So if you’re into crafts or on Instagram, you might have heard of Me Made May. It’s a monthlong celebration of handmade clothing, and it’s truly amazing to see all the wonderful things people are making for themselves.

But if you’re a knitter in the Northern Hemisphere, May isn’t such a great time to show off all your handknits. It’s just starting to get hot, and even the lightest shawlette can be too hot to wear. That’s why I was so glad to hear that Karen Templer over at Fringe Association was planning a Slow Fashion October.

A Slow Fashion October can be anything you want it to be – about mending worn clothes, making by hand or purchasing handmade – but at its heart, it’s really about stopping to think about our clothes and the effort that goes into them.

I was sitting at a spinning circle recently, and one of the women there said something that just blew my mind. She pointed out that for most of recorded history, all fiber was spun on a spindle.

That’s right – a spindle. Not on a wheel. Not by machine. By hand, on a spindle.

What I think of as a slow and tedious way to make yarn was the only way until about the year 1000 C.E.

Fashion, whether it was destined for the royal courts or everyday working gear, was anything but fast. Yarn had to be spun (on a spindle, remember), then woven, then cut and sewn by hand.

Slow Fashion October doesn’t have to be that slow. 

I’ve always been fascinated by how things are made. I’ll often follow a trail all the way to the beginning, then branch out and try other things. First it was knitting, which turned into an obsession with pattern design. Then it was spinning my own yarn. Weaving is my latest fascination. After all, I can’t wear sweaters all year long. 

Some people might call my constantly evolving fiber hobbies unfocused, but I think it’s incredible that just a few generations ago many of these skills were commonplace and even necessary for survival.

So for my Slow Fashion October, I’m going to focus on the things I make. On incorporating handmade items into my everyday wear, and on making some truly slow fashion – a sweater, of my own handspun, made from local wool.

I’ll be sharing a lot on Instagram. If you’re interested in what other folks are doing, be sure to check out @slowfashionoctober while you’re there.

If you want to participate but don’t know where to start, remember that just being aware of your fashion choices and why you make them is a great place to start. 


So let’s get going! Do you have any slow fashion goals?

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I’ve written several posts on this blog about stash, and I’m sure I’ll write several more. As someone who is addicted to all things yarny, stash is just a given in my life. 

Really, it’s all about being aware of what’s in my stash –and being comfortable with its size and composition.

I don’t mind having full skeins of yarn in my stash. It’s those little odds and ends that get to me. I hate throwing them away – it feels like such a waste. 

​​So to use up those little odds and ends, here’s a fun littlestashbusting project. It works best with fingering- to worsted-weight yarn. Just click on the button below to get your free stashbuster sachets pattern!

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Earlier this year, I decided I needed to knit more from my stash and spend less money on impulse yarn purchases. Not knitting from my stash was starting to fill me with guilt, and I was buying more and more yarn as a substitute for actually knitting. So I spent a day going through my stash, letting go of yarn I would never use, and making plans for what I kept.

One of the first things on my to-knit list was a stashbusting sweater, using up odds and ends of purple and gray yarn that had been lingering in my stash for ten years or more. Brilliant plan. I was going to be the stashbuster of the century.

Then, after just two color repeats, I started to panic. No way would there be enough purple yarn to do what I wanted. So I went to the yarn store and bought three new skeins of yarn.

Another week passed, and I started to panic again. This time, there was no way there would be enough gray. So I went back to the yarn store and bought three new skeins of gray yarn.

After finishing the body of the sweater, I knew I would need just one more skein of purple yarn to get through the sleeves.

Can you see where this story is going?

Knitting a “stashbusting” sweater led to purchasing a whole sweater’s worth of yarn. To my credit, I did use up all the original stashbusting yarn, but ended up with about the same yardage left over from all the new yarn I bought. 

If there’s a moral to the story, it’s that downsizing is hard. 

Whether it’s your stash, your to-do list, or the contents of your closet, it’s always hard to let go. And if you’re like me, something inevitably creeps in to take the place of whatever you tried to let go.

This is just human nature taking over. We have a natural aversion to perceived loss. If I feel like I’m losing part of my stash, my subconscious kicks into overdrive to figure out a way to replace whatever it lost. Even though I ended up with a whole sweater, my subconscious didn’t want to lose any stash. That’s how I ended up with the same amount of yarn left over as I started with.

It would be easy to blame it on human nature and totally give up on the whole downsizing crusade. And it’s totally fine if you do. But if you’re committed to downsizing because it just feels right for you, then don’t let that silly human nature get in your way. You are stronger than that.

Downsizing doesn’t happen overnight. It is a process, and it takes time, effort, and a good handle on whatever tricks your subconscious likes to play on you.

Knowing this is the key to not giving up.

Give it another shot. And another. And another.

