When I first started knitting, fresh out of college and pretty broke, I posted online in my area asking for spare yarn to practice on and a wonderful woman invited me to her house and proceeded to fill my arms with a treasure trove of extremely high quality yarn in my favourite colours. Some shed inherited from her mother, some she'd collected herself. It took me a few months to realize I was knitting Baby's First Hat with precious, often irreplaceable yarn. In one fell swoop she set me up with both a stash and snobbish taste in yarn :p

a video about consumerism with an ad for drop-shipping is so crazy

When you're looking at any hobby online, you're going to see the most picturesque, consumerist version because that's who posts and that's what the algorithm rewards them for posting. People who have small stashes or just buy for projects aren't posting stash organizing videos. People who just want to put their thoughts on paper don't care if they use a regular spiral bound and aren't posting photos. People who just want to relax with a coloring book and don't particularly care about how it looks aren't buying marker sets worth a rent payment and certainly aren't posting about it. As with most online experiences, we the audience have to keep in mind that content creators are NOT the vast majority of people who do a hobby.

I was hoarding skeins for a project- my first ever sweater, and I never started because I was too scared to see it fail. I loved the colors and texture of the yarn, and then Joannes closed, so all I had to make my perfect sweater was those 7 skeins. I just moved a few months ago, and had to make the decision of what yarns to keep and what to donate, and I decided now would be the time to make my sweater. It was clear early on that I wouldn’t have enough, but I kept going, and even though I had to change my idea many times, I’m now adding the ribbing and buttons, and hopefully will get to wear it this week.

A lot of fiber arts are very slow hobbies so I feel like buying yarn is a way of "speeding it up." I struggle with starting too many projects at once and that's how I accumulate a stash. I'm trying hard right now to finish WIPs and reduce my stash (although nowhere near as bad as some of the people I see online, but it stresses me out anyway). Anyway watched this while knitting the palette socks to use up the big stash of scrap sock yarn I have

I have an involuntary yarn stash, as my family is so thrilled that I picked up fibre arts that they drop BAGS of skeins at my door every month. Listen. Happy problems are both happy, and problems. Most of the yarn I receive is from their own yarn stash, or friends of friends' so I pay it forward and get me a little dopamine sparkle in the process. I live in fingerweaving country, so I made a list of all local weaving, knitting, and crocheting circles that I could find through Facebook and local libraries, and I've been making it rain over there. Low-income folks now have an opportunity to get started for free (I also drop the occasional hook or needle set), and maybe even get a side hustle from it. Bigger table instead of higher fence, and all that good stuff...

I also love the idea of offering hand and yarn for pattern testing, I will definitely give it a try this year!

One thing I'm a firm believer in is that because of social media, we don't get to see the difference between the stash that a professional should have vs what a casual crafter has. It's normal for someone with a moderately successful crochet business to have the yarn needed for their pieces on hand, hence businesses having large yarn stashes. But most people don't require that. But since influencing has blurred the lines between normal people and businesses/celebrities, we tend to think that what someone with 10k followers has is what we need. It's not just the case for craft, it's the same for lifestyle influencers who go on holiday multiple times a year when most people don't even go on a holiday away every year, or fashion influencers who never repeat outfits, when most people can't afford to do that.

I've also found that when you have yarn that has been sitting in your cupboard/box/storage for months and you won't use it, one thing you can do is resell it on vinted. I've done this a few times, I'd bought a beautiful baby pink yarn with some silver sparkles, which I was hoping to turn into a dress for a kid... the yarn arrived and it was the scratchiest yarn I've ever touched, and I was never able to work with it, I wanted to but could never find the "right" project. I sold it on vinted for a little discount from what I'd bought it for. Sometimes jumping the gun and giving yarn away or selling it is a good option to cut down on stash

The other day I went to a yarn store with no intention to buy. I walked around saw something on sale, selected a few skeins and told the cashier: I just realised I have two hobbies - 1. crochet and 2. getting yarn & supplies.

I’m old enough to be your mom, so you probably don’t want to be friends with an old lady, but you’re absolutely adorable, and spot on with your take on consumerism amongst the fiber arts universe 👟

9:46 I read a psychology/self help book about hoarding and cluttering behavior; it said that crafters and DIYers are the perfect people to become hoarders because they’ll buy, save, or salvage stuff that they know they’re going to use BUT they’ll buy too much, or their projects pile up, or they have a day job so they don’t have time, or lose track of what supplies they already have and buy more. I just remember sitting there thinking red flag ⛳⛳⛳

4:41 This is a big thing for me, especially because of my autistic traits and 0CD. When find something that feels "safe," or is comfortable, I'll often buy more of it because I don't want to lose that feeling. At the same time, my 0CD makes me worry that it could eventually be taken away or become unavailable, so I get into the mindset that I need to stock up while it's available.

