Snap Shots

It's no secret that I am attempting to organize my stash this year.  This means shopping in my own yarn store and creating finished items that I have been longing for. I took my first big step at doing this by going through the ends that have accumulated over the years. I have kept my ends with the best intention of doing something with them, but finally had to admit that it was never going to happen and decided to sort through them. Some things got tossed, some got offered to friends, and some are still sitting with an undecided question mark over them, but they will not go back into my stash.

Horrid brown scarf in the middle

What amused me while I was sorting, was realizing that with very few exceptions, I was able to recall exactly what each yarn had been used for. I could pick something up and say "that was the pair of gloves I made for so and so. Or there's the end of the hideous brown scarf that Sean loves and wears proudly, and cringe every time I see it." (I have since made him a much nicer scarf, that I do actually like.) Some even come with a little bit of knitting wisdom. The aforementioned horrid brown yarn for example. I learned with that project, that it is important to feel the love when you knit something 'cause if you don't have it while you are knitting, it will never appear.

Each little ball is a snap shot of part of my knitting history. My husband came home, and pointed to a particle set of ends and said, “there's the first sweater you made me.” At that point my “type A personality” kicked in and I thought, maybe I really will do something with this pile of stuff. Maybe getting rid of these ends is a bad idea." Then I took out my phone and took a picture and decided the ends need to be nothing more then a physical snap shot. It certainly takes up a lot less space.