Stash equilibrium- myth or reality?

This last week, I finished my Hedera socks, AND a ribbon shell. Granted, these are both fairly small projects, but I’ve finished them! This doesn’t even include the spinning. And has there been SPINNING!

(Pictures coming soon. The shell looks miserable on Mademoiselle, and I have a fierce new hairdo. I need to wrangle a hapless victim to take pictures of me in the garments!)

The other exciting thing is that the Social Pressure Experiment is really starting to take hold, as far as developing better stash habits is concerned.

Example:

Yesterday, I went on CrazyMonkey’s etsy shop to find a link to the roving that I’ve bought and spun up. I saw FIVE things I wanted. So, I sent the links to Tika, who agreed that it was all fabulous.

I walked into my newly-organized office, and decided to spin the Hotel California in my stash. There’s nothing like floor-to-ceiling stash to snap my curly self right back to reality.

I like my stash. It has gotten me through every financial “low” (supporting a grad student, mortgage on the first house, two mortgages while we sold the townhouse while we were living in the New House), and has been happily replenished through the “highs” (bonuses, raises, gift money).

It’s 99% awesome stuff, and the remaining 1% is the day-glo acrylic that I bought to make kids’ stuff out of. There is enough variety to keep me inspired and knitting for a long time. That’s a good thing.

There is a lot of it. I think my question is: how much is “Stash Equilibrium”- meaning, at what point is it not too big or too small? When is it “juuuuuust right”?

Having a stash requires planning. In Silicon Valley, one never knows when companies will downsize, or shut down. There’s nothing like being [temporarily] unemployed with the wrong stash. It’s a travesty.

It’s also a huge loss to have all this gorgeous yarn sitting unused in your house. I have THREE SWEATERS worth of casbah, waiting. That’s criminal! There needs to be a system. Not necessarily a FIFO system, but maybe a formula as to fiber content and ranking and whatnot. [System pending.]

So, for now, I’m working through my stash, and finishing up all of those skeletons I’ve got hiding in my UFO storage units. There’s nothing like the promise of wine to inspire me to turn yarn into wearable garments.