Taking Yarn Inventory

The thought is making me exhausted. After our two daughter's and I spent eight hours together cooking for Thanksgiving, I'm not wanting to start all over on making pies. I know, I know, I don't have to do anything else for Thursday's dinner with my brother and sister in-laws but I'm simply tired. This body can only push so long and it's screaming STOP!!

Rather loudly since I have Addison's disease and my get up and go and all got up and went.

So I went on strike on Monday, after I took my husband to the airport where he left on a trip. I then drove home on the much improved highways ( We had over six inches of snow over the weekend leaving the roads solid ice.) and sat on the bed watching Hulu and Netflixs.

I watched Hulu so long a message popped up on the screen telling me I'd been watching for three hours wouldn't I like to stop?

The truth is I wasn't really watching for three hours since I was pausing the shows every little while to go and get something or answer the phone.

It was Kirk telling me he'd arrived at this airport or that. And what do you do at an airport while you wait for your next plane, call your spouse of course. Or I hope that's what you do.

Anyway, when I'm overwhelmed and need to take control, what do I do? Something I don't have to, of course. Something that won't help the long list of to do's get done.

 I copied free knitting patterns off the Internet and then realized I had no yarn to knit them with. Since all the patterns called for something I didn't have. 

No I'm not low on yarn. All three of these containers are full of yarn, but I didn't seem to have what I needed. I didn't think I did anyway because I really didn't know what I had.

Yes, you long time reader might remember that a long while back I drug out my yarn and corrected the twist on some of my hand spun skeins and labeled each skein as to what kind of fiber it was spun from.  It took me quite a while.What I realized then was I really liked to spin a few skeins of one kind of fiber or color of yarn and then I was off to another kind. This left me with only enough homespun yarn of one kind and color to make one sweater. Unless I was the size of my sweet small sized daughters. Nope, I need four more skeins to create a tent sized one for two ton Tessy here.

In enters goal one, to spin enough yarn of one for another wool or alpaca sweater.

Plus, I realized I love snoods, cowls, and scarves that fasten with buttons and pins. No, I don't necessarily love to wear them, except I do want a snood which I especially love the look of and think I'd actually wear.

 I do have a couple scarves that fasten that I wear out in the cold. But, as active as I am, scarves just don't fit my lifestyle that mixes house cleaning, cooking, and livestock chores. They are meant more for indoor jobs such as office workers and so forth who hold still.  

Not that that should stop me so -- Goal number two comes in. I want to make a couple snoods and some more scarves, and cowl thingies. I'm itching to adorn them with homemade buttons and pins I create in my husband's workshop. I've been doing a little this and that trying to figure out what kind of small art based business I want to create. So far I haven't found it but Kirk and I sat brain storming in the airport as we waiting for him to fly out and I became really excited at the creative latitude making snoods, cowls, and scarves along with fasteners. I could use those scraps of

Mastodon ivory, woods, and horns left over from Kirk's knife making.  

Some of these projects would be made with store yarns. Some of those luxury gifts my oldest daughter gave me during my yarn adoption visits to her stash. And the few skeins I've purchase on my own.

Some would be from homespun yarn.

But first I realized I needed to take an inventory of just how many skeins I had of what varieties of fibers, yarn diameter size, and yardage and keep it in a notebook. Then I'd know what yarn I had that would be suitable and enough yardage for cowls, scarves, and snoods. Other yarns I might branch a little off into making a few hats and gloves. Those that would be suitable for office workers and trips where you aren't wearing your Muck boots. I don't make many of those but city folks do.

How do you organize your yarn stash?