Category: Curate your Collection

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What Kind of Collector Are You?

pile of multicolor fingering weight yarn

Here is a repost of a blog that I wrote over 6 years ago. It still is an important part of your creativity and your enjoyment of your craft.

What kind of collector are you? Whether you use yarn, fabric, beads or paper, your art requires supplies. How do you handle your collection?

  • Type 1—You only buy materials for your current project so you don’t have a stash or any UFO’s (unfinished objects)?
  • Type 2—You try to only buy for a current project but look forward to your next project while you’re working on your current one? So you have a limited collection and only 1 or 2 UFO’s.
  • Type 3—You only buy materials for current and future projects? You like to get the supplies and pattern together then you know you have everything for the pattern. You have a small to medium collection, some UFO’s.  All your materials are matched with a pattern for easy access to the next project.
  • Type 4—You buy the materials you like and don’t worry about which pattern it will go with? You know that eventually a project will emerge for the supplies.  You have a medium to large collection and some UFO’s that you work on industriously to complete.
  • Type 5— You buy anything and everything that calls to you? The yarn or cloth speaks to you and you listen.  You have a large collection that you sometimes feel guilty about. But you also get a lot of creative satisfaction when you visit and pet your yarns, beads, and textiles.
Slave to Art

I am a Type 4. I do have a medium stash of beads, quilting fabric AND yarn.  I try to just buy for projects but I also buy materials that call my name.  Since I’ve founded Flying Goat Farm, I have only been to 1 quilting store.    I have just recently gotten back into my sewing room. I have finished 4 quilting projects.  I also designed and completed another quilt project. I have lots of ideas rolling around my head for more paper, fabric and weaving project to complete in the coming year.

Leave a comment here or on Facebook to tell me what stash you collect and what type of collector you are!!

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Next Podcast Installment Dropped

In this episode, I talk about visiting, really visiting your collection. This is the first step to go from shame to love! I know that some of you have a pretty big collection that may not just be a few bins but a roomful? There’s a strategy for that as well.

Just the beginning of the FGF yarn business

Last year, just before the pandemic hit, I went through my quilt stash and changed it to a collection of fabric that I truly love. I did 1 bin a day. It took a week as I recall. I went through each bin and really visited each piece of fabric. I did KonMari** on it. If it brought me joy, I kept it. If it was just “meh”. I put it aside to donate. I am so glad that I spent that time. I’m so glad that I did a little a day. I just spent an hour or so. But did it day after day. That way I avoided overwhelm. So I’m suggesting that you do that too.

I know that after you listen to this episode and doing the simple steps that I suggest, you will feel the excitement and yes, the LOVE of your collection!

Click to to listen

** The KonMari method was pioneered by Marie Kondo, the Japanese Organizational expert

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Be the Curator of Your Collection–a free ecourse

It’s summertime. It’s hot. It’s sticky. The last thing you want to do is knit. And when it is so hot outside, you may not be thinking about doing anything with your yarn.

I know that I don’t want to spend anytime outside in the humid hot air. My hair doesn’t act right, I am sweating. My clothes are sticking to me. Instead I want to be inside. I want to be in the air conditioned house.

So what could be better than using my knitting time to fall in love with my yarn collection all over again. How about you? If you’ve been following this blog or subscribing to this newsletter over a few months, you probably know that I’m banishing the word STASH from my vocabulary and I’m trying to persuade you to do the same. I want to think of my yarn as a collection that I’ve curated over some time.

I’ve developed a series of 7 lessons to help you banish the shame of stash and relish all the gems that you have collected over the years. This free e-course will lead you from exploring what you have, to clearing out what you have outgrown, and rehoming those items that no longer bring you joy.

Summer is a perfect time of year for you to go through this work. You will be ready for the fall fiber festivals. You will receive a lesson each week with instructions and ideas for organizing your collection of yarn, patterns, needles and notions.

I’ve included downloadable documents as well. You can join our Ravelry group, where we will be talking about our collections and sharing ideas and photos with the hashtag #collectioncurator. I hope you will join me on this journey by clicking here to start falling in love with your yarn all over again.