Stash issues

So this weekend is Stitches East. In all my years in Harrisburg I never made it down to Baltimore for Stitches. But then it moved to Hartford just before I did, so I went to market place last year, and plan to go to marketplace this year.

This brings something to mind. I do believe I've failed miserably on my 2011 plans to control increases to my STASH! In 2011 there were a few large contributors to this - two of them heavily tied to Ravelry.

1. Twisted Limone on etsy. I think I first saw TL looking at a friends activity on Ravelry. Its really pretty ironic because she was talking about how she loves striping sock yarn, and I was a bit appalled. But as I looked, some of these gorgeous striping yarns, like the TL, are VERY different from the self striping yarns I would see early on in my knitting life. And they are BEAUTIFUL! I've gotten several stripes from a few different yarn companies, but the major increase in my stash in the form of self striping yarn has been Twisted Limone.

2. The Completely Pointless and Arbitrary Swap Group on Ravelry. I kind of knew about this group long before I really did...because of seeing various Rav friends magic link pretty yarns in my friend activity feed. But I noticed the pretty magic links were occuring more and more often. Finally that lead me to actually take a look at this group. We had done some swaps in our Harrisburg Sock Knitters group, but what I liked about this group - is you can see something you like and claim it - and then offer up your own swap. You don't have to agree with someone else about a direct trade. You claim something you like, you put up something you like in return. But anyone can claim, and then THEY put something up. There are tons of different threads with different rules. But most of my swapping has been in the Wollmeise/Stripey thread. Now you may ask - if its a swap group why does that increase my stash? Well..because to HAVE good stuff to trade I have made some purchases to get stuff TO trade. So..net increase in my stash.

3. Madelinetosh yarn clubs. Lord I have a lot of madelinetosh in my stash that needs knitting! I first discovered this in the form of tosh sock. I picked up a pretty skein while first exploring the CT yarn shops, and then was gifted a skein by my yarn store owner friend who wanted my opinion as she was thinking of carrying. I fell in love immediately. Then I went with a couple friends to visit Webs and found and fell in love with Madelinetosh Merino Light. I don't know what it is, other than incredible colors and amazing feeling yarn. But I do love madelinetosh. And this has lead to me joining some of their clubs (regular shipments of yarn, yes please!). Really need to attach the few sweaters worth I have......

So....what to do at Stitches this weekend....Webs will have a booth. Claudia Hand Painted will have a booth (how great would Claudias fingering be for hexapuffs?). Lisa Souza will have a booth. And hundreds more. I did pretty good last year. Just two skeins of Bugga, a pair of sock blockers, and a bag of Debbie Bliss Como. But I thinking I was doing a better job of not adding to stash in 2010 than I seem to be doing in 2011. And last year I was alone at stitches..this year I'll be there with friends. Peer pressure....oh dear.