Spinning First

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Whew! Here I am, back in my little home after a quick jaunt to Newton. (That’s pretty much Boston.)  I had a lovely time with the Metro West Knitting Guild there- they’re wonderful hosts and clever knitters, and as much fun as I’d hoped.  I gave a talk Friday night, and there were classes all weekend, and there’s so much I could tell you that I’m just going to hit the high points.  There was a young, competent and charming knitter – Talia, age 6 (with her self designed monster.)

And sheepy cupcakes (and you will note there are some lambs there.)

and everyone’s favourite flock of nuns (I guess technically, they’re just my favourite nuns since you guys don’t know them, but take my word for it, they’re made of awesome)

and to ice the cake, when I asked the Mother Superior what she was knitting?

She said she was "reconstructing a sheep."  I don’t know what she meant when she said that, but I thought it completely wonderful.

I bashed out a pair of socks while I was there – and more about that tomorrow, but right now, I have to make a plan.  I came back with more yarn and more spinning fibre, and while this is seldom a problem, it is today.  See, I have a simple rule about yarn and fibre. If I can afford it, and it fits in my house, then it is not "too much." I’ve got several generous fibre containment zones, and long ago I made the decision that the stash could be big – but it had to fit in that space. The thing has a tendency to creep out of it from time to time, and that’s always the signal that I have to do something.  As soon as I find myself stuffing something that doesn’t fit into another little cubby, or find the stash exploding onto the floor if I look at it funny, it’s time for a reduction campaign. 

Now, I’ve never believed that diets work.  In my case at least, fibre diets almost always end up with rebound wool coming into the stash as I deny myself things…and so the only thing I can do now is launch a campaign to sensibly reduce the stash a little bit, beginning with the spinning fibre, because that’s where the problem is biggest.  I’m thinking I should go on a little bit of a bender in that department, and turn a chunk of it into yarn.

Of course, that creates another problem – because there’s really rather a lot of yarn too… but, one thing at a time, right?  Here’s my commitment. I’m going to spin every day for a week, as much as I can manage, and see if I can clear a little of it out. One week of a concerted effort – spinning more than I knit for just one week, seven days where I put spinning first.

Anybody want to join me?

174 thoughts on “Spinning First”

  2. I’ll join you Stephanie….I still have the batt from the November Knot Hysteria and all the little freebie bits, and fiber that’s been sitting in my apt for far too long!

  3. I will happily join you in your stash reduction efforts. Spin up some sock yarn and send it to me. I’ll send photos of socks later.
    Would that help?
    😉

  4. I really really need to do this……. Great idea. It will be interesting to see how much could be accomplished.

  5. I will join you as well. I just had my small flock shorn last Friday, and I was already overwhelmed before that day. I spindle spin, so a little spinning time everyday would be helpful.

  6. I had already made the decision to focus on my spinning this week, so that works perfectly 🙂 I am doing lace on a supported spindle, and I may finish it this year..

  7. ME! ME! I tried to institute something sensible, like: Wednesdays are for Weaving, Sundays are for Spinning, etc, but….mostly when I have 5 minutes I just want to sit down and knit quietly while staring at my spinning wheel thinking about how much I love spinning. It’s not nearly as effective as, say…actual spinning would be. So. Spinning. Every day. I’m in.

  8. heh – I’m ahead of you there. I have an important alpaca project I’m only about 10% through and about 8 months behind schedule. Glad to have the company!

  9. I’m in (just as soon as I finish my Goddaughter’s cap for her ski trip which starts Friday.)

  10. I have been facing my stash with a heavy heart. I have to move it all (from one room to another) and have been coming to terms with the fact that I have a hoarding problem. I can’t throw away a little ball of leftover. I can’t let go of 4 little beads. I can’t let go. I can’t get rid of needles. I can’t spin, but in the spirit of you working on your pile, I will gain inspiration and courage to keep working on my own.

  12. Sounds like the spinner’s take on:
    “How do you eat an elephant?
    One bite at a time.”
    It should work. It does for other things in life.

