Confessions of a Yarn Hoarder
Discover why we hoard yarn and how to manage your stash
11/3/20253 min read
How much yarn is too much yarn? I feel a need to ask myself this question often, and if I’m being perfectly honest, I probably have too much yarn! I know many of you can relate, though. Here’s why we hoard yarn, and what to do if it becomes too much.
Why We Hoard Yarn
We often buy extra yarn for a particular project so that we don’t run out in the middle of our knitting. I think most of us have experience with losing the game of yarn chicken, and then we have to worry about finding more of the same yarn in the same colorway, ever anxious about non-matching dye lots. So what happens with the extra yarn we do NOT use for the project? Oftentimes, it sits in our stash, forgotten about for years.
Sometimes, we hoard yarn for the emotional connection. I sometimes receive yarn as a gift or buy a skein as a souvenir from a LYS while I’m travelling. Sometimes, you find yarn that inspires you: you see it and immediately you know what you want to make with it. And sometimes, there’s a sale or discontinued yarn, and you know you need it. One time, I found three giant bags of high-quality yarn at a thrift store for only $36, which I couldn’t pass up. That was almost 15 years ago, and I still haven’t used all of that yarn yet. Most of the time in these cases, I don’t know what to make with the yarn I buy, or I don’t know when I’ll get to that project (my WIP and future project lists are pretty long). However, we often get comfort from having all this yarn to choose from when we go to make our next project.
When Stashing Becomes Stressful
There are downsides to having a large stash. Many of us have limited space in our homes to store extra yarn. I have yarn in multiple places around the house, including the closet in my home office, a large storage box in my bedroom, and a couple of boxes under the bed (I told you I probably have too much). When our stash is too large, it can be overwhelming, and it can lead to guilt about not using the yarn we have. It can also become difficult to find what we need when inspiration strikes. The physical clutter can affect our creativity, especially if you’re like me and keep WIPs and extra yarn in the space where you most often work (for me, it’s my desk in my office). Also, having so many options can actually prevent us from getting motivated and can lead to decision paralysis.
Managing Your Stash
Organization is key to managing your stash, and admittedly, it is not my strong suit, but here are some tips I’ve found helpful. Organize based on weight, fiber, and/or color, whichever makes the most sense to you for your stash. Keep the labels for your yarn so that you know what each yarn is. Keep an eye out for a future blog post on how to tell fiber types if you lose the yarn label. I really like this site for helping me organize my stash, I plan to go through this process again very soon! Any yarn that you don’t need or won’t use can be gifted to friends, charities, or neighbors in your local Buy Nothing group (or similar). Stashbusting projects are great for using up small amounts of leftover yarn. I have some of my favorites listed in this post, or browse Ravelry for more stashbusting patterns. You can also use them as accent colors or hold different yarns together to marl the colors and create a new weight of yarn. You can also set goals to keep your stash smaller, such as buying only when you have a certain project in mind, or getting rid of the same amount of yarn as you add. Don’t forget to include cedar chips or lavender sachets to prevent moths from destroying your precious yarn!
Finding Joy in Your Stash
Instead of feeling guilty about the amount of yarn you have, treat your stash like your own personal yarn store! Get inspired by the yarn you have, instead of focusing on why you don’t have the one color for that one project. You might be surprised by the yarns you have but forgot about, and now you can get excited about them all over again! Ravelry is a great way to find patterns for a specific yarn, as you can see what projects other people have made with it. You can also check out my blog post here about choosing projects based on a yarn you found. It is time to reclaim the joy we had when we first bought the yarn!
I hope this has inspired you to go through your stash and finally get organized! Use the form below if you have any questions, or let me know what your stash looks like. Happy stitching!
