To expand on the stash...

 I'm back with more thoughts.

This time brought to you by another craftsnark thread.  I'm not really interested in discussing the subject of the thread, suffice to say there are many red flags that her behavior is over the line for what is reasonable and healthy.  

What I want to talk about is the posts that inevitably show up that are usually some combination of self-flagellation and justification for the posters own stash.  Never mind that nobody else is aware of that individual's stash, the personal conviction of the poster drives them to apologize for their own collection and justify its existence.  

Could we stop doing this?  I think part of that behavior is that if you are going to criticize someone else for their "overconsumption" than you need to prove that you are different.  No one wants to feel like a hypocrite.  The other part is that people sometimes take things way too personally.  Even though the criticism was never directed at them, it hits too close to home now.  In addition, we are talking about a craft that is predominately (although certainly not exclusively!) populated by female identifying people and I can't shake the feeling that some of this justification and apology is just automatic because so many of those people have been conditioned to believe they shouldn't be taking up space.  Add in stereotypes about how much women love shopping, and horrible misogynistic jokes about women "spending all the money" and now we have a lot of people who feel defensive anytime stash is brought up, especially if having a stash is being described as "gross" and "overconsumption" and "irresponsible."  I don't know, maybe these feelings carry over to other gender identities as well, but as a cis female person myself, I know what it can bring up for me.    

So there is all that societal conditioning stuff going on, but the other big thing that is getting under my skin is that there are really legitimate, practical reasons for having stash.  I guess I want to take some time to outline reasons why people have stash and add some of my own thoughts about whether or not some of those reasons are problematic. 