😂😂😂 You literally called me out so much and exactly like my therapist said on the creative aspect 😅😅😅

16:22 I feel another thing about yarn stashes (in my opinion) is that most people will purchase because they want to see if that yarn is "right" for them. Bringing back to my autism, it's sensory issues for myself, yarns can be very unpredictable. One skien might be very soft, but another from the same batch could be very rough. The unknown of what you're going to get, so you might as well try it out now then later and "at you'll have a rough idea".

19:23 👟 I hope you find some pattern makers!!!! I'm so happy you posted this video!!!

All the shoesssss 🥿👞👟👠👡👢

this comment section is SENDING ME it looks like everyone’s throwing shoes at each other

I have a really cool place near me that is basically a thrift shop just for crafting supplies. It’s great because if you wanna try something new, there’s a really low cost to entry. A lot of people donate their hobbies that they didn’t quite stick with.

“I wanna make friends basically 👉🏻👈🏻” 😭😭😭
You’re so sweet omg I caaaaan’t❤️

13:30 This is so fascinating because what made me, someone who deals with decision paralysis and perfectionism, gravitate towards knitting is precisely because you can always unravel your projects and start a new one. Sure, there will be some waste and after ripping something out a few times, the yarn isn't as nice looking or structurally sound, but it's so much more forgiving than something like sewing

I came here thinking I’d sit back, relax, and watch the crazy yarn hoarders. I did not think you would find so much depth, hold a mirror up to my room, and point at my own supply hoarding habits that extend beyond yarn. 😅 wow
👟🥿👠👞🥾👢👡🩰⛸️🎿🛼🩴

Two thoughts I had (maybe three):

1. my heart almost jumped in my pants when you said throwing away the yarn. I actually yelled at my screen: Donate it to a charity shop! But then you talk about thrift stores later, so all is good.
2. I wonder if that is a bit of an American problem... I live in continental Europe and having space for a yarn stash is different here. We have less space in general than from what I see in the States. I don't know people that can just have a room in their house/appartment for stuff they don't want to look at! In my country we also don't have amazon (yay!) so the over night free shipping thing just does not exist. We don't have dollar stores either, so yarn in general is never overly cheap. I also don't have a car, (also more common in Europe I think) and all of that means it is pretty much a hassle to have way too much yarn just for the sake of having too much yarn.

I mean I still feel guilty of yarn hoarding, even though my stash is very small (not as small as my mums, because she makes armies of bed socks out of her leftover yarn) and I feel like there is some worth to forcing yourself to use the yarn you bought even if just to teach us to take responsibility for our actions. And there are creative ways too do it, one mindset however is: you have to adapt. You use what you have, even though there would be a yarn to buy that is more ideal and perfect. That is a big one for me. Life doesn't need to be ideal. It needs to be real. (Ending on a philosophical note I guess.)

I feel so seen when you say we don’t learn how to keep tidy. Also my brain is very cluttered. When I got into crochet, I genuinely worried about accumulating stuff because I don’t normally like trinkets or thrifting but with this hobby I knew I would. I think I have a pretty manageable yarn stash but it’s gonna take a lot to reduce it.

I do appreciate this video for the why instead of the “we need to stop consumerism” that you normally hear. Like yes, consumerism is bad but there’s a reason why we’re here in the first place.

What you say 5:12 is definitely a huge problem for me! I love shopping for fabric, yarn and notions. But recently, I realized that buying more than I need and storing it for potential future projects takes away some of the joy for future me. Once I have picked out the next knitting pattern or designed my next sewing project, I'm going to want to pick the perfect materials for it rather than having to use something from my stash that might not quite match my vision anymore. So when I'm tempted to buy stuff I don't need, I tell myself how excited future me will be to select the right yarn or fabric in the future and that I shouldn't spoil that for her. It's definitely not the ideal reasoning, but at least it helps me to work on my habits and buy less in the moment 😅

buying yarn and using yarn, like buying books and reading books, are two separate hobbies
and remembering that when I nearly get sucked into buying a yarn I don’t yet have a project in mind for usually makes me change my mind