When I first started weaving, I'd find a project I liked in Handwoven, order yarn and weave it.
Deborahbee recently asked how I ended up with the yarn in my stash. I have a stash now, so I can do more experimental work without knowing what exact yarn I need or how things will turn out.
My main sources have been:
Your local weaving or knitting groups might have something similar. (When I say local, I drive an hour or an hour and a half to the weaving guild meetings I attend. )Big yarn stores with discount prices
That's the warehouse at WEBS. For some reason, I have trouble finding WEBS bargains online, but in person I can always find bargains!Yarn shopping when I travel
Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins in Boulder, CO
Other craftspeople who have yarn they don't want for whatever reason
The chenille weft for this beach scarf came with the loom that a friend purchased used. When I said the yarn was perfect for my mother-in-law, the yarn immediately came home with me.
Sometimes at holidays I get the gift of yarn.
I have friends who've found yarn at thrift shops, yard sales, or on Ebay.
How do you build your stash??
18 comments:
I went to that shop in Boulder last October. That Webs warehouse store looks fun! My stash comes from yarns I buy for a project and then change my mind. And, sock yarn stash...I tend to buy pretty sock yarns for socks yet to be made. I've been thinking about weaving with some of them. I've been on a mission to de-stash and it's been going pretty well. Except for yesteray's purchase of all that lavender yarn. What can I say? Pretty yarns are hard to resist! :-)
I can still recall my first yarn purchase at 'Homespun Haven'..a yarn store in a private home 15 years ago. I took my 2-3 cakes home and quickly wove them up and was back for more. Then I started buying the entire cone over a measured amount... and frequenting sale tables, and then estate sales as we lost some friends along the way. Joint orders with friends...spontaneous purchases when away, planned projects that are now forgotten... and now I have a SABLE condition!
Stash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy. :)
I try to buy local, then regional, then provincial and then national. So I seem to order from Brassards, Yarn Plus and Treenway Silks.
Oh, heck...I seem to be able to sniff out a yarn store no matter where we go! I'm actually trying hard not to buy anymore but concentrate on getting new or out of print books to add to my library.
Susan
All of the above!!!! I tell you - it's hard to resist buying yarn...
hallo..da möchte ich auch einkaufen..
i would like to have such store!!
gruß wiebke
LOL, I buy from all your sources except ebay. I just don't enjoy it at all anymore.
Great street pictures BTW! It's good to start catching up and thank you again for a wonderful day at the museum.
I am jealous of all the stash people have. There must be a name for that.
I have only been able to get mill ends at WEBS and some at a store about 2 hours away. My guild only has a sale once a year, no yarn table at monthly meetings.
Still have a baby stash but it is growing to a toddler now......love the yarns you use!
My stash?
I spin. Fleeces land on my doorstep all the time. My handspun stash is huge and I like using it for weaving.
I've woven for quite a while now, and always buy more than I need for a project, or I just buy yarns I like without a project in mind, because I happen to be where the vendors are. Now I keep trying to look another way when there's a yarn shop in sight. Not quite succesful, I'm afraid.
I haven't finished the stash my mother left me when she died. She was also a weaver.
But well - when I see that Webs warehouse... when will the next plane leave?
When I bought my big loom, it came with a lot of stash. So that was the start. I add to it whenever I have a chance to go to the Dutch Weaving days, or I order online when I need a particular yarn. Or I buy from the tutor who has a yarn store.
Texere in Bradford is a dangerous place to go to as you always leave with more than you intended. This can be a problem if you have to take a flight back home! No matter how big my stash is, I still find that I need to buy yarn if I'm making a special project. :-)
The same as you with the exception of the guild the closes one is 6 hours away. And I like to hunt on Ebay which is always a surprise.
Hey Sue -- the minute I saw the picture of the Webs warehouse, I knew where you had been....We went there this summer. Wow. Stash-building is fun. Just knowing you have all that wonderful yarn is a comfort.
It fun reading all your comments!
What about the time you plan to use *only* stash for the next project only to find that you still have to buy a colour or some new yarns anyhow?
I've tried to do this and had cones out everywhere showing my hubby and asking him for help. Then came the magic words from him: "you don't have the right colour to go with these other stash yarns... you'll have to buy it"
I do try to satisfy the project being planned with stash yarns which usually leads me on a nice stroll through my own yarn and its nice to find what I had forgotten!
Susan
90% of my yarn was bought for a specific project - the issue is that there are more projects than time. The remaining were gifted or bought at asale that I could not afford not to!
My stash could be on that Hoarders Tv show.
My daughter lives in Fort Collins, Colorado so I get to go to Boulder once your twice a year! What a great shop!
Hey, I was just at Webs today for the very first time. I walked out of there with some beautiful chenille yarns (at the discount) and some cotton basics. Other than that, my stash is pretty much all handspun.
I've just ordered more yarn from two different suppliers, although the stash is piling up! Parts of my stash is from projects I have planned, but not yet started, and then there are the leftovers from other projects. And then there is all the machine knitting yarn: when I need more of a certain color, I have to order it, although all the other colors are lying around.
I used WEBS, the Mannings, and my guilds. And now I am one of those weavers who needs to find someone who's building their stash- I'm moving to a condo in a couple of months and need to de-stash. Ah well.
Kimmen
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