Stash Expedition

Next weekend is the Knitter's Review Retreat in VA, and there are 2 things happening there that prompted a full-scale plunge into the stash - a swap table, and a session on new beginnings/starting a new project for yourself. I am also finishing the packing for the trip to furnish our Texas condo, and wanted to fill up the rest of a plastic tub housing my charka with TX-appropriate yarn, for those spur-of-the-moment-need-to-start-a-new-project moments.

So I ventured up to the 3rd floor (this is the home of the yarn stash, fiber stash is in the basement), armed with the 12 pages of my yarn inventory spreadsheet, all printed out nicely, and discovered that some poltergeist has been stirring up the yarn while I wasn't paying attention. It all really needs to be turned out and re-organized so that the inventory is up to date, and has all of the correct bin/tub numbers (did I mention that I'm just a little maniacal about being able to check the inventory and put my hands on exactly the yarn I'm wanting?) and is fully organized by fiber type and/or weight. (Certain types of yarn, such as handspun and sock yarns have their own containers, as they are special)

By now it's 7pm, and I am just starting to pull all of the yarn out of it's containers so that it can be replaced properly, and its looking like this-

and if I turn around and look at the other side of the room it looks like this-

and now I'm starting to realize just what I've done, I've created way more work for myself than I really want to do when I'm going to work at 6:30 am tomorrow, leaving for Washington at 2pm, coming home on Monday , working through Wednesday while I pack to leave for the Retreat at 7am on Thursday. Why did I do this?

Really, I know why I did it. I just love taking everything out of it's hiding place, and looking at it, and petting it, and imagining all of the wonderful things that I could make with it. What at great feeling - I love every one of the 1,432 balls and skeins. (this is not sounding good for the swap table, is it?) I've found at least 5 things for the new beginnings project in the first 10 minutes, so that is not going to be an easy decision.

The good news is that I kept on until almost 10pm, and I reorganized the cotton and other non-wools, and pulled out the things to go in the TX move (though this means that I need to send some needles along too), and I narrowed the new beginnings idea down to two possibilities.

The bad news is that it's going to take me at least another 4 hours to finish up, and another hour to update the spreadsheet with all of the corrected info. I don't have a clue where that time is going to come from before I leave for the Retreat, but I'm hoping to get it done somehow, because I still need to find some swap yarn, or I won't be able to browse the swap table for new treasures.