April 11, 2024 • 39 mins
Tina leads the episode starting a discussion about the word verbiage inside the fiber arts community. The usage of "illness" words when describing our yarn collections in particular is the focus of the topic. First, they talk about their own personal feelings regarding these types of words, as well as if and when they can be problematic. Jess mentions their love for dragon "hoards", so it doesn't need to have a negative connotation. Tina mentions the type of hashtags she used in the beginning to go viral, and the popular usage of "yarn addict" or "yarn addiction". Drea and Meg think "stash" is something that's not as problematic as words like "addiction". Especially as "addiction" is something that should not be made light of, and the community should be more aware of it. Meg compares the term "OCD" to how folks don't fit a specific mold when it is used in a casual way.
Find out more about the podcast as well as our cast Meg, Drea, Tina, and Jess at our website pardonmystash.com. Leave us a comment on your thoughts on our episode blog posts, or through our social media accounts!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I'm Andrea.
(00:00):
I'm Meg.
I'm Tina.
And I'm Jess.
And this is Pardon My Stash.
Welcome to Pardon My Stash, a podcast about knitting within the fiber arts and how awesome it is.
Before we get into today's topics, let's find out what everybody's working on.
(00:24):
Andrea?
I am working on the Arachne shawl by Claire Slade or Verily Knits.
I am using Plies and Hellhounds, Penny in Flower Moon and Nightmare.
And this is my PMS matchy make along thing that I'm doing.
Yeah.
What a great, great thing you're doing.
(00:44):
I have even done-
I really like that project.
I have even done like two rows since the last time we talked.
Ooh.
I'm going to give that a round of applause because I know how much you've done.
You've been struggling.
Yeah.
So I started today without the glove and let me tell you, as soon as I touched the yarn,
I was like, no, that's not for that.
(01:04):
Not yet.
Not yet.
You'll get there though.
Yeah, I know.
But how far are you getting it so far?
How much Arachne can we see?
I'm still about halfway through the spider.
Ooh, yeah.
Oh, no.
I won't ask you any more questions about it because now we have drop stitches.
(01:25):
So let's go to Jess.
I am working on the Between the Dragon and His Rat by Kathleen Sperling.
I am at more than halfway through.
I'm on the big dragon part, so I'm getting to the part of the pattern that I altered.
So we'll see how that looks when it comes out.
(01:47):
I think it'll be fine.
But yeah, I'm doing this in the Critical Hit Dyes Paladin with the Colorways Copper Dragon
and Thunderwave.
And this is my, pardon my stash, matchy make-along with Meg.
We're both doing wraps.
I'm so sorry.
It's all good.
(02:07):
I'm still on the hub.
Look, if it really comes down to it, there are two dragons on this looking at each other
and they match.
That's fair.
That counts.
So it counts either way.
So don't feel, I would say don't feel pressured to...
There are a lot.
And the start of yours is a lot more, there's a lot more to it than mine was basically do
(02:33):
guard her and then join in the round and hope you didn't twist it.
And yours is like, hey, you got to do like 12 rounds and do like a Pico and all this
other stuff.
And before you even start the fun part.
So I mean, I just want to get to the color work.
I get it.
But yeah, otherwise I am enjoying it.
And it's quite large.
(02:54):
It's going to be huge.
You do it in the round.
It's going to block so big too.
And then you stick it.
But you have to stick it first and then block it and then tie off the stick.
So that's going to be like, oh man, I hope nothing happens to it in the interim.
That is so it's interesting and I get to stick a thing.
So that's fun.
(03:15):
That sounds like anxiety.
So moving on from anxiety.
Wait, you can't move on from anxiety and then go to me.
That's that doesn't make any sense.
We're going from anxiety.
Ville to anxiety city.
OK, anxiety city, anxiety metropolis right here.
That's me.
I'm working on actually a pretty low anxiety project right now.
(03:36):
I'm working on my second call I.
Be by a space Trico.
I am done with the collar and I'm just working on the raglan increases.
And I've done this before.
So this is a very no anxiety project.
This is just kind of going going with the flow.
I'm having a rough like spring with knitting.
(03:57):
And I said this a few episodes ago.
This is not my time of year to cast things on.
So I'm just kind of going with the flow at this point when I have time to knit,
which isn't a lot. I don't know if I've done two rows since the last time we talked,
because that's how my nights have been going lately.
Well, it's it's the end of quarter three in the beginning of quarter four.
And grad school has started and just all the things.
(04:19):
But the yarn is really nice.
It's fiber spades, vivacious, decay and the color way heavenly.
And I absolutely love it.
So it's a real treat to work with.
It is really pretty.
Thanks.
It really is.
I love this color so much.
I want to put it on everything.
It doesn't have like it defies description.
You're a decent kind of I love it.
(04:41):
What are you working on?
So for me, I am working on extending my patterns.
That's something I wanted to do last year, and I never got to it
for many obvious reasons.
So now that I'm feeling a little bit better, I'm trying to.
And when I say extend my patterns,
(05:02):
give them additional yarn weights is my big thing,
because I already have a lot of sizes available in many of my patterns.
So being able to do the same pattern in different yarn weights, that makes sense.
So for my seed, I'm not going as far down as fingering weight
because it just won't look right.
(05:23):
I've swatched it and it just doesn't have the same oomph as the bulky does.
So like in some cases, that's yeah, it doesn't.
Just, you know, I am going to I'm going to try a decay and see how that goes.
I know the worsted looks good because I have the worsted on my head
and it came out fine. It does look good.
But the I'm going to see what a decay looks like.
(05:43):
I have an idea of how to make the decay pop a little bit,
but I might stop it at worsted, but we'll see how it goes.
So right now I have casting on the super bulky version,
which I know is going to look good.
And it's the yarn is something for my stash.
Be sure to check out our website, part of my stash dot com
(06:05):
for more information, as well as pictures regarding our current projects,
patterns and yarns.
So for today, we are going to get into an interesting topic.
That's what I'll say.
Basically, the idea of the usage of the word addiction
(06:26):
or addictive type of keywords when we're talking about our yarn stash
and stash is actually one of those words.
It can be a reference to, you know, drug usage or addiction.
And I've been seeing a lot of talk online about
(06:46):
kind of moving away from stash and hoard and yarn addiction
and all these different types of terminology
to kind of separate, you know, a true illness,
something that people really suffer from.
And, you know, the idea of casually maybe over buying
(07:12):
or having a large, you know, collection or what have you of yarn.
And I wanted to bring it up to you guys and see what you think about
the first the just the different types of terminology.
And if you think that it might be problematic to use the terms
(07:32):
that are related to a potential illness or addiction or anything like that,
when it comes to our yarn stash.
I don't think the word stash necessarily needs to like carry a heavy weight with it.
I do think it's problematic when you tie it in with kind of like
mimicry or ideology of like being an addict.
(07:53):
Like you brought up buying a lot of stash.
You know, if people are joking about addiction,
I think that's where it crosses the line into maybe being a little bit problematic.
The word itself, I don't I don't necessarily think is problematic.
I don't know if you guys agree.
I think it depends on the context.
(08:15):
Yeah. And the person, too, really.
Because, yeah, because I feel like like for me, when I thought of yarn stash,
I thought of like stashing away.
Right. Yeah.
So you're like, I'm stashing my yarn away.
Same thing with I see.
I like hoard because I think of dragons and this is these are my treasures.
Yes. And yes.
And they're neatly packed away.
So it doesn't bother me.
(08:36):
But I could see how in that context can be different for different people.
So I think in that kind of a respect, it's kind of base by base.
I don't think it necessarily has to have negative connotations,
but you should be aware of your like your fellow people that are talking about it
and use what they prefer if they ask you to kind of a thing.
(08:59):
I know me personally, when I first started using my account and you're trying to,
you know, get, you know, some kind of virality with any of the posts that you're doing.
You try to use hashtags that everybody else is using.
And at the time, really popular hashtags were like yarn addict, yarn addict.
Yarn addiction, stuff like that.
So in my earlier posts, I definitely those hashtags are probably somewhere
(09:23):
ladled in there.
