Loving Llama And Multiple Acquisitions

I thought I was done after Rhinebeck.  (Be quiet, I CAN hear all of you laughing, you know.) My most recent forays into the world of yarn acquisition demonstrates my error.  You knew this, and you weren't going to break it to me.  NOW I understand all those unfinished sentences when I asked how big your stash was.  Or your inability to meet my gaze when I asked about buying yarn on the Web.  It's like wine, where you can delude yourself that you are buying less because you are buying better.  (Yes, I've recently transitioned from Plymouth brushed alpaca to handspun llama.)  Let's take a closer look.

At the idea of stash,  NOT at the llama.  (Yet.)

When I buy yarn and fiber, I am part of a transaction that resonates down to my toes.  When I fall in love with a colorway, a yarn's softness, or a combination of fibers, I'm feeling all the future possibilities of my experiences with that fiber.  It is like falling a little in love each time.  The promise, the potential of our future relationship with that knitted or spun project is a warm and pleasurable seduction each time it happens. 

I have a smaller stash than many, a bigger stash than some.  Talking to my fellow stashers knitters points to the fact that our inner psyche governs how much, and what we collect.  My stash is an archeologic sampling of my needs, insecurities and hopes at different periods of my knitting and spinning career.  There were times of intense need, when I used yarn to salve my psyche.  That surely was the time post0p last spring when I was alone and immobile every day.  There was the time when I happily and gleefully joined in the acquisitive groupthink of Rhinebeck.  That was as much about relationships as it was about fiber purchases.  (Yes, I would do it again exactly the same, and will, in the future.)  The more interesting times (ones I haven't figured out yet) are related to when I DON'T purchase.  Avoidance of guilt, surprisingly, is not the motivator at those times.  It's clear to me that at those times, I have no inner forces pushing me to crush more yarn into my bins and closet.  How we stash reflects our inner selves, our emotional barometers, and how we soothe ourselves when we respond to pain AND pleasure.

I admire the microstashers.  While I don't necessarily aspire to those peaks, I am intrigued by the idea of the psychic weight of stash providing the opposite motivation - that of the antistasher.  That will be the next frontier, I think.

When I googled "pack rat" and "collecting behavior", I found this quiz.  My score was 17.

This young lady from Vermont asked me to relay a message to the knitters and spinners in blogland.  I'll let her speak for herself:

"If you don't buy the yarn my mommy makes from my hair, she threatened to turn me into llamaburgers."

Comments

[Annie]

Well put about the phsyche of yarn-buying. I've often wondered what was wrong with me, buying yarn I didn't need with no project in mind, just because I "loved" it. Who loves yarn?! You hit the nail on the head. Thank you for explaining myself to myself, and reassuring me I'm not the only one!

[Carole]

I spent the weekend reorganizing the computer/fiber room. My stash isn't out of control but give the new storage items we have bought, I really can't buy any more fiber until I spin some more fiber. ;-)

[Ruth]

I joined the Stashalong because I did some soul-salve buying last year ... and it's time to work with some of that yarn. It's been fun to shop the stash ... there have been a few happy surprises in there (and some no-so-happy ... a couple of times I've found something that makes me wonder what I was thinking).

[Lee Ann]

You are SO not done.

[claudia]

I scored in the low June Cleaver range. Just sayin'. I'm no Felix.

;-)

I like the word microstasher. I'm ripping that off.

[JessaLu]

I consider my stash my promise to myself that I will knit - no matter what. I get a warm, fuzzy feeling just thinking about my closet, er, I guess it's more of a room now ;o) Maybe I should take that quiz...

[JessaLu]

Just because I had these feeling you were dying to know - I scored a 16. Apparently I am Roseanne. Which is more disturbing than you could ever know.

I think I'm going to go throw away something of Roger's just so I can get bumped up to Cleaver status ;o)

[Theresa]

Retail Therapy. It works (depending, of course, on what you buy). So much of my yarn has an association with a certain shopping trip - I like to think of that as part of the character of the yarn when I knit it.

[Martha]

I like the idea of clutter (like those Merchant Ivory films, with their lovely cluttered living rooms, old books and Wedgewood) but the reality, not so much. It's the dust. Movie clutter is always free of dust, but real life clutter collects dust like magnets collect iron filings. I try to keep my wool covered up so it doesn't get dusty. Dust phobia may be the fundamental reason why I don't have much of a stash.

[Beth S.]

I got a 20, but I think it was only because I really keep on top of the laundry. ;-)

[margene]

We're about the same...I'm an 18. It was the laundry that did me in on that one. It's not smelly (yet) but sure is piled up. My biggest problem is stashing fiber, yes roving! AND I DON'T SPIN, as yet.

[Bookish Wendy]

A more compelling argument has never been made.

[Beth]

I ended up a 15 but only because of the toothpaste and fridge questions. I know I'm a Felix at heart.

[Beth]

Duh, I meant an Oscar at heart. I aspire to be a Felix - maybe that was a Freudian thing.

[Reagan]

I purchase in order to remember a place or event. And also to have happy colors around as the yarn and roving you can purchase comes in so many intense colors that chant buy me.

If you think Claudia's stash is micro, you should see mine. As a relativly new knitter and spinner it all fits in a 16 gallon tub. It helps that I have moved 3 times in the last 6 weeks and all purchases must first answer the question . . . do I want to move you?

[Risa]

Ummm.... I need to destash now. Hello, my name is Risa and I'm a pack rat. I scored a scary 14 on that quiz. But heck, that llama girl has it right!

[julia fc]

I am commnter 17, and my score was 17 too!

[Kathy]

I'm a June Cleaver in a house full of Roseannes :) The fact that llamas speak in Vermont is proof that it is the most divine place on earth.

[Kristen]

my take on "stashing" has changed since I first started; yarn on sale that's too good to leave (and I can see me knitting something up) comes home, and sock yarn is exempt. Otherwise it has to be unique enough that I'll never see it again, or for a gift that'll be knit up and sent off to a recipent.

Knowing that I have to move again in a few months has led me to go through what I have and weed out what I will probably never use. Nothing like knowing I'll be living out of my car for a year to get my butt in gear! (and there will be yarn shops along my route to new clerkships...)

[Lene]

When a beautiful colour blue comes my way, in mostly any fiber, I have to have it...

[Kim]

Another 17 am I. Can you imagine being able to stash your stash in a 16 gallon container?? I can't, but maybe I should....LOL.

Love the Llama`s!!

[juno]

Hee. I just want to know when you clean out the cedar closet for fiber......
There are times and places where excess is part of the experience....and times when aquisition is a destructive act. You gots to listen to your innards, they will let you know.....

[Judith]

I like what you said--"My stash is an archeologic sampling of my needs, insecurities and hopes at different periods of my knitting and spinning career." My plants in the garden, the books on my shelves, all fall into similar fate of my fiber Stash, they like to gather together & spread out.

[Carla]

I'm on a stash diet myself, and it's much less painful than I had anticipated. Of course, each week I come up with a new plan for buying more yarn. I haven't given in yet, though... Oh, and I love the picture of the llama!!

[Kellee]

Oh my dear, so very well put. Truely.

But don't think for a second that your beautiful, insightful post will get you off the 'Show Us' hook. Wanna see what you bought, yes, yes. ;)