handmade by stefanie

Ah, the yarn stash. If you've stuck with knitting/yarn craft long enough, you've probably accumulated more yarn than you could ever use in this lifetime. People find out you knit and they gift you random skeins of yarn (or worse yet, random bits of mystery yarn), you buy skeins just because they're pretty, and if you happened to work in the yarn industry for 10+ years (off and on) like I did, there's also a huge amount of freebies and samples in the mix. Long story short, yarn keeps finding a way to sneak into your home and things can get out of hand quickly, even if you've taken great pains to establish some semblance of yarn order.  Before the Big Move last summer, my yarn stash was neatly organized by yarn weight in several large 66-qt. storage bins, and nearly all of it was also photographed and accounted for on my Ravelry account. And then it quickly fell back into chaos as I tried to pare down in preparation for our move to KC.  I donated several boxes of yar...

Do you ever feel like you might have too much yarn? Most of us joke that there's no such thing as too much yarn , but on the other side of that coin is Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy (SABLE). It might be early for me, but I already have fears of SABLE, and to be perfectly honest, it makes me sad to look at so many beautiful skeins of yarn going unused, trapped in a storage bin. Perhaps I shouldn't have purchased the clear variety, or stacked them in my office so that I have a near-constant guilt trip as I work, but nevertheless, my stash is starting to bum me out. It's all filled with yarn....and there are more bins not pictured! Eep! Don't get me wrong - I've stashdived plenty for projects in recent years ( Find your Fade and So Faded , I'm looking at you especially). The problem is that those efforts are a mere drop in the bucket. Yarn keeps showing up on my doorstep to distract me from my best intentions. Now, let's add in one more f...

Happy New Year! I can't believe it's 2014. The holiday season whizzed by and I am not sure I'm ready to embark on a new year just yet - but it's here whether I like it or not! In fact, I am still processing the holidays: I felt more than a little spoiled by my friends and family. As I get older, I can honestly say that my focus on the holidays isn't on what gifts I'll be getting, but rather, giving gifts and spending time with family (and friends!). That's not to say I don't enjoy receiving gifts, of course - who doesn't?! In fact, I received many thoughtful, useful, and all-around awesome gifts this year, and I thought I'd share some of the fiber-related ones on today's post: Mollie Makes Crochet : Tons of great projects to make for the home!  50 Yards of Fun by Rebecca Danger - all the better to continue the theme for 2014!  Scarf Organizer: I've been trying to find a good way to store all of my scarves and shawls so that ...