Fiber Stash

Today is the first day of May, and I am pleased to announce that I have worked through my fiber stash,

Well, sort of.  I'll explain, but first I am going to give some background.

One of the things that held me back from learning to spin for awhile was that the thought of having another stash (in addition to yarn) made me feel sort of queasy.  My yarn stash already took up enough space, had cost enough money, represented enough of a to-do list that I really didn't want more of that, especially with something that was going to take up even more space, and when finished, added more to the yarn stash.

I guess I kind of got over that?

My stash began to grow not as dyed braids and fun batts, but as fleece.  Sometimes a whole fleece, more often a few pounds or less of a particular breed I was looking for.  I did get a little carried away in pursuit of trying different breeds, but I was trying to completed my SE2SE passport, and many of those wools are rare enough to find for sale that it was vital to purchase them when I could find them.  Plus, buying raw fleece is sort of seasonal anyway, different farms tend to sell earlier or later, but with the exception of longwools, shearing is only once a year.

Then I joined a program where I needed fiber on hand as class materials.  I had plenty of wool, but unfortunately it wasn't what I needed for many of the assignments.  I needed commercially prepared top.  I needed braids that had been dyed so that I could manipulate color.  I needed batts and exotic fibers.  

So then my stash grew more as I tried to make sure that I had a good variety on hand.

Then I joined a year-long breed study and every month I was getting another 150 g of wool top.

And that is about the point that it became overwhelming to me.  At that point the guest bedroom was overflowing.  Although I had washed all the raw wool and I had everything stored in plastic, I was extremely worried about moths getting to my yarn and fiber stashes, as well as my all the garments and accessories I had made that were stored or used throughout the house.  I couldn't keep anything neat and tidy.

At the point I took the plunge and made the decision to get rid of the guest bedroom furniture and finally fulfill my dream of having my own craft room/office/studio space.  See, once I had a defined space I could actually see how much room I had for stash.  That gave me solid parameters to work in.  As I decided how to store things, I also decided what I wanted to keep and what I didn't want to waste precious space on.  

I decided to get rid of some of the wool I had bought (as well as some things I had been given - like the alpaca I had begun to suspect was harboring some unwelcome insects.)  I felt a little guilty- after all, I had spent some (not a lot though) of money on this fiber.  The money I spent went directly to the shepherds though, and they benefitted from it whether or not I ultimately decided to use their animal's wool or not.  It was also this realization for me that life is too short to spend hours (days? weeks? months?) working with something I wasn't enjoying because it was so filthy or so short that I couldn't properly remove vm from it.  Also, combing longwool is something that I just can't do, it is too hard on my wrists.  I have to respect my own physical limitations, and I'm not really the sort of person that finds pain enjoyable.

After setting up a new space and purging some of the stuff that I really didn't ever want to work with, everything felt lighter.  I was able fit my stash into two large plastic bins.  I was still receiving my breed study fiber every month, I bought more mill ends so I could do more blending, I bought another fleece, I bought some more dyed braids- but it was ok.  I was much more clear on what I wanted to come into my stash, and I was spinning a lot of what was coming in.

Then last year I decided to spin for Tour de Fleece (through the Facebook group that is non-competitive).  I spun SO much.  I started really working though the fiber stash.  I spun breed school fibers I had fallen behind on, I spun all the little batts and rolags I had blending just for fun, I spun some of the dyed braids I had been dying (haha) to get to.  It just created so much momentum for me with my spinning.

Then I got my second wheel and I could have even more spinning going on at once.

My knitting has taken a bit of a hit, and the yarn stash has grown considerably as I transform the wool from fiber to yarn, but it has felt so freeing to make space in those bins.  A couple months ago I was able to consolidate it down to just one bin.  

Yesterday I finished my last breed school fiber.  I don't have any more fiber braids left.  That is what I mean when I say I've finally spun through my stash.  I don't actually mean I don't have any fiber left.  Here is what I still have:

• Mill ends: I have probably 2-3 lbs 
• Add-ins: Firestar, sari silk, bamboo, etc.  Basically non-wool fibers for blending.  I have small amounts of these things (a few ounces at most, 10 grams or less of many of the things)
• Sanjo Silk exotics box: this has some angora and then silk in a couple forms and silk blends (camel, wool) in it, there are small amounts of these things, they are in sample sizes
• The Corriedale wool  (in the form of clean fleece, combed nests, and card-able combing waste)
• My Gulf Coast Native fleece.  This is all clean, I have some locks popped and ready for carding and some rolags.

So the mill end and add-ins and that exotics box are all part of the same category for me: play.  They are experimentation and ingredients for experimentations and they are there own sort of stash, but not really part of ready-to-spin stash.  As long as it fits in the bin, I want to have a stash of this sort of thing.  I guess I think of it more as a "blending" stash than a "spinning" stash.  I don't know if that makes sense to anyone else, but it does to me.  In short, it doesn't feel like a "to-do" where I need to use anything up, it is just potential, or a consumable tool.

What is left is clean fleece that I am processing and spinning.  If I wasn't doing anything with it at the moment it would be stash, but it is stuff I am really actively working on and  I expect to use it up within a few months.  Basically once it is in the active category, it really isn't stash anymore, it is a project.  

So where do I go from here?  Will I let myself have a fiber stash again?

Yes.

But...

First, I can't exceed the top storage bin.  The bottom storage bin is all that blending stuff, but the top bin is the "ready to spin" bin and everything has to fit in there without being too squished or compacted.

Second, it makes sense that I buy fiber when I have a chance.  Either because I've attended a show, or fleece was available, or I took advantage of a sale.  I don't want fiber to stay there for long though.  Ideally, anything I get I would spin up within a few months.  I have found that especially with dyed fiber, long term storage isn't great.  It becomes compacted really easily and then to use it I have to blend it in some way to open it up again and that just changes everything.   I don't want to do that.

Basically, short term fiber stash storage is ok, but I don't want anything excessive.  Plus, buying fiber IS fun.  It is exciting to come across beautiful fiber.  I want to be able to follow my heart's desire with my spinning and if I see something I love go ahead and get it and be able to play with it immediately.  That is what it was like for me before I had a stash and it was great.  I want that again, and I've been working towards that, and I'm really happy to feel like I am finally there.