Maybe you don’t want to conquer your stash, or your to-do list. That’s okay. Maybe you want to conquer something else, like clearing your email inbox or finally writing that book. Whatever it is, these principles still apply.

Making room for what you want to do is hard, because your subconscious doesn’t like change. It will do everything it can to hang on to what it “lost” or try to get you to replace it.

Just be aware of what’s going on. Don’t beat yourself up. We all have a subconscious that plays these games. Notice what triggers you. Know that it’s a process, and keep trying.

It’s that simple. But it’s not always easy.

Previous posts in this series:

• Ma'am, Step Away From the Yarn
  
• Stop Letting Your Stash Rule Your Life. Rule Your Stash!
  

Ravelry Project Page for the "Stashbusting" Sweater:

• Scrappy Sweater

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Stashbusting. For knitters, it is one of the most controversial words there is.

If you don’t have a stash, feel free to stop reading, unless you’re really curious about the psychology of stashing, and how to talk to people who stash. (Interested in how stash happens? Read this.)

If you have a stash, a pile of yarn tucked away for a rainy day, you know what I’m talking about. There’s probably yarn bought ten years ago for something you intended to make, but never got around to making. And the odd skein of something precious, only you can’t find something you want to make with it.

If you have a stash, no matter how big, you probably have a mental catalog of what’s in it and even the project you were going to make with it. The laceweight baby alpaca that was going to be a shawl, the sweater’s worth of yak yarn you paid cash for while your husband was looking the other way, the skeins of yarn in every shade that were meant to be something amazing but are now just sitting there.

If you have a stash, it probably also has scraps of yarn leftover from other projects. Whether it’s a lot or a little, you never know when you might need it, so it gets added to the stash.

If you have a stash, you probably go to the yarn store just to see what’s new, what sparks your interest today. And you can’t resist walking out with three or four projects’ worth of yarn, even though you only came in for one skein of sock yarn.

If you have a stash, you probably have guilt.

Having a stash means you have to protect it from moths. That takes work, and often it means you don’t feel like you can display it out on the shelves (which is what makes it so appealing in the yarn store in the first place). You feel guilty that your beautiful yarn must be hidden away in a plastic bin at the back of a closet.

Having a stash means guilt when you buy yarn only to discover you already had exactly what you needed.

Having a stash means you might be spending more time shopping for yarn than actually knitting with it. If that’s what brings you joy, that’s one thing, but you’re probably feeling some guilt when you look at that credit card statement at the end of the month.

Having a stash means you want to make so many, many beautiful things, but there will never be enough time. If you’re like me, you probably have some guilt over that.

I’m not here to say that having a stash of yarn (or anything else for that matter) is bad. What’s bad is the meaning we attach to it – consciously or unconsciously – and the fact that when our stashes are too big, we often feel dragged down by them rather than uplifted by them.

But there’s hope.

You just have to say no.

You have to know what to say no to, and what you’re saying yes to. Because “No” makes way for “Yes.”

But before you can say “Yes!” to what you want, you probably need to learn how to say no to all that other stuff.

The magical thing is, when you start to say “No” to the things you never really wanted (or the things you don’t want anymore), there’s a whole lot of space left for “Yes!” 

So when it comes to your stash, you have to face it, head on, and say “No,” say goodbye, let go of the things that pull you down, so the bits of stash that really lift you up can do that.

Here’s how:

• Lay it all out on the floor, KonMarie style. You don’t know how much you have until you can see it all in one place. 
  
• Now is the time to empty out every bit of stash everywhere. All the stash in your closets, your knitting bags, your knitting baskets, wherever you keep it. If you can’t remember where it is, then it’s a “No” the minute you find it, and you have to send it away. Don’t risk it being something special. Find it all and put it in one place now.
  
• You always wanted to roll around in a luscious pile of yarn. Now’s your chance. Do it naked, if you want. I won’t tell.
  
• Make two piles. One yes, one no. 
  
• There are no maybes. If you can’t decide, it’s probably a no. 
  
• Don’t worry about saying no to something you once loved. It once brought you joy. If it no longer brings you joy, then its purpose has already been fulfilled. Send it back out into the world where it can bring someone else joy. 
  

For the No’s:

• Acknowledge that they once gave you joy. Remember the joy they gave you, and celebrate it.
  
• Recognize that they no longer bring you joy. 
  
• Do not worry about trying to bring the joy back. Trying to hold on to joy is like trying to catch the wind. You’ll have it for a time, and then it will go. It will come back, but on its own terms.
  
• Let them go. There are many ways to let go of yarn: Sell on Ebay, Ravelry, your blog, or even in the local classifieds. Donate it to a thrift store, charity knitting group, or the little kids across the street who just discovered crafting.

