Knitting in the Shadows: Major Achievement Award Leads to Sale

You remember that List I was talking about the other day?

I put five new things on it (making gifts to pay it forward). But, I took one HUGE thing off of it. That one line has taken about a week of work. Admittedly, most of it was done in fits and starts, an hour here, two hours there, but it started with a Sunday of full on focus.

What was that line on the list?

Clean Out Stash Closet and Inventory Yarn.

I really should have taken pictures!

When I started, the closet showed clear signs of haste from parties and over-night guest hosting over the past couple of years. You know what I mean -- those moments when you realize you're just NOT going to get the cleaning job done in time if you put everything all the way away, so you shove something into a closet....

Yeah.

Sure, some of it was me just chucking the leftover yarns from a project into a small project bag and lobbing it into the Yarn Closet. But some of it was lobbing wholly unrelated things in there. It had ceased being a walk in closet. It had become a danger zone in which access to the lace yarn was blocked by bags and baskets and boxes of things like computer cables and office supplies.

So... I pulled everything out of the center "aisle". I dealt with the boxes of cables and office supplies... putting some things away, sending some things to the garage, and sending some things to Not In My House.

Then, I dug way back into the closet and extracted all things that had been stored in there that were not legitimately fiber related. The box that holds toys from my childhood and from my mother's childhood has been moved to a different storage closet (yeah, I know, more work for THAT closet, but it really didn't belong in THIS one). The games have been re-located to the place where games live. Ditto puzzles.

I pulled all the many project and tote bags. I made sure they were empty, and folded them and put them into two bags -- one full of single/small project bags, and one full of sweater sized project bags. I put them in the closet.

Then, I started with the yarn. Ravelry is my friend (again). Ravelry let me download a spreadsheet of all the yarns I had listed there. I printed it out (we will not discuss the number of pages), and used it to inventory every drawer, cube, bin, and crate in the closet. I counted the yarn to be sure that what I said I had, I still have. I recorded on the list which drawer, box, bin, crate etc. the yarn now lived in. Then, I updated my Ravelry stash to SHOW where the yarn is located.

And, where I didn't have a photo up in Raverly, I took pictures, most of which have been uploaded to Ravelry.

Sometimes, I found yarn that wasn't in Ravelry -- so I entered it. Sometimes Ravelry listed yarn that I can't find. Some of these, I know I used up or sold. For these, I updated the Ravelry database to say "All Used Up" or "Traded/Given Away". Some ... well... some I'm pretty sure is in the house somewhere. For those, the location is now listed as MISSING.

I even dove into the other closet and inventoried the For Sale Yarns that are stored there.

And now, my Yarn Closet is clean,

organized,

and accessible.

Doing this leaves me with a Great Big Feeling of Accomplishment.

But...

As a result, I have come face to face with just how huge the stash has become. It's time for another Stash Reduction Sale. Over the next several days (weeks?) I'll be updating my Stash Sale Page. But once again, I'm declaring open season on my Ravelry Stash. The stuff I WANT to sell is listed on the For Sale or Trade List there. But ANYTHING that is in my Ravelry Stash that has a price listed in comments is actually available ... Heck, for the rest of January -- even if it doesn't have a price tag, if you want it, let me know, I'll consider reasonable offers.