  13. I’m in! I just got home to a relatively quiet house & will start toute suite.

  14. You could always spin it and put it away for non-stress Christmas presents to knitting family/friends.

  15. I’m in! I have a project on my wheel right now, so my goal will be to finish it. Plus, I should be getting my new wheel by Saturday (it was supposed to be here yesterday, but the USPS is a cruel monster), and I’m relatively sure that, challenge or no challenge, my family won’t be able to tear me away from it once it arrives.
    (I’m glad you posted today; I was getting worried)

  16. I am so in! I am a really new spinner (one five minute lesson at a fiber festival and a two hour class at another one is the extent of my experience) and I need to practice. Going in with you all gives me the motivation to do so. Thanks Steph!

  17. I’ll join you! I have a week off for spring break next week. I think I can manage to spin every day during that week! 🙂

  20. Stash reduction? I am in! My hubby found one of my many yarn hiding spots yesterday and I need to find a way to reduce. I won’t be purchasing any more yarn until some projects have been completed….like the sweater I started knitting for my self when I was pregnant…..with my 4 year old!

  22. Does this means the yarn closet just explodes next since the matter isn’t destroyed but takes on another form?

  23. I can’t join you, as I still don’t know how to spin. I guess the next seven days will be like a week of Tuesdays at your house (you know, Tuesdays are for spinning). Can we see some pictures of the results? Talia is indeed a clever knitter and designer.

  24. I’m in for fiber stash reduction. Had a snow day off of school today and got a big chunk done. There is a fiber-fest looming in my future, and it is hard to justify more with all the fluff that is creeping put of the drawers and cupboards.

  25. Nearly done with my stash-buster throw. All various cable panels, color changes when yarn balls expire.Sewing up will be a challenge but lots of room in the stash cupboard!

  26. I need to do some serious carding before I can go on a spinning bender, so I’ll go on a carding bender first!

  27. I devoutly hope you’re starting with the Gansey wool. Please remember that I know those nuns, too…not that I would threaten you or anything. Nope. Not me.

  28. My head’s spinning just reading this. If that counts, then yes, I’m in too!

  29. My goal for the past year has been to be able to close the container that I use to fit most (unfortunately not all) of my fiber.
    It was going really well until Distaff Day when I bought some lovely alpaca from a local alpaca ranch.

  30. Does anyone know what order those nuns are from? I’ve never seen veils like that before.

  32. This is a good time for a spinning stash-buster. There is ONLY about 10 weeks until the Maryland Sheep & Wool festival and I need to make room for the new stash. Since Tour de Fleece is months away, this can be the “Iditerod de fleece”!

  34. I’d love to but as my spinning wheel holds a deep fascination for my two year old I shall have to continue to simply gaze longingly at it!

  35. I am soo in!!! Love an excuse to spin! Need to unpack my miniSpinner from this past weekends jaunt to Los Angeles.

  36. I’ve been trying to take spinning lessons local but no bites.
    But if you can spend a week making Doctor Who scarf ( 1 in progress) you can sure spend a week spinning

  38. I am not a spinner, but I will be with you in spirit on a general stashdown effort. More realistically, I should be on a bender to finish wips. Think of all the tools I could recover! Perhaps we should simply proclaim Spring Cleaning for Fibre People Week.

  39. I am so in! I have to get a spinning project done in order to move to the next…as we say here in snow country…dig out and go on!

  40. I don’t spin but I’ll watch along and try to make thoughtful suggestions about what to do with handspun (I suppose “send it to Abigail’s house” is not an option?)
    My knitting goal for this year is to get the stash I own into the beautiful bins/shelving I bought for it last year. I assume this will be a year long project but that’s the plan. I’ve bought a couple skeins here and there to keep the edge off but not the regular BUY ALL THE YARN I have done in the past. (except for the sweater incident recently, we won’t mention the sale at Smiley’s yarns and 2 sweaters worth of yarn).
    Good luck fitting it back in it’s home!

  41. I’m in. Spinning is so relaxing – I seriously need a doctor’s prescription for it. I guess this will have to do. 🙂

  42. Hum, I have been spinning more too, so I am in. (Well except that I am traveling on business next week and will have a hard time spinning then). My plan is to spin more for the next week, but probably not more than I knit! Deal?

  43. I’m in! Currently plying (drop spindle) some dark green merino roving that I am rather bored of .. then it’s on to some very wacky stuff (turquoise and brown and white and pale blue and silvery) that belongs to a friend who wants me to make her a pair of hedgehog mittens (my own invention). One day I will get back to my lovely Louet and practise my currently rather primitive wheel-spinning … perhaps After The PhD (I could put it in my file of things to do then).

