Stashin’ at Stitches

Some serious stashin’ has taken place recently – last week was the great enabling event known as  Stitches Midwest.

Actually, I did pretty good. I went in with a list and I pretty much stuck to that list. Granted, the list was a bit unreasonable – yarn for three sweaters as well as some sock yarn – but I stuck to it and I’m pretty proud of that.  I came perilously close to stepping off the edge though – I literally had two – two! – pattern booklets clutched in my hands and was fondling the yarn needed for two more sweaters when I somehow got a grip and took a step back. I wrote down the name of the patterns and have added them to my Ravelry que (which I use as a holding bin for ideas) and walked away. (Well, I still had yarn for three other sweaters – and some sock yarn – but it could have gotten very messy indeed)

Stitches was great – I’d recommend it to any knitter/crocheter/spinner. My friend Chris and I drove to Schaumburg the day before it started, shopped at IKEA and the Container Store, then spent the night at a nearby hotel. We arrived at the opening day of the market fresh and rested right as it opened. It’s a good thing we’d had a good night’s sleep – the market is exhausting! So many people, so many vendors, so many tempting pretties to see! It’s a bit overwhelming. We both had lists and we’d studied the list of vendors before we arrived which helped immensely, but we were pretty beat by mid-afternoon. A lot of work but so much fun!

My treasures included:

-highlighter tape for marking your place in charts (similar to using a post-it note, but longer lasting – those post-it notes always lose their sticky for me after a few line changes)

-some funky buttons (I have no idea what I’ll use them for – not terribly smart shopping but I couldn’t resist)

-mouth-watering gorgeous sock yarns from indie dyer Miss Babs (I even picked up a couple skeins of variegated colors – I usually stick with semi-solids – but they were just too beautiful to pass)

-yarn for sweaters – Blackstone Tweed in “Plum Island” for Noisette, Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool in “red-brown” for Slinky Ribs and Green Mountain Spinnery Mountain Mohair in “Rhubarb” for either Portland or Halcyon.

The goal is to knit with as much of this yarn as possible before next year’s Stitches – and considering how much yarn I already have waiting to be knit, this could be a challenge.

Now, my question for you – when does yarn become “stash yarn” (since it’s so noble and uplifting to knit something “from the stash”!) As soon as you buy it? Once you bring it home and store it in your yarn bins or bags? After you’ve catalogued it in Ravelry (so satisfying and tidy)? Is there a time frame – six months, a year? When does yarn step over that magical line and become stash?

My vote is “as soon as you buy it” but I’m willing to hear other opinons!