old year, new year

At the end of 2006, the blogosphere saw a frenzy of radical stash diets, which in turn frustrated a number of yarn store owners. I considered what I'd spent in 2006 and concluded that I needed some stash rules. Posts on the topic:

• full disclosure (2006 purchases)
• boundaries and rewards (stashing rules)
• just knit faster (rules revised)
• balancing act (January report)
  
• out of bounds (February report)
  
• tally ho (March report)
• truth or dare (April and May)
• busted (June and July)

I left things hanging in early August, never quite managing to swing an update. At long last, here's what happened with the rest of 2007.

budget, August through December	$
at the end of July	- 222
getting out of bed ($1 per day)	153
packages mailed ($2 per each)	28
papers submitted ($30 per each)	60
finished objects ($1 per 30 g) small circus (600 g) tomten jacket (420 g) Pine Street Inn squares (100 g) Mafghan squares (150 g) noro striped scarf 1 (220 g) noro striped scarf 2 (240 g)	64
total yarn budget	83

And on the outgoing side of the ledger:

purchased, August through December	$
Trekking Pro Natura (A Good Yarn)	18
Megaboots (A Good Yarn)	16
Tapestry (A Good Yarn)	9
Jasper Copper Silk (Patternworks)	9
Rowan Plaid (Woolcott)	89
Jewell (Mind's Eye)	57
Blackberry Ridge Sock (Circles)	52
Shelridge Farms Sock (Circles)	44
Sheep Two (Circles)	110
Cascade 220 (Tangled Web)	54
Ella Rae (A Good Yarn)	7
Cascade 220 (Knitting Room)	80
Lucente (Knitting Room)	4
Glimmer Print (A Good Yarn)	24
Daria Multi (A Good Yarn)	24
Kureyon (A Good Yarn)	102
Kureyon Sock (A Good Yarn)	19
Kureyon Sock (Woolcott sale)	14
Cashmere Silk (Woolcott sale)	48
Baby Alpaca Grande (Woolcott sale)	32
Beatrice (Webs)	47
total spent	859
net result	- 779

How bad is negative $779? From the beginning, I assumed that purchases made with birthday money would not count, which in turn came to about $460. That means that I was over by $319 for the year. The goal was parity, so the project might be construed a failure. On the other hand, I spent $1130 less in 2007 than in 2006, so that's a move in the right direction. Even so, cubic feet of yarn is most certainly up. I need a better plan. Here it is:

End up with 2000 grams less stash by the end of the year.

• All yarn added to stash counts, even gift yarn.
• All yarn removed from stash counts, and charity projects count double.

Certainly I prefer finishing objects to parting with yarn unknit. In order to limit the temptation of simply purging my stash in favor of shiny new things, here's a second rule:

Spend less that $1200 this year on yarn.

Here's the running total for the year:

departed from stash (215 grams)	grams
alpaca vest for PeachPit	- 215
added to stash (150 grams @ $24)	grams
pink satiny sale bin stuff ($5)	50
Kureyon sock yarn ($19)	100
difference	- 65

Now that you mention it ...

Emily, I can do moderation about 80 percent of the time. I need to push it up to at least 95%.

DaviMack, restaurant receipts - now that requires real intestinal fortitude. I think eating out was how I got into significant credit debt in grad school.

Claudia, oh you temptress - offering me a wonderful rationalization. Without realizing it, I've been building a freeform stash for a couple of years. I must have one hundred single skeins, including all sorts of textures and colors.

Dava, well hello there! The crux of the problem is that my stash is getting in my way. If stash is a net positive, then it's all good. And the Kureyon sock yarn? For socks, it seems that the fiber is pretty unevenly spun. I'm crocheting it, which seems to suit the yarn just fine.

Dorothy, I love your encouraging "glass half full" comments. Regarding yarn for finishing projects this year, there are two considerations - grams and dollars. For grams, I can either add them when I get the yarn and subtract when I finish, or do neither. I get to a zero sum either way, Dollars, though, now I'll have to give that some thought.

Heather, you'll notice that it took me until the twenty-first day of the new year to get "sober." I knew what was coming.

Rebecca, I just love that you're out there musing about my loose ends!

Danielle, most days I think of myself as a total scientist, so that fits. Regarding your success last year, "All hail queen of the stash diet!"

Ariel, it's kind of like throwing up - it seems increasingly unappealing and increasingly inevitable, and when it's all over, one does feel a bit better.

I Hate Toast, oh bills! They've always given me great agida. Six years ago, DH got the bug to set up automated bill-paying, and has been dealing with it ever since. I believe that my yarn habit is not a huge financial problem, or I would have heard something about it. More than anything, it's a space problem, which could be solved with another $200,000 or so for real estate. I'd rather just rein in my materialism.

Comments

[Dorothy]

In order to balance the dollar amount of the yarn purchased to finish a project, why not consider giving an equal amount of money to a children's art/music program to foster creativity in others.

[Emily L]

sounds like a good plan to me. moderation is usually key.

[DaviMack]

There's nothing like a thorough analysis to make you realize how much you've been "treating" yourself. This reminds me so much of our analysis of all of our restaurant receipts ... although yours is about 10x better than that was for us!

[Claudia]

Okay - here's the thing. You've just started freeform right? So... in freeform - the more the merrier. Quit this whole diet idea - you need to be EXPANDING your stash for the sake of the freeform!

[Dava]

Since I bought lovely baskets with lids--known commonly as hampers--to contain my stash, I can stay in denial forever by telling myself that the baskets are furniture. And I can throw clothes on top of them.
As a math-phobe, I have no intention of adding up the cost. But as I try to put all the finished objects I've made to list on line, I do feel bad that stash wins over output. But not that bad. How you likin' the Kureyon sock yarn?

[Dorothy]

I was kind of thinking that 2007 was a success for you since you didn't really give up on your goal. If you'd abandoned it completely that would have been a failure.

I think your new goal sounds doable. I would add that yarn purchased in order to finish a project doesn't count as stash so long as you finish the project within the year.

[heather]

very sobering! I downloaded my ravelry stash details yesterday into a spread sheet just to see what the "stash" was worth, very sobering...

[Rebecca H.]

I had actually been wondering about this particular status, what with it being a new year and all. Your new goal sounds ambitious if doable.

[Danielle]

Total scientist post.

I had a wildly successful stash diet in 2007 (bought only sock yarn), but the stash is still larger than I can handle. So, 2008 brings more knitting from the stash. And I must bring my sock yarn stash to less than 10 pairs worth before buying more.

Knit on.

[Ariel]

Brave you, actually adding it all up! I'm more of an "if I don't know how much I spend on yarn, I can't possibly be spending too much" girl. Admittedly, this system has its disadvantages when attempting to figure out where all one's money goes.

[IHateToast]

oh dude. you lost me at the b-word. i don't open bills. if they want my money, they can come and visit. if i don't open it, it's not there. the opposite of field of dreams: envelopes from hell.