  44. As Abigail @ 5:25 PM says, I don’t spin but my goal for 2013 is to finish WIPs and not buy (much) new yarn so I’m in, in spirit. Someone also mentioned the benefit of reclaiming tools that are biding their time in WIPs. (Send it to Barbara’s house instead of Angela’s, please)
    Can’t wait to see what you spin!

  45. Spinning = less fiber, but more yarn. You’re going to actually have to do something with that yarn before you can contain the stash.

  46. Fiber takes up MUCH more space than yarn does…and it doesn’t squish as well.
    I’ll join you in spirit if not literally. I am trying to get my knitting projects back to just a couple of active ones.

  47. How has no one commented on the cupcakes yet? A simply brilliant idea, and one I shall speedily adopt.
    Imagine the possibilities… anyone remember Franklin’s Fassett sheep cartoon? Let’s think coloured marshmallows. And so on. And so forth.
    Have fun spinning– you’ll find me in the kitchen.

  48. I am so in with you! February was a black hole of being sick. Now I am well and rarin’ to go. Bring on the fiber and the wheel. Silk, wild batts, and boucle here I come!

  49. I think I started without you! 😉 I bought some gorgeous solar-dyed superwash merino the other day, which made me feel guilty about not spinning for a while. (In my defense, I have a toddler who is way too interested in my drop spindle, so I’ve only really been spinning while she’s sleeping.) I have literally almost finished a 7 oz. bag of teal Border Leicester; I just have to ply it now.

  50. I’m in as well. I’ve been spinning, just trying to reduce last year’s fiber, so I have an excuse to purchase more in CT in April.

  51. I still want to know how the Mother Superior is going to reconstruct the sheep. Is she planning on resurrecting it for Easter?

  52. I’m in, should spin more too. Will be also knitting, just knitting, the edging to a Chadwick.

  53. I’m sure some of the yarn you spin would find a happy home in the long range planning box.

  55. Count me in too. I just finished my first lace shawl today. My poor hands need a rest from small needles and nupps, and my brain is fried, so I’m eager to spin for a week instead. What a great idea!

  56. I would love some company, so yes, I’m in. I have a one week deadline before I head off to Paris in search of more fibre!

  57. I’m in. I have more stash than fits. Spinning more of it might lead to it’s eventual knitting and therefore space for more fleece and yarn. After all that’s what it’s all about.

  58. I’ll join you too. We can have a precursor or warm up to the tour de fleece. Are we starting today?

  59. Loved your talk in Watertown Friday night, and little Talia was so well-behaved and super-adorable in her beautiful knitted dress! When I first sat down, one row behind her and her mom, I admit I thought “oh no, this girl is going to get ancy, etc” and she was the complete opposite!
    So many amazing knitters there, too, although for some reason I completely missed seeing the nuns. Thanks for the pictures!

  60. I am in, too. Have been slowly spinning some natural dyed fleece so time to finish that now. Want to weave & felt it for a sturdy bag. To add to the spinning pile, decided to use the undyed fleece for warp to save the colors so have to also spin some warp yarns.

  62. We had a wonderful time with you Stephanie! Wonderful and interesting and funny talk and great class on Sat. Come back and we’ll make more cupcakes for you!

  65. Just finished knitting my first spinning yarn into a lace shawl so I am ready for round two! I’m in.

  66. I am all in! My Polonaise is gathering dust and she is in need of oil. I needed a reason to spin and THIS IS IT!!1

  68. I’ve started doing this with my UFOs, and it works! Of course, I’ve only been doing it for a week. Ask me next month if I was successful at sticking with it. 🙂

  70. …BFL combed top at the ready! Dusting off my Kromski polonaise and…trying to decided if I should dye the top. Hmmmm…
    bjr

  71. I was just researching drum carders, and found your “sideways” post. Just wondering – have you and your drum carder become best buds since then?

  72. I’ve been spending the week finishing all my baby, toddler gifts. I only have 2 to go…one I may have to start over as she’s 8 months now…not 3 months! I’m with you in spirit.

