Good Morning. My Name is Kathleen and I’m a Stashaholic...

My mother was extremely good at making pickles, preserves, jams and conserves. From the time first produce started coming up from Dad’s garden or from the local farm stands through the last, she was on a mission to fill up every Mason jar she could get her hands on. It was a beautiful thing to walk into her canning closet and see the row after row of canned tomatoes, home-made sauerkraut, pickles, peppers, relishes and jams.

One day, while we were working on a batch of something she sighed, “I feel like a squirrel sometimes.” I laughed. “Seriously,” she said, “like I’m constantly trying to hoard away enough nuts to get us through the winter. We’re all gonna starve! We’re all gonna starve!” That’s it - it’s here fault!

What IS this obsession with having so much stuff??? I’ve long prided myself on not being particularly acquisitive where contemporary gadgets are concerned. I never feel the urge to run out and buy entertainment or convenience toys - I have no idea what a Tivo even is and I have yet to own a microwave. But when it comes to fabric and fibers...... Lord have mercy.

There is an email that gets passed around the internet from time to time - Twelve Steps for Fabric Aholics - “We admitted we were powerless over fabric, that our stashes had become unmanageable.” It’s humorous but not far from the truth. I have three great stash weaknesses - fabric, yarn, and, incongruently, bath products. I may not have a potato peeler but I have enough bath oil to soothe the dry skin of an entire southern state.

Right now I am trying to organize my fabric stash and clean up my sewing room so I can spend cold winter evenings making pretty things. As I go through the endless packages of fabric I wonder what dreams I held in my brain (ha!) The day I bought this or that piece of fabric. Often times I will buy something just because it is very unique, because I’ve never seen anything like it before and know I can make something very original out of it. My friends are no help! They keep giving me things saying, “I bought this ten years ago and could never decide what to make with it. I know you’ll think of something.”

One friend who used to work for a museum gave me a very small package that contained yards and yards and yards of fabulous silk. She bought it at an auction of Chinese imports in New York and finally decided I could think of something because she couldn’t. A few years ago while in Puerto Plata I discovered a fabric shop that sold 100% silk for an ungodly low price. I wound up having to buy an extra suitcase for my flight home.

These days, intimidated by my fabric stash, I have turned to yarn acquisition instead. It started with eBay. I don’t even want to think about how much money I spent on silk and cashmere and mohair yarns when I discovered what I could buy them for there. Recently I found a vendor who sells 50% angora/50% wool from Russia for a fabulous price. Several packages are on their way to me now.

Knit Picks is no help and recently I discovered Handpainted Yarn. ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!

What is this? Unlike my mother I’m not worried about starving. Actually, starving might be good. Think how great I’d look in silk if I starved over the winter. But it’s that drive to make something beautiful and soft and luscious. It’s an irresistible urge. I see lovely colors, I imagine how those fibers would feel passing through my fingers as I worked on them and - bam! - more stash!

Well, business is good these days and I have a small surplus right now. Maybe my stash is, in some strange way, my measure of accomplishment. Wonder what’s new on eBay.....

Thanks for reading.