Quantum Tea

Thoughts

Stash and Simplicity

Originally posted on the blog, see comments on part one and part two.

Part One

A friend asked me "do knitters have a stash?" I laughed. She is a former quilter who gave away her sewing machine and fabric stash when she was all quilted out. Ravelry lets you browse what people have in their yarn stash. The biggest stash on Ravelry lately was 1475 items, which is a lot of yarn. It got me thinking.

I keep a pretty limited stash compared to that. The whole thing is documented but not individually photographed. It's mostly sock yarn. I like knitting socks and I know how much yarn it takes. I can't buy yarn without a project in mind, I did a bit of random yarn buying and destashed most of it. There's some space in my yarn box now, and this is the yarn I have left:

Yarn stash.

A little escaped the box, like the Cascade 220 for Eris and the leftovers I'm keeping for a blanket, but this is probably 95% of the yarn in the house. Handspun is on the far right.

I have a fibre stash too, also documented. This lives in a smaller box in a different room and I really need an extra box, especially after that trip to the alpaca farm. I'm planning to get some more wool to spin at Maryland Sheep and Wool, but no fleeces. If I had a fleece in the house, the cats would try to groom it. Tangle already tries to groom our hair and it's not a pleasant experience for either party. Apparently I have a thing for undyed fibres:

Fibre stash.

Some people call it a collection, some relate it to an artists paint, or a carpenter's wood. I have a bead collection and some stamping equipment. Hubby collects bits of paper with useful information on. When I went to university, my dad made me a jewellery box from rimu, a New Zealand hardwood he picked up when we lived there in the 1970s and carried around from house to house. Everyone has the magpie instinct to some extent. (Magpies are birds renowned for stealing shiny or sparkly things and putting them in their nests.)

Part two

Moving country changes your perspective on accumulated stuff somewhat. Everything we owned was evaluated. Can we easily replace this? Do we really want to keep this? Do we want this enough to ship it given that we can only ship so much? If we want to ship it and we'll be without it for 3 months, do we really need it anyway? We spent several days sleeping on the floor in an empty apartment after we sold the bed and shipped the good duvet. Most of our belongings were either given away or sold. We kept things that were irreplaceable, like the wedding pictures, and the computer, and the three volume complete Shakespeare dated 1926 in the front covers. And now we've been in our own house for five years, and the stuff does pile up... Books mostly, though there's a lot of CDs and DVDs. Moving and shipping stuff is a trial even when it's only essentials, so I want to keep the stuff limited. We're not moving yet, but it will happen.

In Richard Foster's book "Celebration of Discipline" one of the disciplines is simplicity. I've blogged about this before and he has a lot of good things to say. These are some of his suggestions from that chapter of the book:

Buy things for their usefulness rather than their status.
Like that coveted skein of Wollmeise for instance? There's been a feeding frenzy each time this yarn went up on the Loopy Ewe site, and for days before. Sure it's colourful, probably nice to knit with and wear, but is it worth staying up all night hitting F5 to refresh the browser in the hopes of getting some? There is other yarn.

Reject anything that is producing an addiction in you.
Spending the grocery money on yarn is a problem, and most people don't get that far, but addictive behaviour is easy to fall into. Compulsively checking email, buying yarn just because it's there and not because you want it or need it, it's not good.

Obey Jesus' instructions about plain, honest speech.
"Do I really need this?" Sometimes the answer is "No." Sometimes it's "No, but if you really want it, it's OK." Anything that comes with a label saying "This yarn will change your life!" is probably exaggerating.

Shun anything that distracts you from seeking first the kingdom of God.
Knitting, spinning, your job, or any other time consuming activity, shouldn't eat your life whole. Everyone needs some downtime.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing to have a stash of yarn or fibre or whatever else. The bad thing would be addictive behaviour, and hoarding stuff just because you can. Who is in control, and why do you do what you do? Just a thought.