Simultaneously, the past two years have seemed to go by in the blink of an eye and at a crawl. Before the world turned upside down, I set a goal in January 2020 to use up 75% of my yarn stash in an effort to be more minimal and intentional with my craft (you can read more about this original goal here). Ideally, I wanted to change my buying and crafting habits to save space, money, and the environment, in my own small way. After reflecting monthly on my progress (check out the Attacking My Stash tab up above if you haven’t already!), I reestablished my goals to “attack my stash” for 2021 after reviewing my 2020 progress, but with some updated intentions, which you can read here. With another year behind me, I wanted to reflect on how both December 2021 as well as the year as a whole went in terms of meeting my goals and changing my mindset.
My Budget
After a few months of pretty much throwing all yarn-buying-limits out the window, I had a lot of self control in December when it came to my spending on yarn. Every skein I purchased with great intention and was definitely needed in my stash. I bought a few skeins from Walmart and Michael’s to fulfill custom orders, but I was able to support my local yarn store, Fillory Yarn, as well as make a purchase from Jimmy Beans Wool to complete my Christmas sweater.
For 2021, my main yarn budget goal was to focus my spending on supporting small and local businesses, where possible. I really changed my buying habits since the start of Attack My Stash- I never go to the craft store just to browse yarn anymore! Every skein I have bought from a big box store in 2021 has been used in a project. If that doesn’t scream intentional crafting, I don’t know what does. For that I am really pleased. However, I definitely ran with the idea that I could financially support small businesses instead of bigger craft stores. I fell in love with so many dyers this year, like Sewrella Yarn, Woolberry Fiber Co, Explorer Knits & Fibers, Stress Knits, Northwoods Fibers, and more. I also explored many yarn stores in Texas, New York, and California between all the places I lived and visited in 2021 (not Utah unfortunately, though I had planned on it- I got sick right before I planned to go! It’ll have to wait until next time). I am so, so grateful and I recognize the privilege of being able to spend money on hand-dyed yarn. I am truly blessed and thankful that I can financially support other small businesses! In all honesty, though, I think I probably bought more hand-dyed yarn than I should have. I can’t work through it all fast enough! If I can’t keep up with the yarn purchases I make, I am buying too much. It is really hard to resist beautiful hand-dyed yarns, especially when you can easily justify buying lots of single sock skeins to sample the yarn.
My Yarn Stash
After not decreasing my yarn stash since August, I was really excited to see that I used up more skeins than I bought in December! Woohoo! Partly I think it was because a lot of yarn I ordered in October and November was finally arriving in December, but… we’ll ignore that. I used up 14 skeins of yarn throughout the month, pretty equally spread between lace weight, sock yarn, and DK. I focused most of my attention in December on knitting Christmas socks and my Christmas sweater, so that spread makes sense. I only purchased eight skeins of yarn last month, and as I mentioned above, those skeins were all for immediate projects or custom orders I should be finishing up within the next couple months.
When compared to the beginning of the year, I used up 198 total skeins! That is a crazy number! I also bought 153 skeins, so my net decrease was around 40 or so. I say “around” because my numbers aren’t perfect so my math is off by just a couple. But I did pretty well keeping track of all yarn coming in and going out of my stash throughout the year. I started 2021 with 355 skeins of yarn and ended with 313. I was really hoping I could end below the 300 mark but I wasn’t able to do that. All in all, I still made progress towards my ultimate Attack My Stash goal.
In comparing my progress in 2021 to 2020 (my first year with the intention to decrease my yarn stash), I used up 213 skeins in 2020. In total, I used approximately 30% of my total yarn stash in 2020 whereas this year I used up approximately 11% of my January 2021 yarn stash (only about 8% of the yarn I started with in January 2020). A big part of that statistical difference is because I purchased 153 skeins of yarn this past year, while I only purchased 46 skeins in 2020. That meant that my net decrease in yarn stash was a lot less this year since I had a lot more yarn coming in than in 2020. I still made overall progress though, and I learned more about the usability of my stash and my creativity. I’m hoping that knowledge can help me do even better at attacking my stash in 2022!
Things I Learned
My biggest regret from December was the scrappy yarn advent I purchased from another maker. I thought it would be so fun to have an advent this year (I was feeling serious FOMO) for a much cheaper price than if I had purchased from an indie yarn dyer. But now I am stuck with two dozen mini skeins of random yarns that I have no idea what to do with! Some of them are sock yarns that I can use for contrasts or colorwork, but there are some yarns dissimilar to everything else I have in my stash. I wish I had been more judicious and not purchased scrap yarn when I have enough scraps myself. Speaking of scraps, I definitely need to work on some scrappy crochet projects. I have a scrappy project bag I started a few months ago but never finished, and I should start working on granny square blankets to donate to the animal shelter again. Finally, I realized that all I really want to do is knit right now, so I need to creatively figure out knitting patterns I can make with the old stash yarn I purchased for crochet a couple years ago.
As I look back on this past year, I have learned that I ran out of ideas for my stash yarn a while ago. I need to creatively plan some projects to intentionally use up my specific yarn. As I have learned more about different fibers and yarn weights, I know better now which projects work well with which yarns, and vice versa. I don’t want to use up my yarn stash by making random items; I want to give my old yarn purpose by making it into something greater than the skein alone. I also see in retrospect that I should probably buy fewer sock yarns and sock sets because I can’t possibly make enough socks with the yarn I have if I keep purchasing at this rate (though I do love some handknit socks)!
Things to Change: Attack My Stash 2022
In 2021, I intended to limit my spending on yarn to what profits I made from my small business. My business is not at the level where it can even sustain itself, let alone turn a profit, so that was not a reasonable goal for myself. I focused much more on where my money went; I feel I was able to meet my own resolution to invest in more small businesses. For 2022, however, I want to be more strict with myself regarding the money I spend on yarn. There are so many wonderful small businesses I want to support that create beautiful yarn, but I can’t afford to buy everything I love, or even everything that I buy intentionally for a specific project. Ideally, I would like my small business to provide a discretionary income for yarn, but that isn’t the case currently. I will work this year at tracking my purchases and sales more diligently so that I can better understand how much money I should be spending on fun things like yarn and other hobbies.
I also want to buy hand-dyed yarn less frequently so that I can make bigger purchases (like for a sweater’s quantity of yarn). I said it above, but I don’t need to make a thousand pairs of socks! Instead of buying single skeins of sock yarn, I want to buy yarn that fits my goals and allows me to make projects on my Make Nine list (which you can learn more about in my YouTube video).
I also want to create a fun way for myself and others to use up their yarn stash, so I will be creating a Stash Bingo board with prompts that can be filled in. You can choose how to reward yourself for using your yarn stash up! Keep an eye out for more details to come.
Finally, I want to continue working towards the ultimate goal of decreasing my yarn stash to 25% of the original size and only taking up two tote bins. In an effort to make some intentional plans for my stash yarn, I came up with a Stash Make Nine list. You can find it in this YouTube video. I have nine projects imagined for specific yarn I want to use in my stash. I am hoping that by doing so, I can whittle away at the old stash yarn that is sitting in my closet without purpose. I also know that if I can’t keep up with the yarn I bring into my stash, I am buying too much yarn. I am going to focus more on the number of skeins going in and out of my stash so that I don’t go crazy overboard for a couple months.
I am really excited for what 2022 will bring in terms of my crocheting and knitting! What fiber arts goals and intentions have you set for the new year? Do you have any plans to use up your stash? Definitely join me on Instagram @crowchetcreations by using the hashtag #AttackMyStash2022 and tag me so I can cheer you on! Happy making!
XO, Emily
