I sold 9 skeins of Brown Sheep Worsted. That’s like a WHOLE BOX! I sold 3 skeins of Kid Silk Haze, some Cherry Tree Hill and another premium sock yarn. I also sold Addi Turbos in Sizes 19 and uh 26 or so.

If I could just sell my box of random Lite Lopi, I would feel much better about packing it all up for when/if I have to move. Most of the Lite Lopi is tan, but some of it is purple, red or grey. I bought it for a swaeter and changed my mind and started making little hats from the Lopi book I own. Come to think of it, I probably should sell the book too. A lot of the yarn would be great for mittens!

I’m getting a refurbished 30GB last generation iPod from Apple.com. The grand total – including an extended warantee and MN state tax will be $250.00. So I raised about 1/2 of it, which seems pretty good to me. And of course, I am working now, even if I have been spending my entire income on work clothes.

I’m working at a call center and the dress code is business casual. I need to own more pants and blouses (as opposed to the t-shirt and jeans I normally don.) And I got new shoes. (Wouldn’t you?)

How is your destashing going? I haven’t heard.

How are you all holding up? I haven’t bought yarn in a week or two and I’m feeling the withdrawl already.

A stash magazine is a binder or folder (it could be digital) that contains pictures of the patterns and projects that you have planned, are knitting, or have bought projects for. The best part is that when you are done, you can put it into a completed projects folder!

Materials:

Your patterns, sketches and swatches (or a 4″ sample of your yarn) if there are any.
A pen – but I like sharpies.
Plastic sheet protectors
A Three Ring Binder
Post-its (I’d probably use the lined ones for this)
Tape

Begin by picking out the patterns that belong in the magazine. This may be the hardest part. You have to resist the temptation to add new projects to the mix and draw a line that determines what really belongs to be knit.

Take your patterns to a copy store and make a COLOR copy of the picture of the pattern or pattern that you are planning to knit. (While you’re there you might make a copy to stick in with your yarn, but that’s your business.)

Write on a post-it the name of the pattern, yarn and needle facts for the pattern. The yarn facts should list what you bought for the pattern. Attach a piece of the yarn to the post-it with tape, or if you have a swatch attach that to the picture. If you have a swatch, put the swatch facts onto the post-it!

Attach the post-it to the picture.

Slip the pictures into the sheet protectors and sort by priority. (For me this is the hardest part.)

Stick in your three ring binder. Put in your bathroom. Frog any projects you didn’t include in the binder.

Ideas:

• Shrink the pictures to filofax size and put into your filofax so you’ll see them when you go to remove your credit card from your filofax at the yarn store.
• Make a digital project magazine. Possibly easier if you’ve already photographed half your stash for your blog. Plus you can attach it to your blog. Lots have people have done this.

I admit this is way too organized. Given that flipping through magazine even ones I’ve had for a long time gets me to want to knit new projects, it would seem to make sense that flipping through my stash magazine might want me to knit from my stash more.

Good luck.

I bought sock yarn last night. But I’m going to it away on my birthday coming up mid-month or I’ll give away a different skein. I think that entitles me to a net purchase of 0. Anyway, if you want some numbers for your own blog, I’m working on cranking them out. Check them out on flickr. I’d also love it if anyone wants to upload some of their own. Preferably in yarn!

You could post knitted numbers (a fun thing to do in a swatch to tell what needle size you’ve used), rearrange your roving in creative shapes or use digital yarn.

Digital Yarn Numbers

For this project you need a few photos of skeins of yarn that you like.

1. Open your first photo in a painting program you have. I used MSPaint.

2. Use cut, copy and paste tool to create your background out of different shapes of yarn. Then use the eraser tool or the font tool to create your number! This is actually how I created the Yarn Diet 2007 buttons and the header for this page. I used the reflection tools to make a picture out of the skeins.

3. Upload the picture to your favorite storage site.

4. Here is the code that I put in my wordpress text widget, although you could put it anywhere if you use a different type of blog program.

<p align=”center”>Days Since Last Sock Yarn Purchase
<img src=”http://farm1.static.flickr.com/165/346819707_d4d52d6509.jpg?v=0″ width=”150″>
</p>

If you want double digits without creating a new number, just add another imgsrc line for the second number and set both widths to 75 (i.e. half of the original).

If you upload them to flickr, I recommend tagging them with the tag “yarn numbers.”

Please download the images and upload them to your OWN site if you want to use them. Feel free to change adapt or otherwise mess around with them in a non-commercial manner. (Although, who would want to make money off these! LOL!)

So far, there has been the idea of a weekly confessional in the Greatest Knitter diet and several sock yarn wall art projects.

I’ve also got a jar on display so I can grab stuff from there also. I can see Trekking, Shelridge Farms, Yarntini, Sockotta, Regia, Cherry Tree Hill, Lorna’s Laces and Interlacements.

Supplies: Several skeins of unused yarn, A digital camera (borrow one if you have to), A hammer. For the hanging match the appropriate hanging devices to the surface. You could use any of the following to hang the yarn: mug hooks, nails, suction cups, clothespins. Some places to hang the yarn include: an unused wall, a sheet of metal, a window, a laundry line or a cork bulletin board.

Install hooks into an available wall. Hang skeins and enjoy your new wall art. Loop had done this beautifully and showcased several shades of the yarn in any given display in different weights, yarns and textures. It made the shop look beautiful.

You could also get a piece of glass or metal and place several suction cup hooks on it and do the same. I might do it on a window in my office using suction cups or use a bulletin board for my wall.

Relevant articles:

DIY’s How to Hang Pictures

For those of you who don’t have an available wall, I recommend setting up a clothesline and pinning several skeins to it. Then photograph it! Repeat for the desired number of colorways and turn into a screen saver. Then stash your yarn back in your closet.

Relevant article:

Windows XP: Create a personal screensaver using your photos.

I’d love to see your finished projects. Just post a link in the comments section! If there turns out to be a large number of them, I’ll set up a flickr group.

If you are going to sign up, do so soon.

The first couple of ‘events’ are going involve playing with your stash. I might ask you to inventory it, photograph it or weigh it. I’ll offer some ideas on selling and trading your stash and of course, I’ll be asking you to tell a story about something in your stash. Of course, I’ll be making lists of one skein quick gratification projects and I hope you’ll be sharing back. I also will give you some of my ideas about decorating with your stash! That will be too funny.

I think the more you interact with your stash, the less likely you will be to buy yarn. This is assuming you are already knitting crazed. If you do so and are not yet among the fiber obsessed, interacting with your stash could prove deadly to your wallett.

The rules each have their own page. There will be lots of activities in January to help you stash bust and a few articles about managing and relating to your stuff. Have questions? Send me an email or leave a comment below.