  73. I spin every day for at least 10 minutes. I spin on a drop spindle and don’t think I could “just” spin for an entire week but I’m with you in spirit!
    I was intrigued by the description of the virtuous woman in Proverbs 31 to find two references to her spinning. That inspired me to make sure it was a daily activity.

  74. sigh… would that i could.. Spinning is not yet one of my skills or part of my knowledge base.

  76. …decided not to dye the BFL. Just oiled to polonaise and got out the fiber. Drew a glass of homemade beer and..about to begin! YEAAAAAHHHH!! I am spinning again! Thanks Steph!
    Planning to spin 20 0z of combed BFL till this time next week!
    bjr

  77. I’ll be spinning my wheels metaphorically instead of spinning pretty string cuz a body part i didn’t know i had (right lateral meniscus) is being a pain. Instead,i’ll be knitting cozy legwarmers for my bff, just dx with parkinsons disease. (I dunno parkinson, but i wish we could give his lousy disease a nice fight into outer soace!)

  78. I have my first wheel arriving tomorrow, along with some fiber for practicing. I’ll be happy to take any extra fiber you can use up — just bring it with you when you come to the Arkansas retreat in May — though I’m sure by then I’ll have added to my fiber stash, what with DFW Fiber Fest just a few weeks away

  79. I am faced with a similar problem, & the sheep & wool festival is in 2 months. The designated area is overflowing with fiber. Time to knit detracts from time to spin, & time to spin takes away from time to knit. And worst of all, I’m spending too much time trying to organize the already well-organized fiber. I seem to have worked myself into a rather pleasant conundrum.

  80. I don’t spin but I will knit like hell this week lest the universe become imbalance by your reduction in knitting. I am an anti-hoarder so applaud your efforts!

  81. I don’t have a spinning wheel, but I will try to finish a pair of socks this week in solidarity (I am only about halfway through sock one).

  82. I’m in- Just finished the silk top- Now i’m onto the ultrafine merino i handpainted this summer. Ocean colors. Makes me want to go swimming in a tropical lagoon. Its going to be a 2 strand lace-weight-50/50 silk merino Love my Schact. Of course I still have to finish spinning the alpaca/ramboulet for my brothers sweater. OOps

  83. I am right with you! I have 2 alpaca fleeces that really need spinning! I have only been supposed to spin them for 2 years! That would be a huge finished object!

  85. I’m in, I think. I certainly have fiber that needs to be dealt with. Some of it has been on hiatus for a very long time, so long that it has given up whimpering for attention. Besides, the PT has suggested strongly that I not knit (!) until I get the shoulder pain under control (I haven’t picked up needles since mid January!). Wish me luck.

  86. My spring break starts Friday. I’ll join you then. I’m having the same problem – there’s not room for new yarn or fiber!

  87. I’m in for sure. Esp considerinq i’m pickinq up another fleece Friday. I am not sure how that happened….

  88. I don’t spin, but I’m certainly on a ‘no buying more yarn’ diet for a while.
    And interested to learn that the collective noun for nuns is ‘flock’. 🙂

  89. I’d love to, but as I tend to spin laceweight, I wouldn’t make much of a dent lol
    I am on a fibre diet until I’ve cleared some space though – I have to as we downsized from a 5 bedroom house to a 3 just a few months ago and I just don’t have the room!

  90. Of course I had to go look it up. According to several online sources (including the Oxford dictionary, who ought to know), one correctly refers to “a superfluity of nuns”. So now we know.

  91. Perfect timing! I’ve been in a spinning rut for several months and decided I needed a new spindle to get me out of this. The precious object (a midi bosworth) arrived today, so it’ll be a week of spinning…

  92. Love to! Could you start Monday? Or are you starting immediamente? Let us all know.

  93. I have only 2 (okay, 3) problems with that: a 3-yr-old and a 16-mo-old… and a house that is way too small for the wheel to have its own room. 🙂 Someday.

  94. I’ll see Kelly at 4:22’s offer and raiser her: Send enough worsted or bulky weight (preferably machine washable) to me and I’ll send you back a picture of an afghan in 6-9 months.
    And, with spring coming in the not-too-distant future, you might consider donating small amounts of leftover fiber or yarn to the nest-building efforts of the neighborhood songbirds (and squirrels)!

