Stash Yarns: The Game All Weavers Play

It seems that you are a brand new weaver one minute, nervously buying your first yarn for your first project. Mine was wound off into a cake as I couldn't afford the whole cone. What does the 2 in the 2/8  stand for? why does every type of yarn have its own measuring system?  (cue endless questions here!) ..... then suddenly twenty years (+)  has gone by and you basically have a yarn store in your closet, or bedroom, basement or where ever you have it squirrelled away!

Every yarn purchase was accompanied with a wonderful vision in your mind's eye of how the project would look, or could be. (well, in my case it was!)  It was tucked away and was waiting on the right time, the right weft yarn, the right draft and then forgotten in a bin.  The picture above was taken at our last home where my stash was pretty much out in the open and on display. That's just the tencel and a small portion of the cottons. There are also silks 3 bins, linens: 2 bins and a shelf, bamboo,  and exotic blends.  There's alpaca, and wools as well but not so much, and also some acrylic / cotton blends,  chenilles and.... well you get the idea.

I like to bead some of my hand wovens..... so that started the bead collection.  Now there's a dangerous stash!  They are so pretty, come home fitting discreetly in a purse and fit into a small drawer or case. The cases even stack together for convenience as they magically grow.  You are ever on the search for the right shade of red, or the new Japanese Delica seed beads.

I'm also a spinner so there is a fibre stash but that appears to be under control and I haven't made any purchases for that . Oops, told a lie.... I bought some Gotland fleece last May.  Oh, and a second wheel.....  Let's move on okay?

Then there are the Temptresses of Colour! The women who paint warps in gorgeous vibrant colours, all ready for beaming and you to create a masterpiece.  They call to you, much like chocolate or wine does until you give in.

painted warps from Blazing Shuttles

Since we moved  in late 2016, my stash is neatly tucked away in a walk in closet.  Acquisitions have slowed to a few  several  many additional cones of 10/2 cottons, some silks for commissions but over all there are much more that I can use in my lifetime.  

So I have been culling....

When you are new to weaving, any yarn enhancement opportunities are fabulous and eagerly attended.  Yarn swaps are great for this and from time to time, a weaver sells off their entire stock, or sadly has died and the yarn and equipment being scattered where ever it will go.  I have been culling yarns for the past 4-5 years now and it frees up space in the stash,  provides money and also feels great  to have only  the 'good stuff' you like left.  You have to be clear in your mind that the yarn can move on because replacing it will be expensive. 

Even with culling and reorganizing, the fact remains, eventually you have to start using the 'good stuff' over buying more.  😳  (sorry)

I'm a Ravelry member and belong to some weaving forums that have carved out niches there. One is Warped Weavers  and shortly after the start of the year someone suggested a weaving stash moratorium for 2018.  I read all their comments and it seemed like a good idea and so I have agreed to do my absolute best to use only yarns from my stash for this calendar year. 

There are some 'loose and fast' rules.

• if you have a project in mind and you truly do not have anything suitable, then you can buy.
• if you need a particular colour or are low  on the right one, then you can buy
• if you are running out of weft (or warp) yarn chosen from stash then you can buy
• if you are overwhelmed  and held hostage in a LYS, you can buy your way out! 😇

Okay, so there are no real rules or repercussions if you back slide...... but its simply group support to encourage you to focus on the commitment  and use what you have on hand first.

So, I'm going to give it try and my end of the year review will include a count of what came from the stash and where I fell down and succumbed to some yarn. 

If this sounds like fun, or is timely for you.... come and join the group. We'd love to have your company!

Silk wall at Diane Sanderson's Silk Weaving Studio

Clearing out the Cobwebs

Hey! Yarn alert!    But this is actually leaving and hopefully going to new homes.  Strange concept huh?  There is a  fleece and fibre fair tomorrow and one of the organisers asked me if I had anything I would like to add to their sale table. My contribution went from a few odd and ends to 64 items!  Its a blend of some books, yarns and small pieces of equipment.

I have been in gather mode for years and eventually you begin to realize that you tend to weave with certain types of yarns and some cones just sit and gather dust. You will never use them.

It all started innocently enough.... I'll just look through these here.... oh, look at the dust balls.... next thing you have the vacuum in hand and the entire stash is being dusted, reorganized and the orphans are in a box for the sale...  It took me two days (yes, I do have a lot) but I was rethinking every single ball, cone or skein. Getting familiar with them all again and finding some I thought lost forever!    :)

Some were hard to part with. They came from friends who have passed away. Some were guilty of being synthetic, some are simply too lumpy..... others too fuzzy. There are some I regret sending off  but the inventory sheet is done and they are beyond my reach now.

I found I have more room for new yarns now!  If all this banished yarn sells tomorrow, then I can afford to refill the empty spots, but I will resist the temptation as I have a better goal for the funds.   There is a spinners and weavers retreat being held the end of March in 2012 that I have booked a room and reserved space at the events for both myself and Lynnette.   The last one we attended was back in 2006 and we had a blast!

So with this retreat in mind, I was guilty of reaching for yet more cones and viewing them  more critically and "when in doubt, then toss it out!".  I was motivated!