But the more I thought about it, I was like, am I a yarn addict, though?
That seems kind of excessive.
So I've pulled that from hashtags that I use.
I try really hard not to use anything, especially explicitly about addiction.
(09:43):
I just feel like that gets gets a little dicey.
And I feel like it's especially because there are people close to me in my life
that deal with addiction.
And I don't want to necessarily like glorify that in any capacity,
especially when I know that it's struggle.
I know that there's a hard kind of hard life with that when you're trying to deal with
(10:05):
addiction as a whole.
So what about you, Dre?
Like Meg, I really don't see a problem with the with the terms stash.
I've always used the word stash and I've never really associated it with any kind of
negative connotation.
I've never seen it applied with a negative connotation either.
So I've always been very comfortable with calling it my stash because I've accumulated
(10:30):
it and I'm saving it for later.
But like you, I also don't use the term addiction with anything that I'm doing because just
like in general, because I don't think that I really have an addiction to anything.
So I don't think that that's something that I should apply to myself.
And I don't think that it should be made light of for people who, like you said, have real
(10:52):
problems and have real struggles.
And I think that as a community, we should be a little bit more like aware of that.
I think it's a lot like there's.
It's kind of like when people say like, oh my God, I have to clean my house.
I'm so OCD.
(11:13):
And that term gets thrown around very lightly.
And the biggest problem with that, I think, is that it kind of pigeonholes what what OCD
is.
And so then that makes it so that people who don't fit into that mold of OCD, if you if
you're not an obsessive cleaner, well, you don't have it, not realizing that there are
(11:37):
many, many different types.
But then when you make light of it, you know, when somebody has an addiction, they cannot
physically be away from that habit, that activity, their body goes through withdrawal if they
can't do it.
If you are somebody that is literally cannot stop shopping for yarn and that's a legitimate
(12:04):
addiction, that's a legitimate problem.
And that's not something we should be.
We should be making light of either.
But for most of us, it's just we really enjoy buying yarn.
We really enjoy collecting it.
And that's not an addiction.
That's just a hobby.
You know, that kind of joke about like collecting yarn and using it are two separate hobbies.
(12:27):
And that is true.
Some of us just like to collect pretty yarns.
I've definitely gone through phases where especially when I first started knitting,
where if I went someplace and there was yarn, I felt like I had to buy it.
I still do to an extent.
But I don't consider that to be like a real problem.
No, because I think it's more FOMO than anything else.
(12:49):
Like, what if I never come across this again?
Yeah, there's that.
That's legit.
See, I always feel like I walk through and it's like, especially if it's like a little
small business and I really like it and I'm like, oh, I feel really bad not buying anything.
And I may not buy yarn now, but I always tend to walk away with something, even if it's
just stitch markers, because it just always feel bad like walking around in a small business
(13:10):
that may or may not be struggling and like, oh, I got to buy something.
But no, I think that's that's a totally different thing.
I think, you know, an addiction is like, you know, you're literally your body is literally
hurting if you can't do the habit.
And I hope nobody knows what that feels like with yarn or or anything, honestly.
(13:35):
But if it does, it's certainly not something, you know, people should be joking about.
I don't think people intend it to be that way, though.
Like I would I would generally think that a lot of people would be like in your situation,
you know, where they're not really looking at that tag at at its face value.
They're looking at it the way that everybody interprets it.
And they're just thinking like, oh, OK, like, I like buying yarn.
(13:58):
Right.
It's supposed to be lighthearted.
Right.
They're not looking at it.
And it's and, you know, then you get the people that are like, oh, you know, don't take things
so seriously.
But, you know, to an extent, it's well, I can also kind of see it starting to kind of
basically kind of put into because everyone makes such light of it and haha, it's funny
(14:20):
and addicted to yarn.
Some people actually could miss if they are legitimately falling into a problem and not
realizing it because it's oh, it's just yarn.
It's not like something heavy and not realizing because it's taken so lightly that there are
instances where that kind of it starts to be a problem.
(14:42):
So it is I can see see on that kind of thing, too.
It's like if you're just constantly making light, making a joke of it, not realizing,
oh, it can actually lead to some financial problems or something like that down the line,
marital problems.
Shopping addictions are actually really hard to kind of get a beat on because credit card
(15:02):
companies are always willing to give you more credit, of course.
And you can just keep going into debt and going into debt and going into debt until
more money is right.
They pray on that.
So it's not like, you know, other addictions like gambling addictions or things like that
where it becomes really evident quickly.
Shopping addiction you can have for a very long time without realizing that it's really
(15:23):
a problem.
And I'm going to kind of call everybody out, myself included in this and that the yarn
buying community does not generally try to deter people from having that addiction.
It's always like, no, treat yourself.
They do not buy the yarn.
You deserve it.
But it's like, I think they might not.
(15:44):
There might be a slight impression of that, again, like how Jess was saying, you don't
even realize it's a problem.
Right.
Or the people that are that are saying that don't think that they have a problem and don't
assume that other people might have a problem with it.
Yeah.
But I think shopping compulsion and addiction in general is actually probably I would say
(16:10):
something that's extremely overlooked.
Yes.
Extremely.
Because a lot of people don't realize that they have the problem until it turns into
like you're losing your house, losing your marriage or like something even significant.
You don't even have a shopping problem or a shopping addiction.
(16:30):
And then their justification for it is but it's not drugs, but it's not alcohol.
At least it's not drugs.
But it's not something that's, you know, society based worse.
Correct.
And you know what?
It's something that I've heard people say before about a lot of different things.
At least it's not this.
At least it's not that.
(16:51):
I mean, I think even all of us have said that at one point in time or another.
I definitely did a lot of shopping in the weeks after my separation and divorce.
I was spending a lot of money.
I mean, it was not I never went into debt.
It was always money I had.
It's probably money that could have gone to other things.
But I definitely said, I remember my mother calling me out and she's like, you know, no,
no, no.
(17:11):
I'm like, I'm not doing drugs, mom.
I'm not drinking.
I'm not going out and hooking up with different people every night.
Like this is tame.
And you know, in hindsight it was, but it could easily have spiraled if I had not found
other things to kind of channel my feelings into.
It could easily have spiraled into something much worse.
(17:31):
So and I don't think she was trying to be a jerk.
I think she was just trying to be like, hang on there.
Like hold your horses.
But I mean, I'll be open and honest about it.
When I was in North Carolina, there was I had a very I remember I actually have a photo
of what my stash started out in North Carolina as it was two bookshelves, two little bookshelves.
(17:52):
That's all I had.
Tina, you used to have the smallest stash out of all.
I did.
I did.
But now look at you.
Well, I'm actually I have to say I've reduced quite a bit.
You have.
I've reduced a lot.
You've stashed quite a bit.
Yeah.
And if I haven't sold it, I've used it.
So I and actually the purchase I made from you guys is the first I've done in a really
(18:13):
long time.
I just really like that color.
I was like, this is not no.
But I also have a plan for it.
Oh, good.
So that's even more for me.
There's like a difference because like I feel like before it was like I would buy it because
it's pretty.
And now I'm like, no, now I actually have like there's a there's a spot for it because
(18:34):
it's got a purpose.
Yeah.
But even but back to when I was in North Carolina, I did.
I had two bookshelves and I was not doing well health wise.
When I say I was having a health problem, I mean, I was truly having mental health issues.
My medication was not correct.
(18:55):
My I did not have good a good support team around me in terms of providers.
And if you've looked at my personal Instagram, I do have a significant mental illness that
I deal with every day.
It's chronic.
And the solution that I was doing because of the pure isolation that I was in was buying.
(19:19):
And I went from having two bookshelves to having a wall.
Yeah.
Real fast.
Like maybe within I would say within a year period that I had filled a wall.
And it was because every time I saw yarn that I liked, it was buying.
I was buying, you know, four or five hundred dollars worth of it and having a ton of it.
(19:43):
It wasn't until I got better, which was after when I came back to Connecticut and I started
feeling better, I had a better support system, better medications, better, better things
all around that I was like, wait a second.
And then I put all my stash together and I went, oh, my God, how did I end up with this
much yarn?