  95. Please please please show us pictures of your stash. I love seeing others treasure.

  96. I have been trying to get my yarn and fiber to fit in a (large) designated space. Every time I think I have it I find another bin somewhere. Maybe this will help!
    I will start tomorrow with the batts my sister made for my birthday.

  97. Sound like a great idea. I’ll join the fun. I’m still settling into a new-to-us house so the fiber has not yet been assigned a permanent location other than upstairs out of reach of the cats. Looking forward to having some calm in the midst of the storm of selling our old house.

  98. I’m glad you enjoyed your visit to our corner of the world. I loved your talk and have been telling anyone who will listen about about what I learned all weekend. I hope the ideas make it into a book one day.
    It was a wonderful surprise to find that the Stephanie we meet on these pages, is if anything, a more restrained version of the funny, charming person you are in person.

  99. Newton, MA??? Oh I so would have been there for the classes and the talk, since I have business in the area, or I could have pretended to have business in the area! I would have, If I’d know you were going to be there. If you have time during your spinning fling this week please post some of the places where you will be in the future so maybe some of us out in no-where vill’s could maybe “rondezvous avec vous”! Please!

  100. I am in!!!! Alpaca first…then the black merino……..where are you sweetpeajenny? I have a second wheel!!!!!

  101. I’m in! Need to finish some Jacob for the Hemlock Ring on the needles. Also just ordered some black welsh mountain top – just love the name. : )- I’ve wanted to try. A week to spend at my wheel sounds perfect. Thanks!

  102. I am working on stash containment as well. I have a new devious plan – make more knitters. Not the have another baby way, but by teaching adults. Soooo – they get a couple balls of yarn from me and some lessons and there’s a bit more room in the apartment for my husband.
    Before I opened the blog this morning I was thinking about spinning. I only have a drop spindle here, but I was planning on taking it on a road trip. Still haven’t decided but I have about 10 hours before I leave so lots of time to make and remake up my mind.

  103. I’m at the bursting mode too because that’s what my hot water heater did and the stuff that was back there isn’t going back in. Thus I suddenly have months’ worth of knitting to do, say, overnightish?
    And then in major cleanup mode I did no knitting for a week and a half–till today, when the needles dominated the day. At last.

  104. I’m not a spinner (have been resisting those fumes, since I REALLY don’t have room for another hobby), but I do tend to buy yarn faster than I knit.
    I find that the best way for me to get stash under control (other than completely avoiding Stitches, which I did not do this year) is to participate in contests that involve knitting a lot of stuff in a relatively short time.
    This year I joined a few Ravelry groups with “contests” (usually only against oneself, but public humiliation is the cost of “failure”) that have stash reducing potential. So far, I am participating in the “Use It Or Lose It” challenge from the Stash and Burn Groupies (13 completed projects from aged stash in 52 weeks), the 2KnitLit Chicks Kardigan challenge (a cardigan from cast on to wearable from Feb 1 to May 1), the SBSMABAL (also Stash and Burn, this is to complete blankets), 12+1 Cowls in 2013 challenge (Cowls), the One Three Challenge 2013 (one project from new yarn/pattern for every three from stash/WIPs, also from 2KnitLit Chicks), and Sock Madness 7. I actually have a dozen finished projects so far this year, so it has helped a bit with the clutter.
    I also have done a KAL with TSCArtyarns (have a finished scarf to show for it), but that is the only thing I’ve done with 2013 purchases so far this year.
    You might want to consider joining a knitting challenge group (or two or three or …) to start getting rid of all of the new yarn you are producing.

  106. That makes me think: Nonstop spinning for a week! Awesome! But I probably won’t be able to walk because too much spinning makes my knees hurt. Make sure you are as kind to your body as you are to your fiber!

  107. I think I will join you in this. I used to spin so much more than I do now. My wheels are neglected. Time to get back in that groove. I used to spin several lbs of fiber into worsted weight yarn a week. Wonder if I can do that again?

  108. I don’t spin (and am determined NOT to go there–I’ve enough trouble already) but came up with a double-duty stash buster for this year at least. I’m gonna put yarn I’m no longer absolutely in love with into zip-lock bags of approximately $20 values, then bring eight to ten along each time one of my knit circle ladies has a birthday in 2013. They get to choose their own gift (only ONE!), but I don’t have to shop and my stash is thinned by sharing and enjoyed by women I enjoy.

