Taking Stock of the Stash

Last weekend, in the spirit of getting everything in order to start the New Year off right, the Man and I undertook a major cleaning and reorganizing of our respective offices.

We swept, and Swiftered.

We sorted and storage-ed (new word).

We preserved and we purged.

It was a great success.

But in the midst of the moving and re-organizing, The Man became aware of the full extent of my wool stash.

And in the heat of the moment, made some sort of general proclamation about “no more wool acquisitions”.  (yes, really. I know.)

Now, to a non-spinner, I can see how the bins and bags and all might seem daunting.

But we’re only talking about 25-30 pounds of wool.

I dare say that this stash is fairly petite compared to those of many fellow spinners.

In fact, I figure that, spinning approximately 3 oz per week (which is totally do-able), this stash would only last me 3 years. And that’s down to the last fiber.

And some of it might not even get spun.

Some of it is probably destined to be felted.

Or gifted

Or experimented on.

(isn’t it seeming more reasonable all the time?)

In fact, to demonstrate my intent to efficiently manage the stash, I have sorted, labeled, weighed and documented the characteristics of all wool that is not yet yarn. It’s in an Excel worksheet. (aren’t you impressed?) 🙂

So I know exactly how much of what I’ve got.

And in the interest of keeping things happy and wool-friendly on the homefront, I’ve resolved to not acquire any more fleece until I’ve used up (or otherwise disposed of) a quarter of what I’ve got, weight wise.

So that’s about 7.25 pounds.

The 2010 stash-buster high-fiber diet!