Addendum: I have been looking for blogs that focus primarily on cross stitching, but I have not found as many as I thought were out there. I'm a cross stitcher and sometimes crochet-er, but perhaps I ought to take up knitting...some of those pics on the knitting blogs are *fabulous*!

Too Much Stash and Not Enough House
Do you know what my problem is? Too much stash.

Yep, that's right...too much stash.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::: thump ::::::::::::::::::::::::

Sorry, that was just me falling into a dead faint at the words of such blasphemy. Too much stash??? Is it possible?

Not really. But it *is* possible to have too little house!

Here is my dilemma...too much stash squeezed into too little house. The problem is that I don't want to get rid of anything, because I never know when I will want to stitch it! I could possibly part with a *few* charts, but you would have to pry the silks and metallics out of my cold, dead fingers before I'd willingly part with them. The fabics are the same way. I don't want to get rid of any of them, for I go through phases: one time I'm into hand-dyes, then I'm into plain colors, then I'm into evenweave, suddenly I can't do without linen, so on and so forth. You get the picture.

I wish someone with superb organizational skills who understands the fine art of stash-storage would take pity on this poor slob and organize my stash space!! I do so much better keeping things organized when somebody else does the work. That way I only have to "maintain" and not "create", know what I'm saying? I'm a painter and needleworker; I'd say my creative juices are pretty much saturated with those standards, and you notice Organization is not amongst them. I actually can orgainze, but I have to really really really work at it, and my stash always seems to get mussed up before I even step away from the drawer (or closet, or shelf...it's scattered everywhere because there is no one place it will all fit!).

Now, I know I don't have as much stash as other stitchers, and thank goodness for that or I would be sleeping on the deck. Some descriptions of stash hauls have left me in cold sweats. What would I *do* with it all? After I get over the envy of others full lines of Waterlilies and Eternas, reality-check time sets in and I realize I have too little space as it is for the stash I've got.

Here is a little sampling for those of you who enjoy 'stash sharing' via la internet:

Full line of DMC (nearly two full lines, with about three bags stuffed with those skeins that might come in 'extra')
Full line of Anchor (only three boxes actually bobbined)
Nearly the full line of Kreiniks blending filament and #4 braids
Full line of Sulky Sliver Threads
Full line of Prisms
Full line of Olde Willow Stitchery hand dyed threads
Nearly full line of Tiaras
Four boxes of Mill Hill/GICK beads
Endless baggies of odds and ends (miscelleneous silks, fibres, beads, etc)
One full box of bobbined Eterna silks (overdyes and regular colors)
One nearly full box for my silks: Waterlilies, Gumnuts, Silk N Colors, Vikki Clayton
One long drawer of my Oriental secretary's desk stuffed with a rainbow of fabrics
Patterns galore including designs from:
Camelot Designs (I'm nuts about castles)
Mirabilia (my favorite designer ever)
Teresa Wentzler (I love her non-fantasy designs)
Lesa Steele Designs (my favorite samplers)
Victoria Sampler
Lavender & Lace
others too numerous to name

It is not nearly as much as some but it is almost way to much for the space I have to dedicate to it! Wah wah boo hoo.

I guess there is only one simple, practical solution: sell my house and get a bigger one.

:::::::::::::::sigh::::::::::::::::::

Well, okay, maybe not...but it can't hurt to dream!:)

Someone needs to call The Learning Channel and come up with a show that doesn't focus on making over a room but making over an area just for needlework supplies. It would be called The Stash Space and star too very cool looking thirty-somethings, thereby also doubling as a show that dispells the 'stitching is only for old ladies' myth.

Sounds cool...I wonder if they are taking calls?

9.21.2003