And you know, again, I wouldn't say I got to a point.
(20:10):
I can't say that I was not necessarily, quote unquote, in debt, because I there was definitely
a point in time that we were we were paying some interest on purchases that I made that
I shouldn't have made.
But to say that I was like drowning in it.
No.
But it was but I think personally, just to just to be paying interest on stuff like that
(20:31):
is a problem.
I shouldn't have been like that.
I was spending money that I didn't have and couldn't cover.
And I joke about it.
I joke about my stash.
I joke about the size of it, even though now it's turning into this small little and I'm
OK.
And I'm OK with it.
I'm OK with it getting smaller.
I don't have a wall anymore.
I have need any.
(20:52):
No, I don't, because I'm filling the void that I was dealing with in much different
ways because there is no void.
It served a purpose at the time.
Yes.
And now you no longer need it.
Correct.
You don't have it.
So I'm I say that because if you are in a similar position, just take a moment to recognize
I speak that I'm speaking to my fellow compadres that are dealing with that kind of situation.
(21:19):
Just you don't necessarily have to sit there and be like, oh, my God, I'm an addict or
throw some kind of label on it.
But you do.
There is a situation where you kind of look at it and go, hey, hold on.
Let's take a step back.
Do I actually need all of this?
And yes, you know, treat yourself and all of that.
But have I treated myself one too many times and maybe we roll it back.
(21:44):
But you know, I don't think there's anything wrong with having a large stash or collection
or whatever the heck you want to call it.
But I do think there's a problem with it if it's getting out of control, where you don't
even know what you have or you're paying.
You're using money that you don't have or whatever.
It's putting you in a situation.
You're using addict tactics like you're hiding it from people.
(22:06):
You are spending money you're you're supposed to spend on other things on your stash.
And those are addict tendencies.
Yep.
Yeah.
You can't give up your rent money so that you can have a home.
Or even like, yeah.
But like the whole thing, the whole reason I think it was yarn harlot that said like
the point of the stash is so that you're not going to the yarn store every time you want
(22:28):
to cast on a project.
The point of a stash is that if at nine o'clock at night you find a pattern you want to knit,
you can go to your stash and you can find a yarn in there that would work.
It may not be exactly what you what the pattern says that you need, but it's close enough.
(22:49):
The other problem I think, and I don't know if this is what you did.
It's definitely what I did in accumulating stash.
I don't know if it's what you did.
But when you start out, you don't even know what you like.
Nope.
And you are just buying yarns that are pretty without knowing how you like them.
And this also contributes to your vast accumulation of stash because sure you have 50 skeins of
(23:15):
yarn, but you only like knitting with 10 of them.
Yeah.
Oh yes.
And you have realized that over time and you're like, wow, I bought this skein like five years
ago and holy hell, I do not want to knit with that or I'm allergic to it or you know, so
on and so forth.
Or in the beginning you get it because you like the color is not realizing weights are
a thing.
Right.
I got variegated lace weight.
(23:36):
I had that in my stash.
That was a thing I bought and I don't even knowing how to utilize.
No, because you're just like, oh, I need lace weight.
I don't only sweet and I should have sweet.
I want to knit with that.
I did that all the time.
Right.
Like I don't have enough DK.
How many times do I knit with DK?
(23:57):
Not often.
And I will tell you that believe it or not, the majority of stuff that I would knit with
his has either been fingering or light or lighter weight, not even DK or Super Bowl.
I'm actually at the end.
You just don't have a nice middle ground.
You're on the extremes of both sides.
My stash is full of a lot of stuff in the middle.
(24:17):
So like I have a lot.
So when I had my full stash and a lot of the stuff I gave up was worsted, like worsted
DKs, like that's what was going.
I was like, no, no, no, no.
The stuff that you realize you're not going to use.
Yes.
Especially the pounds and pounds and pounds of like big box brand stuff.
Right.
(24:38):
Because you know, you think it's a, it's not a deal.
It's on sale for $3 a skein.
So let me buy 12 of them.
And then you realize I'm never going to use.
I had, I literally counted.
I think I, I think my, I started out with 15 balls of what, what is it?
Something Brown hometown.
Oh my God.
What was it?
Was that lion, whatever the hell it wasn't like it was a lion brand or was it the other
(25:00):
one?
No, lion brand hometown.
And it was, you saw that stack right of Brown.
Brown was a good Brown.
So to be fair, I did buy that with the intention of a project, but I way overestimated how
much yarn I needed.
I was, but I initially, how many balls of yarn do we need for a sweater?
40, 40 is good.
40.
(25:20):
40 balls.
I had originally bought that this was back in North Carolina, 7,000 yards of yards.
And I had bought a, uh, I had bought it cause I was making a prayer shawl for someone that
was in my mental health support group.
And I wanted to make them a prayer shawl.
I needed to make it a larger because they were a larger person.
(25:41):
I wanted to make sure it could cover them and really get the comfort of a prayer shawl.
So I think out of the, I don't know, I don't know how many I bought, but I ended up with
a remainder of like 11 and a half.
And I'm like, how did I end up with?
So then I'm like, how many did I buy?
I'm like trying to figure it out.
(26:01):
But that's the thing is it's just, it's not even like a, you know, being willfully ridiculous.
It's you don't know better.
No, no.
You don't know how much you're going to, I mean, it's kind of like the first time I knit
a scarf.
I was like, okay, one ball of yarn.
It's going to be enough for a scarf.
It was not spoiler alert.
It was not enough for a scarf, but you don't know.
You don't know how much yarn you're going to need.
(26:21):
I still way overestimate every time I make a sweater or a scarf.
I always make or die or buy too much yarn, but at least then, you know, you can clear
it out and then make way for possibly more that maybe you'll buy with a more discerning
eye and maybe I'll actually knit with these things and someone else can get the ones that
(26:46):
I'm not going to knit with.
Yeah.
It's hard because I think again, it's one of those things that you see people will say
it casually like OCD or, you know, I'm feeling so crazy.
I feel schizophrenic or whatever, all these different terms, addiction, and you're not
thinking about the people that are actually dealing with it.
(27:07):
Right.
You know, and so it so yeah, sure.
I've obviously ingest small group of friends.
Maybe I don't think there's an issue with that, but when you're when you're like for
me, I feel a sort of obligation to post something that's pointed in the right direction, especially
with the follower count that I have.
(27:27):
Not that I have a lot, but I have a significant amount enough to be like, I feel like if I
were to put things like if I were to make jokes about addiction or stuff like that,
I would feel icky.
I would feel like I'm putting out to a large group of people.
This is the idea.
This is the message that you want to be sending.
Yeah, and I don't know if I want to be putting that out as a right, because most people will
(27:49):
probably not like say anything, but you know what?
It'll feel icky.
It's yeah, it's kind of one of those things that you know what?
I literally just went and checked Critical Hit to make sure that we don't use that hashtag
and we do not use that hashtag.
I feel a lot better because I was like, oh God, have we been doing that?
But I had to check.
No, but it is one of those things like I tell my kids all the time because my kids are,
(28:12):
you know, 15 and they love to, you know, use colorful insults in the classroom.
That's a word for it.
That's as nicely as I can put it.
And you know, I always tell them like you and your friends may not find those things
hurtful, but you don't know what everyone in this room is feeling.
And do you really want to hurt somebody?
And I mean, you know, they're 15, so they're like, oh, but like, you know, I don't know.
(28:34):
I'd like to think that deep down they actually do care.
You know, I think most of us wouldn't like to bother people.
We've kind of circled around this, but what what do you think?
What is too big?
Is there a point where it's too big?
If you don't have the storage for the things that you are storing.
(28:58):
Well, if you're getting a storage unit type of thing or you're finding other places to
put it.
I definitely think that you have a problem if you have a separate storage unit for your
hobby.
Yeah, well, it depends on the hobby.
Do you know, as I said that I was going to say like it's like biking or cars or something
like that.
Like it's one thing.
But for yarn, that might be a little excessive.
(29:20):
Yarn is a little excessive.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But like if you can't move in your house because if people are tripping over the skeins, they
come over for dinner.