1. Swatching/Sampling/Learning: I think this is fairly self explanatory, but I am sure that many of us have yarns in our stash that we purchased either to learn with or to learn about.  My first skeins didn't have an intended project, I just needed some yarn to learn to knit with, and then learn to change colors, etc.  I have also bought several skeins over the years that were just to try out.  I learned that I'm not crazy about knitting with bamboo (super splitty!) and I love a good wool and silk blend.  Some yarns were getting so much hype I wanted to try them for myself, and sometimes I could also make projects with them, but sometimes they were really just to get a feel for and help me decide if they were something I would seek out more of or if the yarn was just not for me.  I do a lot less of this type of purchasing now because I've got a good handle on what types of fiber and yarns I like to work with and what kind of projects I even like to make, but I wouldn't have got where I am now without that hands-on experience and experimenting.
2. Leftovers: Also pretty self-explanatory, right?  This can vary from a few grams to entire skeins because that sweater pattern called for seven skeins and I only needed about five and half.  Some people are great about using up their scraps and leftovers, but not everyone loves the look of scrappy projects and sometimes you also want to keep some of that leftover for future repairs.
3. A palette of color: you wouldn't tell a painter that they should only have the colors of paint they know they are going to use in a painting and that they better use up every last bit of each color of paint they do have, right?  Well, it can be the same thing for people who knit colorful or colorwork projects, especially Fair Isle style stranded knitting.  
4. Backstock: sometimes you find what you really love making or are just really into something specific at the moment and it just makes sense that you would keep a supply of that yarn.  If you are making dishcloths it doesn't make sense to keep going to the store for a new ball of Sugar 'n Cream every 2 or 3 days, right?  If you always like to have a pair of socks on the needles, it makes sense that you have at least a few skeins of sock yarn waiting in the queue so you can cast a new pair on at 9 p.m. if you want.  Plus not all yarn is available all the times.  If a beloved yarn is being discontinued I would be hard pressed to criticize someone for stocking up on it, provided they weren't hogging it all or buying more than they'd ever reasonably use.  Some yarns you might only be able to get from certain vendors at a fiber festival once a year.  Sometimes yarns are frequently out of stock or shipping is pricey enough that you should probably get enough to last you for awhile when you have the chance.  All this makes good sense.  I think the thing to keep in mind is to not go overboard with it.  Having a supply that will last you several months or even a few years in some situations is fine.  Having enough to last you decades is going overboard and is unnecessary, especially because your tastes will probably evolve over time and you won't always want to be working on the same thing or you might even find yourself bored with the yarn you stashed long before you even get to knitting with it.
5. Enthusiasm: this one piggybacks on the last one and while very understandable can definitely become problematic.  While everything up to this point has a lot practicality driving the purchases, this is where emotion takes the wheel.  Storytime.  Growing up I sometimes visited the yarn aisles at craft store/big box stores that I knew carried yarn.  I used yarn here and there for craft projects and at one point in high school when school was cancelled for 2 weeks straight I tried to learn to crochet although I didn't get any further than learning to chain.  My point is, up until I was 22 years old, the only yarn I knew about was the basic acrylic sold at places like Joann's or Wal-Mart.  It still captured my imagination, I liked all the different colors and some of it felt really soft, but overall they all came in similar put-ups and were pretty predictable.  Then I learned to knit and soon after I realized that the yarn in those stores wasn't wool, it was acrylic, and I found Knit Picks website where they sold actual wool yarn, and then I learned about local yarn stores and found several, and then I realized that there was a fiber festival in my hometown each year with lots of indie dyers and IT WAS ALL AMAZING!!!  I imagine there are many, many knitters out there with a similar story.  Some of those yarn purchases I made at that stage fit into that first category of sampling and swatching and learning. Of course some of that yarn was used and leftovers remained.  I bought a whole box of Knit Picks Palette before I had a good enough grasp on yarn weights to know that the patterns I was knitting at the time called for heavier weight yarn.  I was starting to learn what I liked making and started building up stash for specific projects I intended to make, but there was definitely yarn I purchased without any real plan just because it was pretty.  There was yarn I purchased mainly because it was heavily discounted when an LYS went out of business.  As I alluded to with that sampler box of KP Palette, there was so much I didn't know that I didn't know about yarn.  At the time pretty much all fingering yarn at festivals was labeled "sock yarn" whether or not it contained nylon and whether or not it was multi-ply so I purchased "sock yarn" that turned out to by wildly inappropriate for socks I wanted to last for more than 2 or 3 wears.  It took me some time before I had a good grasp on how much yardage I needed so I enthusiastically purchased not enough yarn on several occasions. Like many people do, I purchased yarn faster than I could knit it and for projects I intended to knit but then never did because after a few projects of those types I had enough of those projects (yes, this is why I still have laceweight yarn for intricate lace shawls I have no intention of knitting.)   Fortunately, this overenthusiastic stage didn't last more than a couple years, but it did really cause my stash to explode.  Part of what cooled me down was that as life circumstances changed my priorities shifted but also there was just a realization at some point that it wasn't sustainable to keep buying so much faster than I knit.  I think that this is also probably a really common pattern for people.  Again, having experienced it myself, I totally get it.  The yarn was so new and exciting!  At the time social media influence wasn't what it is today with Instagram and TikTok and YouTube, but "influencing" was definitely happening through blogs, audio podcasts, and the yarns being used in the patterns published in Interweave and Knitty.com.  So part of me thinks that based on my own experience, this enthusiasm bit is often times just part of the process, especially if you are fortunate enough to have a little bit of disposable income to treat yourself.  As long as it doesn't go on too long or get too out of control I don't think it is necessarily a problem either.  Like so many things in life, someone can tell you something and give you advice, but you really need to learn things the hard way sometimes.  You need to make your own decisions about that you want and what you need and what is practical.  The problem is when people don't get to a point where they stop and evaluate if what they are doing makes sense.  I think we have a problem when people enable the compulsive behavior and ignore real negative effects the behavior may be having.  
6. Gifts: this is much more straight forward again, but sometimes people have stash because they've been given the yarn.  Perhaps the gift fulfilled a specific request, or perhaps someone saw yarn and gave it because "yarn!"  Some people also end up inheriting someone else's yarn stash.  None of this is really a problem unless you are feeling obligated to hold on to something you aren't going to use or don't even like because someone thought you should have it.  Please feel free to donate that yarn elsewhere!  There is no reason to hang on to things that you don't actually want.
7. Sentimentality: this could be related to gifts- perhaps a skein of yarn was a gift from a loved one.  I know I'm not a long in buying yarn as a souvenir.  Sometimes it is leftovers from a special project.   I think this is a Marie Condo situation- does it spark joy?  But also, maybe worth noting that if everything is special, nothing is special, so use some discretion when adding or keeping yarn in your stash for this reason.
8. Time: This is kind of overarching, but the longer you have this hobby the more likely it is that you will have built up a stash because of all the above reasons.  I think it is reasonable that someone who has been actively knitting for decades may have a lot of yarn on hand because of all the above without it necessarily being a symptom of excessive spending and consumerism.  I sometimes wonder if some of the complaints about other people's yarn stashes aren't actually a bit of envy.  If you've been knitting for six months and you see someone have a wall of yarn behind them, maybe you feel like you "should" have that to be a "real" knitter but you also know you couldn't possibly afford that let alone have space for it all and so it all comes out as judgmental complaints and self-righteousness.  There's that saying that "comparison is the thief of joy" and yes, I think this is definitely a place this applies.  Yeah, maybe some people have only knitting as long as you have and they are making excessive purchases, but maybe just as often they've been knitting for years and have simply built up more of a stash overtime because of all the above.  

I hope that if you have ever wondered why people have a stash this has maybe shed some light on how and why knitters in particular tend to build accumulate "a lot" of yarn and also I hope it doesn't seem quite so pathological now, or at least you can see a little better what is normal and maybe what isn't?  And if you are someone who struggles with feelings of guilt over having a stash, I hope this has maybe helped frame it better for you and given you some perspective on your own stash.   Again, I really recommend reading A Stash of One's Own by Clara Parkes because it is worth examining your purchasing and storage and usage habits around yarn and making some conscientious decisions going forward.