Everyone has a stash of supplies for their favorite hobby. Some are lucky and have just one others (I am so guilty of this) have multiple stashes. Currently I am hiding supplies from Hubby for crochet, knitting, quilting, cross stitch, scrapbooking, card making, art journaling, jewelry making, candle making, and a whole range of baking things. Lucky for me he hoards nothing and I get to use all the room he doesn’t.

But today I want to help new yarn lovers build a responsible stash of yarn so they don’t get stuck with skeins they will never use.

There are a few main points to starting a stash

1. Only by a small quantity of and single kind to try it on a small project. Sure you can buy a pound of yarn for $3 – unfortunately there is a reason for that. It could be bad yarn or the color is discontinued and you will never be able to replace it. After you try a yarn and if you like how it behaves while working with it, how it blocks & washes then go get a truck load. Nothing stinks worse than having a ton of yarn you hate to use.

2.  Try to keep your weights the same in the beginning. This is a good idea because not only do you become comfortable with that weight and the tension to use with it but you only need to buy hooks & needles for that weight. One day you will have dozens of hooks but today doesn’t need to be that day.

3. Use coupons. I know everyone knows how to use a coupon. But did you know you can double them up and save ridiculous amounts of money? For example I bought $120 worth of yarn at Joann Fabrics this week – by shopping when the yarn I needed was on sale and using coupons I paid $37. Seriously use coupons. You can get them on an app on your phone so you don’t have to worry about cutting them out of a newspaper or bringing them with you.

4.  When you are ready to try a different weight stick with a maker you already like. You know how their yarn works and washes so you will have a better understanding of what to expect when trying something new.

5.  Decide on a storage method and stick to it. I use a stack of large plastic totes to sort and stash my yarn. It keeps it clean and safe, but it also limits what I can buy. If I can’t fit it in one of those totes I can’t buy it for my stash.