BoomerGirl Diary

Anchorage — January is the time to make your New Year's resolutions and to get organized. Maybe this is the time to finally try to make sense of your knitting stash too.

Most knitters horde yarn, and over the years this accumulation can really crawl out into your living space. I know my stash is residing all over my house - lying in the hallway, hanging on the doorknobs, piling up in the corners, sitting on the coffee table, nesting in the drawers and hiding in the closets. I have tried to make this pile of fiber obey my desire to be orderly, but it just keeps multiplying and encroaching into every open space there is. It's almost as though an empty spot invites this stash to replicate itself.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I know where everything is. It's just that this mess is so unsightly.

One year I brought home heavy-duty plastic drawers like the ones you might have in your toolshed. I happily wedged them into my studio's closet and got ready to pile the stash fibers into the drawers. My not-so-cheap drawer units looked like a really good idea until I tried to cram all the yarn into them; it was surprising how much was still left over after the drawers were full.

Then I saw an ad on TV about these nifty storage bags that would be flattened when all the air was vacuumed out. I went straight out and bought a whole box of different sizes. I stuffed bunches of yarn into the bags, hopeful that they would become nice, flat squares of well-organized yarn when I got all the air out of them. I vacuumed as instructed and discovered that yarn is already just about as flat as it will get. In the end, I had plastic-covered yarn skeins the same size as before. No space gained from all that fuss or expense.

My studio closet has a clothes rod, as most standard closets do. I found that Rubbermaid makes stout, plastic wrapping-paper carriers with handles that hang nicely on that closet rod. These totes are semi-clear so you can see your project hanging in the closet, pattern and yarn stored together and waiting for the day you want to work. I now have several storage totes hanging neatly over my drawer units. The best part is that they also make nice totes for taking your project along with you, and you can just grab and go. Ziploc makes great big zipper bags for sports gear that can also hold an enormous amount of yarn. They are easy to use, fairly affordable and easy to see through.

Lily Chin tells about hiding her stash in zippered pillowcases on the sofa, in the soup tureen on the sideboard and even in the folds of her high school prom dress that has been sewn shut and hung in her closet. The point I'm making is that you can be creative with how to store your stash and how to make that storage solution work for you.

Take an inventory of empty spaces in your home. Think of ways to gather like fibers, colors or matching skeins together rather than face your entire stash at one time. Large lots of matching yarn could be stored in your empty suitcases while like colors could be sorted into drawers or covered totes: brown hues in one, blue hues in another, etc.

Cleaning house is also one way to usher in the new, and feng shui experts will tell you that the surefire way to get something new is to give away something old. Why not purge your stash while you organize it. You may find that the yarn you once thought of as very lovely isn't as nice as you remembered. Think of that new fiber you found at your local yarn store and move that old stuff out to make room for it. Many guilds will gladly take your old skeins for charity knitting and crochet projects. You could also support the education of traditional needle arts by donating your fibers, fabrics, notions and books to the Alaska State Yarn Council for their next stash sale.

However you choose to begin the new year, you'll feel much better about your knitting when you can find things in your stash. You may just discover that you already have that perfect fiber for your next project already on hand.