No graphic for this post as of yet, kittens. You’re not missing much.

As you could see in my last monthly wrap-up post, I have not been knitting, spinning, or crafting much since February of this year. This also means I have not been making many–OK, any–craft purchases during that time. An overseas move while your husband is in a school many states away will do that, it turns out. Reading was a much easier past time to indulge in.

So what does this mean for Stashdown 2019?

Q1:
Fiber in-16.0oz
Fiber out- 4.9oz
Ratio out/in- .31
Total fiber stash change: +11.1oz

Yarn in-475yds
Yarn out-4,881yds
Ratio out/in: 10.28
Total yarn stash change: -4,406yds

Q2:
Nothing but 0s all around in all categories. Exciting, right? 

I am not optimistic that there will be any data for Q3, given that September is the only month remaining and I am working on a long term project that will not affect any of my numbers. It will be a thrilling entry to read.

How have you been doing, kitten? Did you make any goals to track your stash? How are you doing so far on that goal?

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?