  109. Oh Good Lord! As if I need any further inducement to spend my time spinning! Yes, yes; of course I’m in!

  111. I was thinking today that I was much relieved that we made it through the whole weekend without USING GLITTER. The consequences of which could have been dire. Thanks again for coming east. I had a blast and learned so much.

  112. You can’t make a goal NOT to do something, I’ve recently learned from my therapist (she also touts knitting for anxiety reduction, smart lady). You’re very inspirational, Harlot, taking action and finding positive solutions!
    And, well – having a stash that bulges voluptuously from its confines, begging you to take it and have your way with it? Quite nice. Quite nice indeed.

  113. ‘Wish I knew how to spin. Feeling left out of the party. Taking solace in Merino. :-[

  114. Well, I just started spinning a month before and managed to finish my first scein of handspun merino yesterday (I’m using a drop spindle). Spinnng for one week would’t buy me much space,I guess, eh? But I’m in!

  115. I JUST told a friend yesterday that I need to designate one day a week for spinning as it always gets put on the “back burner”. So, I’ll join you, too! 🙂

  116. I so wish I could join you! However, prior commitments (my sister’s wedding, kind of big) keep me busy this week. I’ll look forward to oogling your handspun that will come from this though! 😀

  117. Yes. I may have to dye some shetland on the weekend, just so I have some green to spin next weekend. Then there’s the gottland, and targhee, suffolk, CVM…
    and the bfl to ply. Spinning for seven days straight sounds like a good idea.

  118. I would so join you, but at 8 months pregnant, with SPD, the spinning wheel has just been packed away for a while. I will think of you while I knit baby blankets with similar intensity though, while sitting through Firefly/Doctor Who/Big Bang Theory marathons!

  119. I’d join you, but I’ve managed to avoid any spinning temptation. I have a very small house, with an embarrassing amount of stash that literally takes up one room already.
    ….and I can’t handle another obsession…….

  121. In. (have to fight free of this Boston — we have GOT to time things better –writing conference first, but in.

  122. I’m in. My poor wheel has been really neglected lately and my spinning stash is getting a little scary, but in a good way. Time to see if I can wrangle control of the stash beast before in consumes my house!

  125. I most definitely want to join you. Friday I am headed to the Fiber Retreat in Jefferson City MO and I can’t wait.

  126. I think today you should do a blog that mentions Stompin Tom! I was floored by the amount of people who don’t know who he was!

  127. I love your attitude about stash, pretty much matches mine! It means I am particularly adept at Making Things Fit so it doesn’t look like too much, though 🙂

  128. Doesn’t reducing your fibre stash automatically make room for more in your yarn stash? Just saying…

  130. I can’t join you, in fact, I just blew my yarn diet. I’m visiting San Francisco for work and I trekked to a wonderful yarn store “Artfibers” near Union Square. A nicer shop I don’t think exists. So I bought some… I don’t know how I’m going to fit it in my suitcase, but I’ll worry about that this weekend. yarn squishes pretty well… Happy spinning! and I’m getting back on my diet when I get home!

  131. We put our house on the market the first of the year and de-cluttering was a must. I found that those suitcases with oops I bought too much on my trip expansion zippers are great. Fill to about 75% to 100% too high for the normal size. Close with expansion zipper open. Sit on it and close the expansion zipper. Stash hidden – well some of it. 😉

  133. I really enjoyed your talk last Friday night. To me, the most memorable part of your talk was that I should keep knitting feverishly in order to delay the onset of Alzheimer’s! Thank you Stephanie for giving me a valid excuse to keep knitting (not that I really needed one)! I also enjoyed your stories about places to which you are not allowed to return…still wondering about Pittsburgh…

  134. I’ve sort of, kind of been doing this. However, I think I need to at least try spin more than a couple of times a month as not much progress has been made.

  135. I’m with you! I have three 1/2 fleeces that need carding and spinning, a half pound of babydoll southdown locks to comb and spin, and lots of beautiful dyed and undyed roving. My problem is that I have LOTS of storage space so it takes a while for me to realize that there is a quantity problem. Let the spinning begin!