So it was a hefty load and I noticed that my friend who was taking the boxes was busy checking things out as she's walking them to the back of her car. It was hard to get her attention to say good bye..... yarn does have that effect on us doesn't it?  :)

So my stash is still on the crappy shelves I don't like (to be resolved at some point later) but its better organised, dust free (for now) and set up in categories that makes sense. (well, to me it does!)

Well, it's clear that I have S.A.B.L.E. disease.... you know "Stash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy"
If that's the case, I'm going with a smile!

Next post... pictures from the sale!

A Box of Bling!

We've been working pretty darn steady around the house and yard (okay, mainly my hubby) but I supervise! We decided on Monday to take the afternoon and go to Victoria for some shopping and just take our time and enjoy the day. I had gone through my entire bead stash and I only had one green bead type and that's not enough to make a choice for beading a scarf, and I have two scarves coming up to bead. Desperate situation indeed! Hubby wanted to go to Lee Valley Tools who opened a new store in Victoria and he had a list in hand of things we *need*.

So after a slow leisurely browse, we left Lee Valley with a torch for blasting weeds along the driveway and sidewalks ( nicer than weed sprays), some hand tools for furthering the efforts in the gardens ( post to come on this soon) and something called a hitch for our tractor and the riding lawn mower to be able to tow garden carts and even the larger trailer. ( A really big deal in the man's list of neat tools he *has to have*. I didn't take any pictures there... I simply forgot!

Next two stops were for me! We were heading by this shop on our way to the bead store so naturally I had to stop in. Knotty by Nature is a cute little store and they carry fleece , fibre for spinners, knitting accessories and knitting yarn, spinning wheels, some small looms, and weaving yarns. They carry 8/2, 8/4 cottons, boucle cottons, some linens.... *lots* of really neat stuff!
Here.. have a look!

I sent this one to my daughter, Carrie, via my iphone to 'share' my fun time.... she dyes her own colourways and braids them up just like these below for her Etsy shop.

Around every corner you turned, there were more goodies and such vibrant colours! It's a nice place to have a good browse and look at other brands and what they are doing for colour and different put-up's. Great music playing when I was there as well.

Another corner and here's the weaver's corner, complete with Ott light and sample books. In the second picture you can see the smaller cones in behind the Ott light, these are specialty yarns from Habu. They even had Korean paper yarn for weaving and knitting. Those are the bulky skeins on the right of the table.

I bought two half pound cones of bamboo in off white and a richer cream. I have some silk scarves in mind and these will be the wefts. Helps to stretch the silk and still be a soft yummy scarf! The balance of my small bamboo stash at home are all bright colours and I wanted some neutrals.

I took this picture above and it wasn't until later at home that I realized that I hadn't really checked these particular skeins out... so I obviously will have to go back and remedy that! (maybe that was a good thing?) Great colours!

They had a Saori loom set up and they welcome people to try their hand at it. They have other small looms and rigid heddle loom they rent out as well. It certainly introduces the whole world of weaving and spinning to knitters. They have diverse ways of persuing fibre depending on their interest. A great little shop!

Just a short hop up the road found me at the Johnson Steet Market. It's a neat ring of brick buildings with a courtyard in the middle that is open, bright and cheery... and you walk down a flight to the lower portion, with little shops everywhere. You could spend a whole afternoon drifting from store to store in this one location alone. For the men who might tag along, there is a neat old camera store that handle modern, recent and antique cameras, plus a little Mexican restaurant where they can have a coffee or a bite.

I ignored all these lovely distractions and went straight for my goal! Bead World. Its huge and has beads of all kinds, of all colours, and all accessories you might need. I was there for 'greens' and hit pay dirt! Come have a look and tell me you could take less than an hour in here!

The hanks on the walls behind the ladies are semi precious stones all prestrung on fine cotton. I leave those alone as they are a little rich for my tastes.

I head to the tables with a tray for the neat little funky accent beads and the basic seed beads are in the little containers on the shelves. All sizes... from smooth to irregular cut, metallic, antiqued... and in a rainbow of colours!

This area is where I spent much of my time and it didn't disappoint! After an hour or so, I left with my little bag of goodies and called Hub to see where he found parking. He was just up the road from where he dropped me off and parked outside of *another* bead store "Bead Works". He was visiting the book store next door and had found some golden oldy magazines. Now isn't that convenient? So a quick look around in there and I found some fine Japanese Delica seed beads in a soft twinkly violet that I have been trying to find for ages! They also carry Thread Heaven which I use all the time so its great to know where I can get more when the time comes.

This is part of the lower courtyard at the Johnson Street Market and you can see the bench seating for the music stage. The shops are on both levels and face into the courtyard and some the main street.

Lots of hanging baskets of bright flowers. In fact, Victoria is also know for all the hanging baskets they hang every spring all through the down town area.... over 1600 annually and probably closer to 2000!

Here's the drinking water fountain in the upper levels, with flowers in behind. Then I stepped back to shoot the baskets hanging in behind...