I mean, I always have a decorative ball of yarn out there.
Nothing wrong with that.
And it's only decorative because I finished with it and then I didn't feel like doing
anything with the remainder.
(29:41):
Okay.
But we've all been there.
It's still pretty yarn.
Yeah.
So it looks nice.
People should enjoy it in its original form.
Yeah.
But I don't know.
There is definitely a visual point of excess.
I feel like if you have to, if you feel like you need to hide it from family, friends or
(30:02):
significant others, it's time to stop.
It makes me think about the reels where they're like hiding it from their husband.
I hate those reels.
Let's, you know, I'm saying husband because it's specifically a hetero kind of relationship,
like a wife hiding from the husband, very pointed kind of demographic.
(30:22):
But I feel like it's to that point, are you even enjoying it?
And if you're not enjoying it, then it kind of defeats the purpose of having it.
That's anxiety at that point.
Right?
Because now you're like, Oh, I'm going to get caught.
Let's put the shoe on the other foot here and I'm going to, I'm going to be that guy
of there are no reels of, and I get, I'm going to pick something so stereotypically, like
(30:47):
whatever male of the guy, like sneaking his golf clubs into the house.
Like nobody, nobody makes reels about that.
No, it's always the little woman hiding her hobby from the big mean husband that tells
her how to spend her money.
And that's all really misogynistic and insulting.
(31:09):
Also can I just say like men should be sneaking golf clubs in because those are expensive.
Yeah, right.
I mean, to be fair, if you haven't look up some golf club prices, man, it's kind of nuts.
Listen, listen, men be more shameful of your golf clubs.
That was not what I meant.
(31:29):
But like when men make big purchases or even like frivolous purchases, they're like, yeah,
this is what I did.
Like enjoy the inferences that they make the money.
Yeah.
It's okay for them to spend their money, but it's like, I don't know.
I'm, I'm just very like, it's not funny.
(31:52):
It's not funny to be the first off, like sneaking around behind your spouse's back.
The other thing to you, like, I feel like that says a lot about the relationship that
you have.
I will, I will never forget this.
Like back when I was, my parents were my back when my dad was alive and my parents were
living back in their old house and my mother was trying to move her stash of fabric from
(32:15):
one room to the other.
And I'm helping her carry these massive bins like down the stairs and she's like, Tom,
don't look.
And I'm like, like, he doesn't know.
And he's like, no, I'll like, I don't know that you have all this stash.
Like I know how much fabric you have.
And she was joking, but at the same time, like some people aren't, some people aren't.
(32:44):
And if, if you are like literally afraid to show your significant other, the stuff you
bought for your hobby, um, I don't even know if that's a stash problem or a relationship
problem.
There's two sides of that.
Are you afraid because you're ashamed of yourself?
In which case maybe look into stopping.
And if you're afraid because of what your spouse might do, maybe talk to your spouse.
(33:07):
Yeah.
Either way, I feel like if you're hiding it, that means again, this is supposed to be a
fun hobby.
If you're hiding it, like Tina said, now we're getting into anxiety.
We're getting into fear.
We're getting into, this is no longer a fun.
I mean, unless I guess you enjoy the thrill of hiding things, I guess that might be something.
That's also kind of weird.
It's just, you know, it's a little weird unless you're making something for somebody.
(33:30):
Yeah, I, I, yeah, it's kind of weird.
Well, that's, that's a different, yeah.
Like if you're trying to hide a project you're working on, so somebody's getting gifted,
it doesn't see it.
Right.
That's different.
That's totally different.
That's a whole different thing.
We're talking about like, we made a purchase, whether it's a target run, cause I don't know
why, but they're all target runs.
I have no idea.
Because you step into target and you only mean to buy toothpaste and then you walk out
(33:52):
with $200 worth of crap and you don't even know how that happened, but you actually did
need all of it.
Don't look at me like that.
This is my life.
I don't know.
It's never 200.
It's usually a hundred.
It's always stuff that we did need.
See I'm not that way about target.
I am.
It's awful.
So it's the same thing.
Yes.
I feel like, like for example, I went to, I went to Walmart.
(34:15):
I went to buy, my daughter needed a button button up shirt and we got the button up shirt
where we're walking out.
No big deal.
And then there was a $5 clearance rack with a beautiful little sweater on it.
And I was like, well, that's not going to the dump.
That's going on my body.
And yeah, cause that's, that's all for me.
When I see especially I have, that is one thing I am a sucker for when it comes to clearance
(34:41):
racks and knitwear.
If I see something that's like way under price for what it is, I just like, I know you're
not going to go to, I don't want you to go to the dump.
Let's go.
Come on.
That's fair.
Well, I think even clearance yarn, like, I don't think it's a bad idea to like go to
sales and stock up.
I mean, I would be a hypocrite.
I've gone to the village.
We'll sale.
Oh, come on.
(35:02):
Couple of times.
Come on now.
We all have.
But I think that, you know, we all know the thing is if, if you're not going to use it,
you didn't get a deal.
No, that's correct.
If you didn't, if you're not, you know, just buying the yarn because it's $5 a skein and
you're like, well, I don't know, but I'll figure out something for it.
And I'm not saying you need to go in and to every yarn purchase and know exactly what
(35:24):
that's going to be.
Man, I changed my mind about almost everything that I buy yarn for this sweater.
For example, I I've changed my mind about this yarn about four times.
But I feel like you should have some concrete idea in your mind of what you could use it
for.
So it's either a type of project.
Right.
This is going to be a sweater of some sort or a garment of some sort.
(35:46):
Right.
A shawl or this is going to be an accessory instead of buying 40 skeins of yarn and being
like, I'll figure it out eventually.
Like, you're a lot of yarn.
But that's the thing is a lot.
That's why I stopped going to the village will sale because I did get caught up in that
hole.
Oh my God, this is cheap yarn.
And then I ended up giving a lot of it away.
Yeah.
And, you know, that's not a deal.
(36:09):
That's not a deal at all.
I am fortunate to say that I pretty much went through.
I think I went through almost all the only the only stuff that I ended up.
There was a couple of types of skeins that I ended up selling like cute.
I bought way too much cumulus that time.
It's hard.
Someone bought all my cumulus like almost actually almost all my.
(36:29):
I think there's a couple skeins left of the dark blue and my yarn saver site.
But the the the teal cumulus is gone.
Like someone it's the siren call of that really nice cotton.
Like you can't touch it and then not buy pounds of it.
It's hard.
It's really hard.
But but yeah, but the idea that I had originally with that was a sweater.
(36:51):
And then I went this is going to pill to no end.
And stretch and stretch.
Cotton stretches.
Well, I saw what happened to your cardigan because you use cardigan or cotton with that.
Not cumulus, but it was a cotton base.
But cumulus is as has a higher micron count.
Yes.
So that would have pilled and stretched.
(37:13):
Yes.
So there'd be no coming back from that.
I do have a shawl made out of cumulus and it has not started filling yet.
Like I take very good care of it, but I feel like it will not last forever.
But the type of stitches that you did on that shawl, though, are very how do I say this?
Like a like a very structured, structured, safe use of that yarn.
(37:37):
Yeah.
Like I feel like if it was flatter, if that makes sense, because it has texture on it.
I think the texture right.
Protect the yarn a bit from the the pilling.
I feel like if it was flatter, it would pill.
And it's also not like a garment.
You know, it's not getting all the friction.
It's not, you know, it's not moving.
It doesn't have armpits or chills.
(37:58):
Yeah.
Yep.
No, I have a scarf made out of cumulus and it hasn't piled at all either.
It's but again, it's outerwear.
So right.
I think it can hold up a lot more.
But yeah, it's you kind of try to be realistic when you're buying that sail yarn instead
of just thinking I will totally use 20 balls of this navy blue acrylic.
(38:23):
Safe to say that, you know, if you I guess this is just a you know, if you feel like
that you're in a place that you might be having an issue with your yarn buying, then take
this as a note to just kind of do a self check and make sure that you're in a good place.