  136. I haven’t been able to knit for the past, um, month and a half or so because I seem to have developed some very mild carpal tunnel syndrome in my right wrist.
    Strangely, this has zero effect on the use of a drop spindle. Which in turn has a pretty big effect on the size of my fiber stash…and on my credit card.
    So I’ll be happy to join in! since I’ve been spinning (and sewing) like a loon since I haven’t been able to knit. Once I’m patched up I’m going to have a whole slew of new yarn to play with…

  137. I’m still getting the hang of spinning, so sitting down and spinning at my borrowed wheel at least a little bit each day for a week would probably be very good for me. I’m with you.

  139. Count me in! I have the same stash problem – can’t open a closet door in my house without a fleece or bump of fiber trying to make a run for it. =)

  140. Rebound wool. . . I know the problem so well. I won’t join you in spinning off excess fiber – because I don’t spin and am spared that stash problem, at least – but I started a self-imposed sock club as soon as I read about yours. And thank you: that idea really works! I’ve been able to reduce the total of my sock yarn stash while still allowing myself the occasional buy when I see something really special.

  141. PLEASE PLEASE try to find out what the Mother Superior’s knitting becomes – what yarn – it looked like pure unspun fleece – my fingers itched to touch it!!!

  142. Well, given that I’ve recently purchased a pound and a half of rambouillet/alpaca blend, and it doesn’t fit into any of my fiber containers, and it’s sitting on top of my loom staring at me, I may have to join you.

  143. Well your timing is perfect! That is actually a big project I’m about to embark on. I have enough yarn for a small yarn store and I’m frustrated that I can’t find what I want and need and that I have even forgotten what I have so that I double-buy!
    Plus, as I was looking at my stash, it is time to admit that I have just “outgrown” or evolved as a knitter and I wouldn’t knit with (or buy) what I knit with and bought in the past. My skill level is different, my preferences have changed, etc.
    The clearing shall be epic.

  144. I’m so in! I just got a huge box of roving and i’m running out of space to live in. It’s time for drastic measures!

  145. I’d love to join you since the last time I paid any attention to my spinning wheel was a panicked checking of it after the cat dumped a DVD boxset onto the flyer. But there’s that sweater that dd needs for Easter. And I still have my mum’s Christmas socks on the needles, a pair of socks that my sis very snarkily commented would not even be ready by mum’s bday which is a few days after Easter, and boy does that woman have long feet. So spinning down my stash or not letting my sis be right, oh yeah, I know where my priorities need to lie.

  146. I’d love to join you but I don’t know if I’m disciplined enough to reduce the stash yet. I’m like you and I have the room and the money and Spring is about to spring (my stash is a bit wintery at the moment). Happy spinning!

  147. OKAY! I have the late winters blahs and need to make yarn out of some alpaca and dog hair. This is just the thing to get my over the hump, so to speak. The plain old mitered squares will wait until I run out of steam or finish the yarn, whichever comes first.

  148. Oh boy, that is such a good idea to spin for a week! It’s on my to-do list as soon as I get back from vacation. Not yet, though, because air travel means knitting something with tiny yarn and many stitches so it is compact and won’t run out.

  149. I’m in! I tried to post something charming on my blog, but I’m fighting with photos! And now I’m just cranky. >:-(
    I’ll try again later, but there has been and WILL BE SPINNING!!

  150. Emily @ 8:43 p.m. on 3/6/13: I’m a little suspicious of the Oxford Dictionary’s term for multiple nuns. Historically, the English had a problem with Roman Catholics (though apparently these nuns are Greek Orthodox), so for a long time, for them any number of nuns was superfluous! (Even though they have Anglican nuns, I think.) Maybe we should check the dictionary of a traditionally Roman Catholic nation to be sure there isn’t another term . . . or does the term reflect the attitude of some priests about nuns in their parish? Hmmm – must think about this.

  151. My favorite! Short-term, high energy goals. My spinning wheels have been dreadfully neglected lately, so a mini spinathon is just what I need!

  152. Ah, dreaming of stash storage. Personally, I covet a couple of four-drawer (two deep drawers on each side) chests my father and stepmom have. They were what greeting card racks sat on when my dad had greeting cards in his pharmacy, and when he got rid of the cards, he refinished the chests, and currently my folks are using them for sweater storage. I plan to snatch them and subdivide each drawer to hold yard (kind of like the way yarn stores do it, only horizontal)when my folks downsize or pass on. When I look at my stash I cannot help but momentarily consider speeding up the process, but then I remind myself they don’t let you stash yarn in prison.