The message board is just outside a kids store for funky toys and gadgets.... and the message is advertising 'bacon' flavoured dental floss! Anything to get them to clean their teeth I guess!

So here's the picture of the loot that followed me home:

These should tide me over nicely doncha think?

We had supper out and a leisurely drive home..... it was a great day!

An Adventure or Two... and Summer Friends

One of my goals 'photographically' speaking was to get a shot of our black squirrels....well, I haven't had much luck but my husband got a great shot of the chubby little guy, plus a Blue Jay as a bonus. There are actually several squirrels here and they chase each other through the trees.
So I returned the favour for hubby by taking his picture with his new acquisition: a Kubota tractor, which we are calling the Kub (sort of obvious but works for us) We won't be house bound this winter like the last! This area normally gets light snowfall that quickly melts but the last two winters have been nasty and the snow just kept on coming. We feel a trend is happening and so preparing! Also it's needed for various jobs around the property and we can add a mower if our other mower fails, needs repairs or dies. Hubby is one happy fella! As a friend said, it pushes all the 'guy buttons' and is just plain fun to use.

As you can imagine, with beautiful weather here, we have been out and about. On the Canada Day holiday period (July 1st), we took a short cut ferry ride from Mill Bay across Saanich Inlet to Brentwood Bay on the Saanich Peninsula. It's supposed to cut an hour off a trip if you were to drive around, but since we sat in the ferry line up 40 mins, we couldn't see the time savings. It was also not cheap, so we reckoned it was cheaper to drive as well. Oh, well... we did it the once! We weren't there for that reason anyhow, we were there for the experience and to see the sights. It had been years since I had seen Sidney and the Saanich area so we were simply exploring. Here we are coming into the ferry slip at Brentwood Bay:

It's a small open air ferry that has been working this route since 1924. (I dare say there has been a few upgrades and new boats along the way.... :)

It was a great day weather wise and we found a neat place for dinner and made our way home. Summer is my husband's busy season at work, so a day trip like this is a great way to have a break together.

Summer also means 'house guest' season too and so for the past week we have had good friends Lynnette and her husband here. The time flew by and we saw the sights from Victoria in the south to Qualicum Beach in the north and over to Cathedral Grove on the west. The weather was cool and wet at times but we didn't let that bother us. (We have been having fabulous weather here with virtually no rain for 6-7 weeks, and I was happy to see some rain.) They are from a very hot region of the Okanagan Valley, so they felt the cold far more than we did unfortunately.

Lynnette and I didn't weave while she was here but we did discuss weaving, weaving and more weaving while she was here. We yapped till the wee hours and spent time in my studio exploring yarns, beads, the colour wheel and my books. I got to see and touch the first echo weave scarf she wove and its a stunning combination of colours. Simply gorgeous! When we were not talking, we were shopping! We visited my LYS, aptly named The Loom (but is primarily a knitting yarn store). There was some stash enhancement of course... I bought these skeins to make black braids with my lucet.

It's called Seduce by Berrocco and is 47% rayon, 25% linen, 17% silk and 11% nylon. I thought it would make some beautiful braids. I also picked up a Spin Off magazine for my daughter in NC and that was it for me. Lynnette made a few purchases and later gifted me with 2 skeins of sugar cane yarn from Chile! What a sweetie...

Size wise it is about the same as Bambu 7 and so I will have to think about something very special for these gems. I guess they have come up with a great way to utilize the fibres left over after the sugar is extracted and is more environmentally sound than burning the waste.

The next day we headed to Victoria and our goal was 'Beadworld' at the Johnson Street Market. Sounds kind of lofty to call yourself bead World huh? Well, the place is huge and the selection is amazing. Both Lynnette and I like to add some special touches to our work and this was the place to find those special somethings! I brought home a selection of deep reds as I will be beaming a red shawl project next for a client and it made sense to find something related to that over indiscriminate buying.... okay, I did some of that but not anything I couldn't envision using !
I'm sorry the reds don't show up as well as I would like. I had lights on and the camera flash but it doesn't do justice to the clear vibrant ruby colours. The top three on the left are some lovely soft terracotta, opalescent, and plum beads. Just too lovely to leave behind and quite inexpensive.

They had a great selection of small metal emblems such as star fish, butterflies, bees, stars, and small Chinese coins, pins (to which you add beads) as closures for shawls or scarves, and bought some cones for sliding over knots on fringes. You don't know until you give it a try!

Then our guests were gone and the house was very quiet...

So now while the washing machine hums along, I'm keeping busy next door in the studio and plan to get some weaving in today. The weather has warmed up again and is hot again so a cool place to weave is fine by me! I'll be concentrating on getting the mats done and so I can load this:

It's 2/8 tencel for a shawl commission for a client. I will be featuring it a bit here as she is following the weaving along as I go. Kind of neat to watch it being made for you!

The red is actually two shades wound together..

We have about a week to get caught up and back to some semblance or normal and then my brother is coming for a few days. Really looking forward to seeing him! That will have made three sets of company in less than 30 days... but that is it until October now. We plan a time away in September (still in the planning phase) but August should see us here.... but it's all subject to change of course!

Hope your summer is going well ....back soon!