And if you don't feel like you're in that place, but you are using terminology that
(38:45):
may be problematic, maybe we maybe we just, you know, avoid using, I would say, illness
terms.
Because that's really what it comes down to is we're talking about illnesses, ableist.
It's very ableist to kind of toss those terms without really thinking about the people that
are getting affected by them.
(39:10):
That's it for this episode for additional content and opportunities to connect with
the cast.
Check out our website at part of my stash.com.
Be sure to tune in next time for more laughs, tears and Dre.
Hey, that's me at parted my stash.
I'm Andrea.
(00:00):
I'm Meg.
I'm Tina.
And I'm Jess.
And this is Pardon My Stash.
Welcome to Pardon My Stash, a podcast about knitting within the fiber arts and how awesome it is.
Before we get into today's topics, let's find out what everybody's working on.
(00:24):
Andrea?
I am working on the Arachne shawl by Claire Slade or Verily Knits.
I am using Plies and Hellhounds, Penny in Flower Moon and Nightmare.
And this is my PMS matchy make along thing that I'm doing.
Yeah.
What a great, great thing you're doing.
(00:44):
I have even done-
I really like that project.
I have even done like two rows since the last time we talked.
Ooh.
I'm going to give that a round of applause because I know how much you've done.
You've been struggling.
Yeah.
So I started today without the glove and let me tell you, as soon as I touched the yarn,
I was like, no, that's not for that.
(01:04):
Not yet.
Not yet.
You'll get there though.
Yeah, I know.
But how far are you getting it so far?
How much Arachne can we see?
I'm still about halfway through the spider.
Ooh, yeah.
Oh, no.
I won't ask you any more questions about it because now we have drop stitches.
(01:25):
So let's go to Jess.
I am working on the Between the Dragon and His Rat by Kathleen Sperling.
I am at more than halfway through.
I'm on the big dragon part, so I'm getting to the part of the pattern that I altered.
So we'll see how that looks when it comes out.
(01:47):
I think it'll be fine.
But yeah, I'm doing this in the Critical Hit Dyes Paladin with the Colorways Copper Dragon
and Thunderwave.
And this is my, pardon my stash, matchy make-along with Meg.
We're both doing wraps.
I'm so sorry.
It's all good.
(02:07):
I'm still on the hub.
Look, if it really comes down to it, there are two dragons on this looking at each other
and they match.
That's fair.
That counts.
So it counts either way.
So don't feel, I would say don't feel pressured to...
There are a lot.
And the start of yours is a lot more, there's a lot more to it than mine was basically do
(02:33):
guard her and then join in the round and hope you didn't twist it.
And yours is like, hey, you got to do like 12 rounds and do like a Pico and all this
other stuff.
And before you even start the fun part.
So I mean, I just want to get to the color work.
I get it.
But yeah, otherwise I am enjoying it.
And it's quite large.
(02:54):
It's going to be huge.
You do it in the round.
It's going to block so big too.
And then you stick it.
But you have to stick it first and then block it and then tie off the stick.
So that's going to be like, oh man, I hope nothing happens to it in the interim.
That is so it's interesting and I get to stick a thing.
So that's fun.
(03:15):
That sounds like anxiety.
So moving on from anxiety.
Wait, you can't move on from anxiety and then go to me.
That's that doesn't make any sense.
We're going from anxiety.
Ville to anxiety city.
OK, anxiety city, anxiety metropolis right here.
That's me.
I'm working on actually a pretty low anxiety project right now.
(03:36):
I'm working on my second call I.
Be by a space Trico.
I am done with the collar and I'm just working on the raglan increases.
And I've done this before.
So this is a very no anxiety project.
This is just kind of going going with the flow.
I'm having a rough like spring with knitting.
(03:57):
And I said this a few episodes ago.
This is not my time of year to cast things on.
So I'm just kind of going with the flow at this point when I have time to knit,
which isn't a lot. I don't know if I've done two rows since the last time we talked,
because that's how my nights have been going lately.
Well, it's it's the end of quarter three in the beginning of quarter four.
And grad school has started and just all the things.
(04:19):
But the yarn is really nice.
It's fiber spades, vivacious, decay and the color way heavenly.
And I absolutely love it.
So it's a real treat to work with.
It is really pretty.
Thanks.
It really is.
I love this color so much.
I want to put it on everything.
It doesn't have like it defies description.
You're a decent kind of I love it.
(04:41):
What are you working on?
So for me, I am working on extending my patterns.
That's something I wanted to do last year, and I never got to it
for many obvious reasons.
So now that I'm feeling a little bit better, I'm trying to.
And when I say extend my patterns,
(05:02):
give them additional yarn weights is my big thing,
because I already have a lot of sizes available in many of my patterns.
So being able to do the same pattern in different yarn weights, that makes sense.
So for my seed, I'm not going as far down as fingering weight
because it just won't look right.
(05:23):
I've swatched it and it just doesn't have the same oomph as the bulky does.
So like in some cases, that's yeah, it doesn't.
Just, you know, I am going to I'm going to try a decay and see how that goes.
I know the worsted looks good because I have the worsted on my head
and it came out fine. It does look good.
But the I'm going to see what a decay looks like.
(05:43):
I have an idea of how to make the decay pop a little bit,
but I might stop it at worsted, but we'll see how it goes.
So right now I have casting on the super bulky version,
which I know is going to look good.
And it's the yarn is something for my stash.
Be sure to check out our website, part of my stash dot com
(06:05):
for more information, as well as pictures regarding our current projects,
patterns and yarns.
So for today, we are going to get into an interesting topic.
That's what I'll say.
Basically, the idea of the usage of the word addiction
(06:26):
or addictive type of keywords when we're talking about our yarn stash
and stash is actually one of those words.
It can be a reference to, you know, drug usage or addiction.
And I've been seeing a lot of talk online about
(06:46):
kind of moving away from stash and hoard and yarn addiction
and all these different types of terminology
to kind of separate, you know, a true illness,
something that people really suffer from.
And, you know, the idea of casually maybe over buying
(07:12):
or having a large, you know, collection or what have you of yarn.
And I wanted to bring it up to you guys and see what you think about
the first the just the different types of terminology.
And if you think that it might be problematic to use the terms
(07:32):
that are related to a potential illness or addiction or anything like that,
when it comes to our yarn stash.
I don't think the word stash necessarily needs to like carry a heavy weight with it.
I do think it's problematic when you tie it in with kind of like
mimicry or ideology of like being an addict.
(07:53):
Like you brought up buying a lot of stash.
You know, if people are joking about addiction,
I think that's where it crosses the line into maybe being a little bit problematic.
The word itself, I don't I don't necessarily think is problematic.
I don't know if you guys agree.
I think it depends on the context.
(08:15):
Yeah. And the person, too, really.
Because, yeah, because I feel like like for me, when I thought of yarn stash,
I thought of like stashing away.
Right. Yeah.
So you're like, I'm stashing my yarn away.
Same thing with I see.
I like hoard because I think of dragons and this is these are my treasures.
Yes. And yes.
And they're neatly packed away.
So it doesn't bother me.
(08:36):
But I could see how in that context can be different for different people.
So I think in that kind of a respect, it's kind of base by base.
I don't think it necessarily has to have negative connotations,
but you should be aware of your like your fellow people that are talking about it
and use what they prefer if they ask you to kind of a thing.
(08:59):
I know me personally, when I first started using my account and you're trying to,
you know, get, you know, some kind of virality with any of the posts that you're doing.
You try to use hashtags that everybody else is using.
And at the time, really popular hashtags were like yarn addict, yarn addict.
Yarn addiction, stuff like that.
So in my earlier posts, I definitely those hashtags are probably somewhere
(09:23):
ladled in there.
But the more I thought about it, I was like, am I a yarn addict, though?
That seems kind of excessive.
So I've pulled that from hashtags that I use.
I try really hard not to use anything, especially explicitly about addiction.
(09:43):
I just feel like that gets gets a little dicey.
And I feel like it's especially because there are people close to me in my life
that deal with addiction.
And I don't want to necessarily like glorify that in any capacity,
especially when I know that it's struggle.