  153. don’t spin, but I’m in for stash reduction…except that I’m visiting a yarn shop this Saturday with $45 in coupons. Is that bad?

  154. Let’s make it happen! I’ve been spinning a lot lately, it’s very easy to start and stop when the baby is waking in 30-45 minute intervals because of her stuffy nose and upset stomach. Last night I plied a full bobbin between bouts of comforting and breastfeeding.

  155. Last summer obtained sheep. Still have 2 hoggett fleeces and haven’t TOUCHED them! (Hangs head in shame.) Think I’d better join you.

  156. I can join you, too. Of course, I have a baby bootie to knit…um…but what I really want to know is if you’ll be at Stitches Midwest??? Because I’m going to be there, and if you are too, I definitely want to meet you, so that you can show me how you knit–I’m interested in increasing my speed, and have been a thrower most of my life, recently converted to a continental knitter…but I digress. You were close one day, and I couldn’t meet you that day, because I wasn’t in town. See how that just goes?

  157. I’ll be spinning every day for the next week or 10 days. I’m spinning a couple of skeins of sock yarn for the Iknitarod, which started last Saturday.

  159. I have multiple stashes, the result of broad needlework interests. I did the diet thing a few years ago with counted cross stitch UFO’s. It didn’t clean everything up, but made it a lot more managable. I’m considering bailing out on unfinished sweaters and turning them into pillows. . .as soon as I can find directions I understand.
    Thanks for the encouragement.

  160. I’m not a spinner but I will do some much needed organizing in my yarn room for the next seven days instead.

  161. I need a spinning challenge as much as I need a diet challenge! A spinning challenge is more fun! Count me in!

  162. LOL! I just declared March a “spinning month” because I just got finished buying 12 oz. of fiber when I was absolutely not buying any more fiber. But it was from my friend’s inaugural group of dyed fibers for sale, so I had to support her, right? LOL. Anyway, I suppose it’s in the air…
    I figured that if I spend a whole month just spinning in all of the time I’m usually knitting, then I’ll have a bunch of glorious yarn already ready for me to start the most amazing round of Christmas knitting ever, right? That way I can save money on buying yarn for Christmas. Anyway, it all seems rather obvious when I think of it. Spinning makes yarn. Who freaking knew?!

  164. I don’t yet know how to spin (although I’ve seen a handspinning tool that looks like a clapper that I fancy trying out someday – anybody out there familiar with it who can offer me tips or feedback?)…might try weaving first, if new talents are going to be formed. However, I will join you in the spirit of reduction and knit like mad for a week using stash! (Okay so more than a week of mad-knitting is required for any measurable stash reduction…but like you said, I can afford it and it fits into my home….)

  165. P.S. The clapper thing: it’s like a drop spindle, but you don’t drop it. It makes a clicking or clapping sound as it’s being manipulated. I’m thinking I’m too short for a regular drop spindle (wouldn’t be able to roll it down my leg successfully). I also like the Ghandi style table top spinners, but it is expensive and looks too tricky.

  166. I should do this. Ok, I will do this. But I am going to add a step that will postpone the start a bit because what I really need to do is wax my wheel. I keep putting off and I feel like I shouldn’t spin until I wax the wheel so there is no spinning happening at all. A huge snow storm is going to trap us inside this weekend so it will be the perfect time to wax the wheel. Then I will spin more than I knit next week (starting on Monday). Good plan! Thanks for the prodding.

  167. If I had a spinning wheel, and knew how to spin, I would join you. But I will simply stick to my socks and see about finishing them by the end of my march break (two weeks).

  169. A lot of us are on the same track. I just announced to Lisa K & the rest of the Tuesday studio day that I am committed to spinning all of my fiber in the next 2 years before I get more. Of course they said that was like dieting and then binging after you finish your diet. I am also planning on weaving some blankets partly cuz they will use up yarn and for some gifts.

  171. Hi there,
    What order do these nuns belong to?
    Angi Simon – Monroe, Washington – USA

  173. Woah, the six year old knitting a monster too? 2 coolest things ever! She is so cute!

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