Toss the shit out. If you know it’s bad, it’s probably bad. There’s no shame in throwing it away.
Even if you can’t let all the “No’s” go all at once, make a plan to phase them out. Immediately, they will stop draining your energy, and you’ll feel like your load has been lightened – mentally and physically.

For the Yes's:

• Catalog it. Be specific. Weight, Yardage, Color, anything you use to make decisions when knitting.
  
• Write down what you intend to make with it. 
  
• Write down what, if anything, you need to get started. Whether it’s a notion, a pattern, or another ball of yarn in a contrasting color, write it down. But don’t buy it (yet).
  
• Make a plan for when you’ll use your yarn. Unless you’re dealing with mohair, it can always be ripped out once or twice or even three times if you make a mistake. No other craft I know is like that. Rejoice that your love of knitting lets you fix your mistakes, no matter how bad, and actually spend time making things with the stash you love so much.
  
• Remember, the goal is not to have no stash. (Unless that’s really your goal.) The goal is to have a stash that brings you joy, a stash that doesn’t weigh you down, a stash that fuels your creativity rather than bring you guilt.
  
• The next time you feel guilt over your stash, start all over from the beginning. It doesn’t hurt to weed things out when they no longer feed your soul.
  

If your overall goal is to make your stash manageable again, you will be well on your way.

The key to keeping a manageable stash is not necessarily to eliminate stash altogether, but to be mindful of what you have and why. If you walk into the yarn store with the thought that you’ll just be throwing or giving the yarn away again in six months, will it really be worth it to spend your money on it now?

More often than not, this inner monologue is what saves me hundreds of dollars on yarn each month:

“I’m working on that shawl right now, and I have all the yarn I need. Then I’m going to finish those socks, and I have all the yarn for that. After that, I’ll knit that top, and I have everything I need for that. I do want to run by the yarn store to pick up some yarn for the shawl I want to make after that, but they’ll probably have it next week. Plus, the time I spend driving to and from the yarn store is time I can spend actually knitting. And if the store runs out, I can always order it online. There’s always more where that came from.”

And if all of that isn’t enough to keep me from the yarn store, then that’s fine.

The moment you say “Yes!” to acting on your desire is the real beginning. You just have to know what that desire is.

And there’s always more where that came from. 

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Have you ever had a problem with your spinning or knitting that no one else seemed to have? You searched and searched for an answer and couldn’t find it, only to discover it was so basic, no one talked about it.

Don’t you hate it when that happens?

It happened to me recently with a spinning project. When I started spinning, I had the privilege of working with excellently prepared fiber. Even the stuff “straight from the farm” was incredibly easy to work with. That was perfect, since as a new spinner I had plenty of other things to concentrate on.

For me, the quality of the fiber I used was pure luck. I didn’t know what I was looking for when I bought it – I just happened to purchase fiber that had been really well prepared.

But then, I got adventurous.

I bought two pounds of wool from a coworker’s neighbor, sight unseen. When it arrived, I was in love. So light! So springy! So clean! Surely spinning this wool would be a dream.

When I sat down at the wheel, though, I found that this was the hardest thing I’d ever spun. What were all these little bumps in the roving? No matter how much I fought with the wool, I just couldn’t get a smooth yarn out of it.

What was going on? This dream fiber was quickly turning into a nightmare. 

Like I usually do when faced with a question, I turned to Google. It took some digging for me to finally discover that these bumps were called neps, and that they were best removed by additional carding or combing of the wool. 

Without the equipment (or the patience) to do the extra work, I decided to let the yarn go ahead and be bumpy. It’s a coarser fiber to begin with, so it was going to be a bit “rustic” anyways.

So that you don’t have to do the same kind of digging that I did, here’s what I found:

Neps – these are small collections of entangled, short fibers. These can cause bumps in your handspinning.


Neps were definitely the problem that I had, but it turns out there are all kinds of things you can find in your wool. There's also...

Noils – these are short broken fibers, usually left over during the combing process.

Kemp – coarse, weak, short fibers. They’re often white, even if the wool is naturally a different color. Most are removed from the wool during processing, but are fairly easy to pick out as you’re spinning or knitting. 

Second cuts – these occur during shearing. Ideally, the shearer will get all the wool off in one cut, but sometimes makes a second pass, or handles the shears improperly. This results in a “second cut” – fibers that are shorter than the rest of the fleece.

Vegetable Matter – Bits of hay, seeds, and dirt can get lodged in the fleece. Most of it gets washed and carded out, but these can also cause bumps in your spinning - and they're often scratchy in your final yarn. 

Now, some bumpiness in your spinning can of course be caused by the way you’re drafting, how fast you’re spinning and many other things. But if those aren’t usually problems for you, and you’re fighting with your wool, check it out and see if you have any of these things going on. It might just save you a bit of frustration.

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