Thursday, September 27, 2007

Stash Aquisition

During my recent move, I made the mistake of sharing a few revelations with my wonderful husband. Going through the stash in preparation for packing revealed that I have more than I could possibly use in the near future. This is even more true now that I have a toddler again.

Lugging all of the stash around the old apartment while packing, onto the truck, into storage, onto another truck, into the new apartment, and then into its new home in the new apartment... all of this revealed to me that I have much too much. With the prospect of doing this all again when we buy our house next year, I decided to use up as much as I could before that. This shouldn't be too much of a stretch. I have a list a mile long of planned projects. Many of them intended for gifts, so the finished item won't have to be moved again. The biggest challenge is the time factor.

Towards the end of the move, I ran out of space and time and had to throw away some stash. Nothing that can't easily be replaced. Nothing worth crying over. Some batting and pillow forms. A box of miscellaneous craft supplies left over from previous projects and not since used. The revelation here is that a good sale is only a bargain if the acquired stash is put to good use. Otherwise, the costs of stashing it just become too much. Those costs being to some degree the obvious waste of money, but more so the loss of space, my husband's frustration, the lengthening list of projects and ideas that leads to them being set aside and forgotten about.

All of this led to my decision to use up what I have and not buy any more stash... at least until I have finished a few projects and after we buy our house. Telling my husband about this decision was not very smart. It has not even been a month yet and I have already succumbed to the lure of bargain stash.

We were doing some shopping after church last Sunday. I spotted the Michael's sale flyer. They had advertised a clearance sale on yarn, only $1 per skein. You should have seen the look of dismay on my husband's face when I suggested we stop and check it out. He reminded me of all the aforementioned things that I had shared with him. I pointed out that I had just mailed out eight packages of squishies to cq list buddies to share and lessen the stash. Doesn't that count for anything? He suggested I finish a project first like I had planned. I argued that it wouldn't hurt to just pop in and see what they had. It probably wouldn't be anything I wanted anyway. And then I did it. I pouted. It was not my finest moment. I tried to take it back. I told him not to worry about it, I could stop by on my own some other time. It was too late. My husband cannot resist the dreaded pout. I'm not proud, but here is what I found...














I was a little right. Most of what was in the clearance bin was not anything I wanted. It was mostly Lion Brand fun fur, fancy fur and boa, a few skeins of twister and a few skeins of ribbon yarn. What I did find was this Bernat bling bling. It has such a nice texture and sparkle. The pale blues on the right are baby lash yarn. One of the black and white skeins is Moda Dea swirl. It was the only one left. At $1 per skein, I just couldn't pass these up. I am so weak. But not to worry, I have a plan. :)

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