might just skip over your stash when hunting down a stray dye lot.  Or, they may be desperate and still message you to ask you to part with it!

Entering your stash helps you keep a record of what you have on, but it can also be pretty helpful.  If you find a pattern that you like and you know you don't have the exact yarn already in your stash, and you really want to use a stash yarn, Ravelry will list yarns that you have stashed that are similar in properties that are in your stash that you can use.  Right under the suggested yarn on the pattern detail page, is a link to your possible yarns in your stash.

If you click on the __  ideas, Ravelry will pull up the two yarns in your stash that you could use.  How cool is that?!  Takes the guess work out of deciding IF you have something you can use from your stash.

I love this feature!  Some times I just need some help in using my stash when my first inclination is to order new.  Although, I have not been very good lately about adding stash (maybe I should have done better at it when we moved it all over a year ago to the new house), I really want to make a better effort in the new year to take stock of what I have, how much and enter it into Ravelry,  so less time is spent on trying to decide what to use and more time knitting!