I know that there's a hard kind of hard life with that when you're trying to deal with
(10:05):
addiction as a whole.
So what about you, Dre?
Like Meg, I really don't see a problem with the with the terms stash.
I've always used the word stash and I've never really associated it with any kind of
negative connotation.
I've never seen it applied with a negative connotation either.
So I've always been very comfortable with calling it my stash because I've accumulated
(10:30):
it and I'm saving it for later.
But like you, I also don't use the term addiction with anything that I'm doing because just
like in general, because I don't think that I really have an addiction to anything.
So I don't think that that's something that I should apply to myself.
And I don't think that it should be made light of for people who, like you said, have real
(10:52):
problems and have real struggles.
And I think that as a community, we should be a little bit more like aware of that.
I think it's a lot like there's.
It's kind of like when people say like, oh my God, I have to clean my house.
I'm so OCD.
(11:13):
And that term gets thrown around very lightly.
And the biggest problem with that, I think, is that it kind of pigeonholes what what OCD
is.
And so then that makes it so that people who don't fit into that mold of OCD, if you if
you're not an obsessive cleaner, well, you don't have it, not realizing that there are
(11:37):
many, many different types.
But then when you make light of it, you know, when somebody has an addiction, they cannot
physically be away from that habit, that activity, their body goes through withdrawal if they
can't do it.
If you are somebody that is literally cannot stop shopping for yarn and that's a legitimate
(12:04):
addiction, that's a legitimate problem.
And that's not something we should be.
We should be making light of either.
But for most of us, it's just we really enjoy buying yarn.
We really enjoy collecting it.
And that's not an addiction.
That's just a hobby.
You know, that kind of joke about like collecting yarn and using it are two separate hobbies.
(12:27):
And that is true.
Some of us just like to collect pretty yarns.
I've definitely gone through phases where especially when I first started knitting,
where if I went someplace and there was yarn, I felt like I had to buy it.
I still do to an extent.
But I don't consider that to be like a real problem.
No, because I think it's more FOMO than anything else.
(12:49):
Like, what if I never come across this again?
Yeah, there's that.
That's legit.
See, I always feel like I walk through and it's like, especially if it's like a little
small business and I really like it and I'm like, oh, I feel really bad not buying anything.
And I may not buy yarn now, but I always tend to walk away with something, even if it's
just stitch markers, because it just always feel bad like walking around in a small business
(13:10):
that may or may not be struggling and like, oh, I got to buy something.
But no, I think that's that's a totally different thing.
I think, you know, an addiction is like, you know, you're literally your body is literally
hurting if you can't do the habit.
And I hope nobody knows what that feels like with yarn or or anything, honestly.
(13:35):
But if it does, it's certainly not something, you know, people should be joking about.
I don't think people intend it to be that way, though.
Like I would I would generally think that a lot of people would be like in your situation,
you know, where they're not really looking at that tag at at its face value.
They're looking at it the way that everybody interprets it.
And they're just thinking like, oh, OK, like, I like buying yarn.
(13:58):
Right.
It's supposed to be lighthearted.
Right.
They're not looking at it.
And it's and, you know, then you get the people that are like, oh, you know, don't take things
so seriously.
But, you know, to an extent, it's well, I can also kind of see it starting to kind of
basically kind of put into because everyone makes such light of it and haha, it's funny
(14:20):
and addicted to yarn.
Some people actually could miss if they are legitimately falling into a problem and not
realizing it because it's oh, it's just yarn.
It's not like something heavy and not realizing because it's taken so lightly that there are
instances where that kind of it starts to be a problem.
(14:42):
So it is I can see see on that kind of thing, too.
It's like if you're just constantly making light, making a joke of it, not realizing,
oh, it can actually lead to some financial problems or something like that down the line,
marital problems.
Shopping addictions are actually really hard to kind of get a beat on because credit card
(15:02):
companies are always willing to give you more credit, of course.
And you can just keep going into debt and going into debt and going into debt until
more money is right.
They pray on that.
So it's not like, you know, other addictions like gambling addictions or things like that
where it becomes really evident quickly.
Shopping addiction you can have for a very long time without realizing that it's really
(15:23):
a problem.
And I'm going to kind of call everybody out, myself included in this and that the yarn
buying community does not generally try to deter people from having that addiction.
It's always like, no, treat yourself.
They do not buy the yarn.
You deserve it.
But it's like, I think they might not.
(15:44):
There might be a slight impression of that, again, like how Jess was saying, you don't
even realize it's a problem.
Right.
Or the people that are that are saying that don't think that they have a problem and don't
assume that other people might have a problem with it.
Yeah.
But I think shopping compulsion and addiction in general is actually probably I would say
(16:10):
something that's extremely overlooked.
Yes.
Extremely.
Because a lot of people don't realize that they have the problem until it turns into
like you're losing your house, losing your marriage or like something even significant.
You don't even have a shopping problem or a shopping addiction.
(16:30):
And then their justification for it is but it's not drugs, but it's not alcohol.
At least it's not drugs.
But it's not something that's, you know, society based worse.
Correct.
And you know what?
It's something that I've heard people say before about a lot of different things.
At least it's not this.
At least it's not that.
(16:51):
I mean, I think even all of us have said that at one point in time or another.
I definitely did a lot of shopping in the weeks after my separation and divorce.
I was spending a lot of money.
I mean, it was not I never went into debt.
It was always money I had.
It's probably money that could have gone to other things.
But I definitely said, I remember my mother calling me out and she's like, you know, no,
no, no.
(17:11):
I'm like, I'm not doing drugs, mom.
I'm not drinking.
I'm not going out and hooking up with different people every night.
Like this is tame.
And you know, in hindsight it was, but it could easily have spiraled if I had not found
other things to kind of channel my feelings into.
It could easily have spiraled into something much worse.
(17:31):
So and I don't think she was trying to be a jerk.
I think she was just trying to be like, hang on there.
Like hold your horses.
But I mean, I'll be open and honest about it.
When I was in North Carolina, there was I had a very I remember I actually have a photo
of what my stash started out in North Carolina as it was two bookshelves, two little bookshelves.
(17:52):
That's all I had.
Tina, you used to have the smallest stash out of all.
I did.
I did.
But now look at you.
Well, I'm actually I have to say I've reduced quite a bit.
You have.
I've reduced a lot.
You've stashed quite a bit.
Yeah.
And if I haven't sold it, I've used it.
So I and actually the purchase I made from you guys is the first I've done in a really
(18:13):
long time.
I just really like that color.
I was like, this is not no.
But I also have a plan for it.
Oh, good.
So that's even more for me.
There's like a difference because like I feel like before it was like I would buy it because
it's pretty.
And now I'm like, no, now I actually have like there's a there's a spot for it because
(18:34):
it's got a purpose.
Yeah.
But even but back to when I was in North Carolina, I did.
I had two bookshelves and I was not doing well health wise.
When I say I was having a health problem, I mean, I was truly having mental health issues.
My medication was not correct.
(18:55):
My I did not have good a good support team around me in terms of providers.
And if you've looked at my personal Instagram, I do have a significant mental illness that
I deal with every day.
It's chronic.
And the solution that I was doing because of the pure isolation that I was in was buying.
(19:19):
And I went from having two bookshelves to having a wall.
Yeah.
Real fast.
Like maybe within I would say within a year period that I had filled a wall.
And it was because every time I saw yarn that I liked, it was buying.
I was buying, you know, four or five hundred dollars worth of it and having a ton of it.
(19:43):
It wasn't until I got better, which was after when I came back to Connecticut and I started
feeling better, I had a better support system, better medications, better, better things
all around that I was like, wait a second.
And then I put all my stash together and I went, oh, my God, how did I end up with this
much yarn?
And you know, again, I wouldn't say I got to a point.
(20:10):
I can't say that I was not necessarily, quote unquote, in debt, because I there was definitely
a point in time that we were we were paying some interest on purchases that I made that
I shouldn't have made.
But to say that I was like drowning in it.
No.
But it was but I think personally, just to just to be paying interest on stuff like that
(20:31):
is a problem.
I shouldn't have been like that.
I was spending money that I didn't have and couldn't cover.
