And here it is: the final Stashdown 2018 post! (Click on the image to head over to Flickr and see the larger, easier-to-read version.)

Overall, it was a pretty good year! Now…I do have to be honest up front and say a lot of that reduction came from destashing and giving away yarn or fiber. Had I counted only what I use, I suspect my numbers would have nudged up just a bit. Maybe when I’m in a place to muse about that, I will check and see if that’s how things would have played out. First let’s talk fiber stash. I rejoined the Hello Yarn fiber club at the end of this year (she’s gone to a new system without the wait list, did you know?) so I did end up having a pound of fiber (4 braids) come in towards the end. I spun out almost 9 ounces this year–sad, I know–but I destashed out a bunch during the final week of 2018. I have so much more than I can reasonably get to in the next few years, so I decided it was time to let some of it go on to new homes. I needed to make some space, and this was an easy way to do it. Yarn was a bit more dramatic–isn’t it always?  I am very green in the category. I managed to use and rehome a lot of it… but I also managed to bring in a bunch during ESK’s Black Friday Sale and KnitPick’s BFS  for projects I want to knit in 2019. They added a ton of yardage onto my count, and they’re definitely taking up a bunch of space I would have otherwise cleared. This year I allowed myself to let go of yarn I am not going to use any time soon (possibly ever) and it felt good to gift it to friends who would love it or send it off to charity/thrift shops for someone else to discover. Last year was the first real time I was able to maintain the size of my stash, and this year was the first I made any significant reduction out of it. I am hoping 2019 will be more of the same but without  the need to sell or give so much stash away. (If you’re curious about what’s staying in my stash and what my crafting plans/goals are for 2019, be sure to catch episode 006 of my podcast!)

There really isn’t too much else to say for now; I am going to bask in the glow of accomplishment. How did your stash maintenance efforts go last year, kitten? Do you track your numbers, or are you more laid back and just go with things?