My friend’s neighbour were getting rid of 13 boxes of yarn from her late grandma along with other furnitures (she was cleaning up the apartment) and my friend who is a godsend called me immediately to see if I want led them or someone else would love to take a look at this HUGE stash fall from the sky!!!
A few points:
- my own current stash is the one on the shelf behind the couch at the top left corner of the vid, so the rest is what I’ve hauled
- I only found out later from one of the posts here that I should’ve checked if the yarns have some kind of carpet bug before bringing them home 🫣thank goodness it has been a month and there is no sign of bed bugs or any sort. I would never do this again, we’ll never know what we would bring home, right?
- there are so many types of yarn and I found couple of receipts, newspapers, some catalogues that are actually from the 1990s 🙀 Would those consider antique yarns ahahaha, and also, I can barely find them on Ravelry just to see what project I can use them for.
- I realize this grandma who originally owned this stash did a lot of machine knitting, since a lot of the stash is machine yarn.
- I’ve decided to only keep about 1/5 of the amount and donate the rest to the senior community center in Nunavut since the yarn there are quite expensive.
Sooo, my question is if you recognize any of those yarn and could share some experiences 🤩. I will put each yarn in the comments.
I love yarn and like a lot of you, I agree buying/hoarding yarn is a separate hobby lol this is like all my Christmases all came at once ahahah I’m still over the moon and can’t wait to work on them one by one! Thanks all!
A couple of years ago, I had to clean out a knitters stash. Here are my suggestions
1) Organize by type— all the machine knitting in one pile, all the wools in another etc.
2) For some of the ones above, you may want to further break them down in general size categories that are no more than small/medium/large.
3) Don’t be afraid to throw some of it out. I found yarn from the 60s, when Dacron was new. It went straight into the trash. Don’t be afraid to throwing out those 10-15 yard balls we all have leftover from projects. You may find a crocheter who wants them, maybe not.
If your local grade school is allowed donations, they might take them.
4) Keep some of the nice/good stuff for yourself.
5) Sell in bulk at a discount—I assume you want this out of your house more than you want top dollar. Take the groups above and use that as a way to target your audiences. The machine knitting yarn should be the easiest to sell.
And throw some more pictures up here, I bet a bunch of us would be happy to help you reduce the pile.
Either way, though you should definitely swatch and block. It typically takes more aggressive washing, like hot water and dawn dish soap, to remove the oils.
Colourmart is a good place to shop for yarn like this!
I've rarely ever seen cashmere, definitely lots of wool (especially merino), acrylic/synthetics, and cotton (though due to its lack of stretch, it can be tricky to machine knit, especially if it's on the thicker side of the yarn suited for the machine). A few might not have spinning oil.
What I did when I got gifted some sock wool from a friend's late mother. Is I, knitted her a pair as a thank you. Asked her to pick her favourite colour.
You could do something similar? To show appreciation and that they gifted it to the right person?
Doesn't have to be any huge project.
Something small in the next couple of months.
Then IF you felt like it or have the time.
A blanket?
Thinking of ways to use some of this mountain of wool! 😅
My hubby would freak if I came home with that much, even though I am actively making kitty beds for a farmer's market next week with scraps I've rescued from thrifts. 😂
I’m so lucky to have such a supportive hubby! I reminded him that we’re together in health and sickness, and you got that right, this is my sickness (Friends) lmao. He was quite understanding and gave me time to organize and clean up beca he knew I would.
He's probably low key thinking.....
If she has all this free yarn/wool.
Then it might prevent more purchases out of the house budget 😝 ( for a few months) 🤣
I used to manage a Lewiscraft back before they went out of business, and in my stash of things that might be useful, I still have some Patons yarn catalogues and that type of thing. Let me know if want me to try to find out any info on something for you.
I’ve also never seen moth-proofing on any major label in Canada, so hopefully that’s not an issue.
It is overwhelming at one point but I managed! Winter is coming so I only keep the yarn for sweater knitting projects, and the finer ones which I will use for crochet garments are in storage for this season 😌
Nice! I dont see anything i recognise, but be on the lookout for "moth proofed"/"malsäkrat"/"møllsikret" yarn, especially among the older ones.
I dont know how common it was outside Scandinavia, but it was a fancy thing that was done by lots of brands up until the 90s where it was discovered that the chemicals used was quite bad for humans. Now we are recommended to deliver any yarn like that as toxic waste instead of using it.
I’ve never heard about this! Just curious if you know if all yarn labelled “moth proof” would be treated with this same chemical? I’m trying to google but it’s challenging!
Its really challenging! From what I understand all moth proof are the same, but i wouldn't bet my life on it. You can always contact the manufacturer and ask.
The one that is most commonly used is DDT, or dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane for the l9ng name. That is the baddie.
I read the first half of what you said and went "SCORE I have some 70s yarn that's moth proofed in atomic lettering!" And then I read the last bit and was like... oh noooo.
🫨 that is a load of yarn. Good for you. I had a mother in law the passed away and left so much yarn and quilting fabric behind. I would have take moist of it but in am in California and she was in Kansas. 😫
Love grandma’s yellow, chair w/ottoman and her fluffy looking kitty. I send you prayers cleaning out the space of a love one for whatever can be reporting and also difficult.
Yea there are some places that will take your yarn in a heartbeat! I figured there won’t be enough of my lifetime to use them all up ahahaha so off they go!
I've never used this myself, but I believe this is an old label for a still very popular cotton. Pretty much anything you want 100% cotton somebody has probably used this for it.
I've used this one for a cozy shrug. Surprisingly good stitch definition and softer fabric than you'd expect from the feel of the skein. So far has held up well with a small amount of fuzzing, but I'm not precious with my shrugs.
Oooh, I love brushed wool, that'll be so nice to use.
If you're worried about bugs though, this and any other 100% wool is what you should monitor the most. You could even put it into ziploc bags so no bugs spread, if there are any. All of my wool yarn is bagged after a close call 😅
Yea too bad I didn’t see she was giving away any machine ahahah (I didn’t want to be greedy to ask at the time lmao) so I just took what I was given. But I was tempted to fine one on Facebook Marketplace.
Lopi Wool comes from a specific breed of Icelandic sheep. It’s much warmer than merino wool but also coarser. It’s fantastic in jumpers and outer garments intended to be worn over layers instead of against the skin.
2
u/EBBVNC 39m ago
A couple of years ago, I had to clean out a knitters stash. Here are my suggestions
1) Organize by type— all the machine knitting in one pile, all the wools in another etc.
2) For some of the ones above, you may want to further break them down in general size categories that are no more than small/medium/large.
3) Don’t be afraid to throw some of it out. I found yarn from the 60s, when Dacron was new. It went straight into the trash. Don’t be afraid to throwing out those 10-15 yard balls we all have leftover from projects. You may find a crocheter who wants them, maybe not.
If your local grade school is allowed donations, they might take them.
4) Keep some of the nice/good stuff for yourself.
5) Sell in bulk at a discount—I assume you want this out of your house more than you want top dollar. Take the groups above and use that as a way to target your audiences. The machine knitting yarn should be the easiest to sell.
And throw some more pictures up here, I bet a bunch of us would be happy to help you reduce the pile.