And I joke about it.
I joke about my stash.
I joke about the size of it, even though now it's turning into this small little and I'm
OK.
And I'm OK with it.
I'm OK with it getting smaller.
I don't have a wall anymore.
I have need any.
(20:52):
No, I don't, because I'm filling the void that I was dealing with in much different
ways because there is no void.
It served a purpose at the time.
Yes.
And now you no longer need it.
Correct.
You don't have it.
So I'm I say that because if you are in a similar position, just take a moment to recognize
I speak that I'm speaking to my fellow compadres that are dealing with that kind of situation.
(21:19):
Just you don't necessarily have to sit there and be like, oh, my God, I'm an addict or
throw some kind of label on it.
But you do.
There is a situation where you kind of look at it and go, hey, hold on.
Let's take a step back.
Do I actually need all of this?
And yes, you know, treat yourself and all of that.
But have I treated myself one too many times and maybe we roll it back.
(21:44):
But you know, I don't think there's anything wrong with having a large stash or collection
or whatever the heck you want to call it.
But I do think there's a problem with it if it's getting out of control, where you don't
even know what you have or you're paying.
You're using money that you don't have or whatever.
It's putting you in a situation.
You're using addict tactics like you're hiding it from people.
(22:06):
You are spending money you're you're supposed to spend on other things on your stash.
And those are addict tendencies.
Yep.
Yeah.
You can't give up your rent money so that you can have a home.
Or even like, yeah.
But like the whole thing, the whole reason I think it was yarn harlot that said like
the point of the stash is so that you're not going to the yarn store every time you want
(22:28):
to cast on a project.
The point of a stash is that if at nine o'clock at night you find a pattern you want to knit,
you can go to your stash and you can find a yarn in there that would work.
It may not be exactly what you what the pattern says that you need, but it's close enough.
(22:49):
The other problem I think, and I don't know if this is what you did.
It's definitely what I did in accumulating stash.
I don't know if it's what you did.
But when you start out, you don't even know what you like.
Nope.
And you are just buying yarns that are pretty without knowing how you like them.
And this also contributes to your vast accumulation of stash because sure you have 50 skeins of
(23:15):
yarn, but you only like knitting with 10 of them.
Yeah.
Oh yes.
And you have realized that over time and you're like, wow, I bought this skein like five years
ago and holy hell, I do not want to knit with that or I'm allergic to it or you know, so
on and so forth.
Or in the beginning you get it because you like the color is not realizing weights are
a thing.
Right.
I got variegated lace weight.
(23:36):
I had that in my stash.
That was a thing I bought and I don't even knowing how to utilize.
No, because you're just like, oh, I need lace weight.
I don't only sweet and I should have sweet.
I want to knit with that.
I did that all the time.
Right.
Like I don't have enough DK.
How many times do I knit with DK?
(23:57):
Not often.
And I will tell you that believe it or not, the majority of stuff that I would knit with
his has either been fingering or light or lighter weight, not even DK or Super Bowl.
I'm actually at the end.
You just don't have a nice middle ground.
You're on the extremes of both sides.
My stash is full of a lot of stuff in the middle.
(24:17):
So like I have a lot.
So when I had my full stash and a lot of the stuff I gave up was worsted, like worsted
DKs, like that's what was going.
I was like, no, no, no, no.
The stuff that you realize you're not going to use.
Yes.
Especially the pounds and pounds and pounds of like big box brand stuff.
Right.
(24:38):
Because you know, you think it's a, it's not a deal.
It's on sale for $3 a skein.
So let me buy 12 of them.
And then you realize I'm never going to use.
I had, I literally counted.
I think I, I think my, I started out with 15 balls of what, what is it?
Something Brown hometown.
Oh my God.
What was it?
Was that lion, whatever the hell it wasn't like it was a lion brand or was it the other
(25:00):
one?
No, lion brand hometown.
And it was, you saw that stack right of Brown.
Brown was a good Brown.
So to be fair, I did buy that with the intention of a project, but I way overestimated how
much yarn I needed.
I was, but I initially, how many balls of yarn do we need for a sweater?
40, 40 is good.
40.
(25:20):
40 balls.
I had originally bought that this was back in North Carolina, 7,000 yards of yards.
And I had bought a, uh, I had bought it cause I was making a prayer shawl for someone that
was in my mental health support group.
And I wanted to make them a prayer shawl.
I needed to make it a larger because they were a larger person.
(25:41):
I wanted to make sure it could cover them and really get the comfort of a prayer shawl.
So I think out of the, I don't know, I don't know how many I bought, but I ended up with
a remainder of like 11 and a half.
And I'm like, how did I end up with?
So then I'm like, how many did I buy?
I'm like trying to figure it out.
(26:01):
But that's the thing is it's just, it's not even like a, you know, being willfully ridiculous.
It's you don't know better.
No, no.
You don't know how much you're going to, I mean, it's kind of like the first time I knit
a scarf.
I was like, okay, one ball of yarn.
It's going to be enough for a scarf.
It was not spoiler alert.
It was not enough for a scarf, but you don't know.
You don't know how much yarn you're going to need.
(26:21):
I still way overestimate every time I make a sweater or a scarf.
I always make or die or buy too much yarn, but at least then, you know, you can clear
it out and then make way for possibly more that maybe you'll buy with a more discerning
eye and maybe I'll actually knit with these things and someone else can get the ones that
(26:46):
I'm not going to knit with.
Yeah.
It's hard because I think again, it's one of those things that you see people will say
it casually like OCD or, you know, I'm feeling so crazy.
I feel schizophrenic or whatever, all these different terms, addiction, and you're not
thinking about the people that are actually dealing with it.
(27:07):
Right.
You know, and so it so yeah, sure.
I've obviously ingest small group of friends.
Maybe I don't think there's an issue with that, but when you're when you're like for
me, I feel a sort of obligation to post something that's pointed in the right direction, especially
with the follower count that I have.
(27:27):
Not that I have a lot, but I have a significant amount enough to be like, I feel like if I
were to put things like if I were to make jokes about addiction or stuff like that,
I would feel icky.
I would feel like I'm putting out to a large group of people.
This is the idea.
This is the message that you want to be sending.
Yeah, and I don't know if I want to be putting that out as a right, because most people will
(27:49):
probably not like say anything, but you know what?
It'll feel icky.
It's yeah, it's kind of one of those things that you know what?
I literally just went and checked Critical Hit to make sure that we don't use that hashtag
and we do not use that hashtag.
I feel a lot better because I was like, oh God, have we been doing that?
But I had to check.
No, but it is one of those things like I tell my kids all the time because my kids are,
(28:12):
you know, 15 and they love to, you know, use colorful insults in the classroom.
That's a word for it.
That's as nicely as I can put it.
And you know, I always tell them like you and your friends may not find those things
hurtful, but you don't know what everyone in this room is feeling.
And do you really want to hurt somebody?
And I mean, you know, they're 15, so they're like, oh, but like, you know, I don't know.
(28:34):
I'd like to think that deep down they actually do care.
You know, I think most of us wouldn't like to bother people.
We've kind of circled around this, but what what do you think?
What is too big?
Is there a point where it's too big?
If you don't have the storage for the things that you are storing.
(28:58):
Well, if you're getting a storage unit type of thing or you're finding other places to
put it.
I definitely think that you have a problem if you have a separate storage unit for your
hobby.
Yeah, well, it depends on the hobby.
Do you know, as I said that I was going to say like it's like biking or cars or something
like that.
Like it's one thing.
But for yarn, that might be a little excessive.
(29:20):
Yarn is a little excessive.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But like if you can't move in your house because if people are tripping over the skeins, they
come over for dinner.
I mean, I always have a decorative ball of yarn out there.
Nothing wrong with that.
And it's only decorative because I finished with it and then I didn't feel like doing
anything with the remainder.
(29:41):
Okay.
But we've all been there.
It's still pretty yarn.
Yeah.
So it looks nice.
People should enjoy it in its original form.
Yeah.
But I don't know.
There is definitely a visual point of excess.
