Contests/Giveaways: February 2005 Archives

That's the magic number. And even though there were over 100 entries, no one guessed that exact number.

The most popular guesses (at 3 each) were 189, 198, 243 and 437 (pretty close!) .

In the end, the person who got the closest without going over was Stacey. Pretty fitting since her blog's subtitle is "from my stash to yours". Stacey gets 3 skeins of Silk Garden color 74.

The closest guess (albeit over) was from Nolee at 455. So Nolee, you've won second prize! It's 300 yards of handdyed worsted weight (4spi) wool in purples.

And for third prize, I decided to pick a number at random just so everyone had a chance of winning. I picked number 7 which was Jackie! Her guess was 420. I'll be sending Jackie a hank of burgandy Brown Sheep Top of the Lamb and a skein of gold Lamb's Pride. The colors go well together and the yarn would make up nicely into a felted bag.

Congrats, Ladies!

Now, many of you left comments saying how lucky I was and how great it was to have such a stash. I've really put some thought into how I feel about it. And here's where I've ended up. I'm grateful to be able to go out and buy yarn on a whim when a new project strikes my fancy, but it really doesn't do much past that initial instant gratification. I've learned that all too often when an idea strikes I want to buy yarn for it RIGHT NOW and I end up making purchases that are less than ideal for the project. So, I've gotta stop that.

Also, I just love shopping for yarn when I'm in the planning stages of a project, and with a big stash I now feel guilty doing that.

So, here's what I'm doing about it. I'll be faithfully tracking all my stash yarn in my spreadsheet that I setup last week. This way I can make sure that I'm continuing the utilize stash yarn. This will let me know that I'm making progress even when it's not very obvious. I'm also going to try my darndest not to buy any more yarn until Maryland Sheep & Wool. And I will probably have more contests here on the blog. I think it's a great way to share the extra skein or two leftover at the end of a project with someone who might have just the right inspiration for it. Plus it gives me a way to say thanks to all my readers out there who so generously give me advice and encouragement whenever I need it!

I've gotten a lot of entries for the Guess the Stash contest, but none have been the exact number. Guesses have ranged from the low 100's all the way up to almost 2000!

I'm extending the contest to end of day today so there's still time to enter. Just leave me a comment here and I'll make sure you're in the running.

Also, I've decided to sweeten the pot and do a First, Second, and Third prize -- so you have 3 chances of winning.

Winners to be announced over the weekend!

I organized my stash this weekend. About 5 months ago I went to Target (that's Tar-zhay) and bought 4 big plastic bins to hold my stash. I took most of the bags and boxes and neatly placed them in the bins. I even had room left in a couple of them.

I knew I had more yarn but I was procrastinating pulling it all together. Bags were piled in a corner in the living room (somewhat out of sight) and on the sunporch and in the huge coffee table that comes chock full of stash hiding opportunities storage.

I've been meaning to get around to it, and when I wrote that post on Thursday I had this organization project on my mind. After getting the WONDERFUL comments from you all I knew I could take a few days off and get my stash in order once and for all.

Stella came over Friday night. As she knit I pulled out ALL MY STASH.

I catalogued everything in Excel and I now know everything I have. I feel freer. Lighter in fact. Hmm...sorta.

I now know that I have 448 Gallons of yarn. That's EIGHT bins of yarn. EIGHT. I cannot believe I have amassed this much yarn. I truly had no idea.

So this is where the contest comes in. Guess how many balls/skeins/hanks/cones of yarn I have in those bins. The person who most closely guesses the number without going over will win something wonderful from the stash. I'm not sure what yet, but really there's nothing bad in there.

Added Later

I've gotten several questions asking what might be in store for the winner. While I still don't know for sure, here are some ideas: a few skeins of Silk Garden, some Koigu, a felting kit in a variety of colors, sportweight Baby Alpaca, a couple hanks of Hand-dyed 4spi wool or some sock yarn. Whatever it might be it will be lovely and be all/predominately a natural fiber.

A couple of hints:

• Two of the bins have some room left in them
• I have one bin dedicated to sock and laceweight yarn
• I have one bin dedicated to cones
• I've counted each pound of yarn on the cone as 1 ball. So, if I have a 2.5 pound cone of yarn, it counts as 2.5 balls.
• Excluding the sock yarn, most of my yarn is 4.5-5.5 spi. I do have some bulky, but it doesn't even fill half of a bin.

Email your guess to savannahchik AT yahoo by Thursday afternoon. I will announce the winner by Sunday. Remember -- you need to be the closest one without going over.