Hiding in Plain Sight

All my handspun skeinlettes,
with my spindles stored in between.I've been enjoying a new podcast lately -- Stash and Burn -- which my friend LoriZ recommended in one of her great Sunday surf posts.* I've made my way through all of their episodes in the last week, so I hope Nicole and Jenny will keep podcasting regularly so that I can get my fix.

One of the many interesting topics covered in the podcast is how to acclimate your spouse, significant other, flavor of the month, etc. to the vast amounts of yarn that will invade their lives as long as they remain with you. (I suppose a corollary of that is how to keep them around despite these vast amounts of yarn.) One of my favorite suggestions was to hide everything in plain sight, in order to de-sensitize your significant other to yarn by exposure. This is one I have lived by for quite a while. A few years ago, when my stash reached rather unruly proportions with the advent of internet yarn sales, I purchased a Magiker cabinet from Ikea to store all my yarn in. It's been a great solution. The yarn is protected from dust by the cabinet, but with the glass doors I can see much of what I have. My particular unit is half the size of the one in the link - it is tall, thin and deep, so it scoots easily into every living space we have had and yet accommodates a lot of yarn.

My fabric stash,
housed in the closet.Unfortunately, not all of my yarn fits in the Magiker unit, so occasionally, after such major events as that damn Black Sheep Knittery 50% off sale that would not end, I have to do some re-shuffling and organization. My personal stash goals, such that I have any, include eventually having only as much stash as will fit in that cabinet. It's a pretty big space, so that's not exactly an overly ambitious goal - or at least it shouldn't be!

Anyhoo, this week I am completely going through the girls' room (our extra bedroom, so named because it is predominantly used by me, my crafts, and all my girlfriends who craft). My clothes closet is in there, and I have gone through that completely, and am now in the midst of going through the yarn, fiber, fabric, buttons, beads, and ribbon. Oh yeah, and books. Lots of books.

Ribbon and ball bands,
which I'm saving for a special project.I'm photographing my entire stash so that I have a visual catalog (to accompany the all-important excel spreadsheet), but I am also finding better and more visible storage for my "little stashes" - the fiber, fabric, buttons and ribbons. These categories of stash are much smaller than the yarn stash, but they haven't been nearly as ingeniously stored in the past. I think it's important to be able to see what I have so that I can use it. For example, I don't have a lot of ribbon, but I do have several pretty, quality yards. These have come in handy as ties for knitwear on several occasions. I used grossgrain ribbon for the straps on Asana, the same ribbon, years later, worked for Thelma's straps, and then most recently, the After Dark Nightie got ties made of a lovely fine velvet ribbon. Having these items on hand in plain sight makes it that much more likely that I will turn to them when I need a little closure. Ouch. That was such a bad pun I'm guessing some may even have missed it.

Just something to think about. How do you store your stash?

Kitty collection,
napping in plain sight.*As an aside, I love reading "link" posts and I have three friends who do these rather well: Andrea, the grand mistress of links, LoriZ, and MJ. Definitely check them out. You can find some really great resources. For myself, the link posts haven't happened (not sure why), but I do keep a running tab of links I like on my BIG LIST, which you can find below the names of my closest pals in the sidebar under "links". If you haven't already, you may want to check it out. There are some great links - especially in the techniques and resources section.