I feel like if you have to, if you feel like you need to hide it from family, friends or
(30:02):
significant others, it's time to stop.
It makes me think about the reels where they're like hiding it from their husband.
I hate those reels.
Let's, you know, I'm saying husband because it's specifically a hetero kind of relationship,
like a wife hiding from the husband, very pointed kind of demographic.
(30:22):
But I feel like it's to that point, are you even enjoying it?
And if you're not enjoying it, then it kind of defeats the purpose of having it.
That's anxiety at that point.
Right?
Because now you're like, Oh, I'm going to get caught.
Let's put the shoe on the other foot here and I'm going to, I'm going to be that guy
of there are no reels of, and I get, I'm going to pick something so stereotypically, like
(30:47):
whatever male of the guy, like sneaking his golf clubs into the house.
Like nobody, nobody makes reels about that.
No, it's always the little woman hiding her hobby from the big mean husband that tells
her how to spend her money.
And that's all really misogynistic and insulting.
(31:09):
Also can I just say like men should be sneaking golf clubs in because those are expensive.
Yeah, right.
I mean, to be fair, if you haven't look up some golf club prices, man, it's kind of nuts.
Listen, listen, men be more shameful of your golf clubs.
That was not what I meant.
(31:29):
But like when men make big purchases or even like frivolous purchases, they're like, yeah,
this is what I did.
Like enjoy the inferences that they make the money.
Yeah.
It's okay for them to spend their money, but it's like, I don't know.
I'm, I'm just very like, it's not funny.
(31:52):
It's not funny to be the first off, like sneaking around behind your spouse's back.
The other thing to you, like, I feel like that says a lot about the relationship that
you have.
I will, I will never forget this.
Like back when I was, my parents were my back when my dad was alive and my parents were
living back in their old house and my mother was trying to move her stash of fabric from
(32:15):
one room to the other.
And I'm helping her carry these massive bins like down the stairs and she's like, Tom,
don't look.
And I'm like, like, he doesn't know.
And he's like, no, I'll like, I don't know that you have all this stash.
Like I know how much fabric you have.
And she was joking, but at the same time, like some people aren't, some people aren't.
(32:44):
And if, if you are like literally afraid to show your significant other, the stuff you
bought for your hobby, um, I don't even know if that's a stash problem or a relationship
problem.
There's two sides of that.
Are you afraid because you're ashamed of yourself?
In which case maybe look into stopping.
And if you're afraid because of what your spouse might do, maybe talk to your spouse.
(33:07):
Yeah.
Either way, I feel like if you're hiding it, that means again, this is supposed to be a
fun hobby.
If you're hiding it, like Tina said, now we're getting into anxiety.
We're getting into fear.
We're getting into, this is no longer a fun.
I mean, unless I guess you enjoy the thrill of hiding things, I guess that might be something.
That's also kind of weird.
It's just, you know, it's a little weird unless you're making something for somebody.
(33:30):
Yeah, I, I, yeah, it's kind of weird.
Well, that's, that's a different, yeah.
Like if you're trying to hide a project you're working on, so somebody's getting gifted,
it doesn't see it.
Right.
That's different.
That's totally different.
That's a whole different thing.
We're talking about like, we made a purchase, whether it's a target run, cause I don't know
why, but they're all target runs.
I have no idea.
Because you step into target and you only mean to buy toothpaste and then you walk out
(33:52):
with $200 worth of crap and you don't even know how that happened, but you actually did
need all of it.
Don't look at me like that.
This is my life.
I don't know.
It's never 200.
It's usually a hundred.
It's always stuff that we did need.
See I'm not that way about target.
I am.
It's awful.
So it's the same thing.
Yes.
I feel like, like for example, I went to, I went to Walmart.
(34:15):
I went to buy, my daughter needed a button button up shirt and we got the button up shirt
where we're walking out.
No big deal.
And then there was a $5 clearance rack with a beautiful little sweater on it.
And I was like, well, that's not going to the dump.
That's going on my body.
And yeah, cause that's, that's all for me.
When I see especially I have, that is one thing I am a sucker for when it comes to clearance
(34:41):
racks and knitwear.
If I see something that's like way under price for what it is, I just like, I know you're
not going to go to, I don't want you to go to the dump.
Let's go.
Come on.
That's fair.
Well, I think even clearance yarn, like, I don't think it's a bad idea to like go to
sales and stock up.
I mean, I would be a hypocrite.
I've gone to the village.
We'll sale.
Oh, come on.
(35:02):
Couple of times.
Come on now.
We all have.
But I think that, you know, we all know the thing is if, if you're not going to use it,
you didn't get a deal.
No, that's correct.
If you didn't, if you're not, you know, just buying the yarn because it's $5 a skein and
you're like, well, I don't know, but I'll figure out something for it.
And I'm not saying you need to go in and to every yarn purchase and know exactly what
(35:24):
that's going to be.
Man, I changed my mind about almost everything that I buy yarn for this sweater.
For example, I I've changed my mind about this yarn about four times.
But I feel like you should have some concrete idea in your mind of what you could use it
for.
So it's either a type of project.
Right.
This is going to be a sweater of some sort or a garment of some sort.
(35:46):
Right.
A shawl or this is going to be an accessory instead of buying 40 skeins of yarn and being
like, I'll figure it out eventually.
Like, you're a lot of yarn.
But that's the thing is a lot.
That's why I stopped going to the village will sale because I did get caught up in that
hole.
Oh my God, this is cheap yarn.
And then I ended up giving a lot of it away.
Yeah.
And, you know, that's not a deal.
(36:09):
That's not a deal at all.
I am fortunate to say that I pretty much went through.
I think I went through almost all the only the only stuff that I ended up.
There was a couple of types of skeins that I ended up selling like cute.
I bought way too much cumulus that time.
It's hard.
Someone bought all my cumulus like almost actually almost all my.
(36:29):
I think there's a couple skeins left of the dark blue and my yarn saver site.
But the the the teal cumulus is gone.
Like someone it's the siren call of that really nice cotton.
Like you can't touch it and then not buy pounds of it.
It's hard.
It's really hard.
But but yeah, but the idea that I had originally with that was a sweater.
(36:51):
And then I went this is going to pill to no end.
And stretch and stretch.
Cotton stretches.
Well, I saw what happened to your cardigan because you use cardigan or cotton with that.
Not cumulus, but it was a cotton base.
But cumulus is as has a higher micron count.
Yes.
So that would have pilled and stretched.
(37:13):
Yes.
So there'd be no coming back from that.
I do have a shawl made out of cumulus and it has not started filling yet.
Like I take very good care of it, but I feel like it will not last forever.
But the type of stitches that you did on that shawl, though, are very how do I say this?
Like a like a very structured, structured, safe use of that yarn.
(37:37):
Yeah.
Like I feel like if it was flatter, if that makes sense, because it has texture on it.
I think the texture right.
Protect the yarn a bit from the the pilling.
I feel like if it was flatter, it would pill.
And it's also not like a garment.
You know, it's not getting all the friction.
It's not, you know, it's not moving.
It doesn't have armpits or chills.
(37:58):
Yeah.
Yep.
No, I have a scarf made out of cumulus and it hasn't piled at all either.
It's but again, it's outerwear.
So right.
I think it can hold up a lot more.
But yeah, it's you kind of try to be realistic when you're buying that sail yarn instead
of just thinking I will totally use 20 balls of this navy blue acrylic.
(38:23):
Safe to say that, you know, if you I guess this is just a you know, if you feel like
that you're in a place that you might be having an issue with your yarn buying, then take
this as a note to just kind of do a self check and make sure that you're in a good place.
And if you don't feel like you're in that place, but you are using terminology that
(38:45):
may be problematic, maybe we maybe we just, you know, avoid using, I would say, illness
terms.
Because that's really what it comes down to is we're talking about illnesses, ableist.
It's very ableist to kind of toss those terms without really thinking about the people that
are getting affected by them.
(39:10):
That's it for this episode for additional content and opportunities to connect with
the cast.
Check out our website at part of my stash.com.
Be sure to tune in next time for more laughs, tears and Dre.
Hey, that's me at parted my stash.
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