Display the Stash
As someone who works from home, it can be hard to set boundaries on space - what is living space and what is work space. And my materials take a lot of space. So instead of hiding the stash, I’ve made it the focal point!
There are good reasons to keep your stash hidden away in airtight bins and protected from the sun, I understand that. I also have bins tucked in a closet. I’m pretty sure my side of the closet has more yarn than clothes. But I also firmly believe that we shouldn’t need to “hide” our stash!
Our stash is part of who we are: it tells others what we find beautiful, useful, or what we aspire to. These are things that should not be hidden.
I worked in a yarn store for 10 years. Over that time I learned that most crafters hide their stash. It doesn’t matter the craft - knitting, spinning, quilting, hooking. Somehow we have associated our collection of materials with shame.
But what if we reframed our stash as a collection—something to be seen, lived with, and even displayed with pride?
I joke that there should be a magazine dedicated entirely to decorating with stash - whatever your stash happens to be! But I mean it too.
Why shouldn’t a bookshelf have a shelf dedicated to unused yarn (after all, it probably contains unread books)! Or a lovely stack of woven scarves?
Why can’t the china cabinet house cones of linen meant to make napkins to match the china?
A collection of tea towels looks lovely on a shelf.
A bowl of seasonally-coloured yarn would look beautiful on a coffee table. Flowers out of season? Fill your vases with pretty balls of yarn.
Once a customer came in and bought 3 beautiful skeins of yarn with the express purpose of hanging them on a piece of driftwood in his living room. We should do more of this!
There are good reasons to display your yarn too!
Seeing them each day reminds you of what you already have (have you ever bought a skein, got it home only to realize you already had one almost identical?)
Without you realizing it, your mind is quietly working in the background. One day you will look at that skein you didn’t know what to do with and the idea will come! That wouldn’t happen if it were tucked in a cupboard!
It might help you let go. It is true that most of us have more yarn than we will use. But what if a friend fell in love with a skein in your display? What if they said they had the perfect project for it? I’ll bet you’d love to see that yarn reach its full potential in your friends hands.
We fill our houses with things that make us happy. And if yarn makes you happy, it deserves a place in your home - not hidden away, but right out in the open!
