Day Thirteen of Gratitude

It’s been a very long day but I am grateful to have accomplished so much in the time.  I’m grateful my husband stayed home today to play mom while I made a trip to Ogden with my oldest.  I’m grateful she and I had some alone time to talk and laugh and sing along with the radio.  I’m grateful she is doing so well and is so willing to help me with my latest huge project.  She kinda had to since I commandeered her room to store the boxes of stuff I re-discovered in the basement and garage, but she’s cool with it and will help me sort and package everything this weekend.  Again, she kinda has to since she needs a way to pay me back for replacing the cell phone she sat on and broke.  That was part of our adventure today, getting lost in construction and managing to get to the phone store twice: once to replace the phone and once to get the phone working properly.

I’m thankful my husband dealt with the after-school drama and got another daughter to volleyball when I wasn’t able to be back in time.  I’m thankful for my Mom and Brother-in-law going to see her play and filling-in for me.  So many people in my family have been so kind and helpful and filled-in for me when I couldn’t do things.  I’m thankful for their willingness to help.

I’m thankful that my husband is being so supportive about me clearing out my stash.  I know he doesn’t really “get” it, but he’s being supportive anyway which is nice.  It’s been over two years since my Grandma passed and I think of all the time people have spent going through her things, sorting and distributing, and we are still working at it.  Since I am the only adult in my extended family that spins, my fiber stash was a top priority for me to go through myself because I remember most of what things are where another person who doesn’t know fiber might not understand the value.  I’m grateful that I can share and help others with it.  I’ve saved out my favorites and things I think I can reasonably get around to doing.  It was nice to get my hands in all that wool again and I look forward to things winding down so I can play with some of it.  I am thankful my Mom gave me my first drop spindle and roving because it has given me so much peace to spin at times when I’ve really needed it.  I’m thankful some of my children seem interested in spinning, too, because I have saved some of the best things for them.

Fiber and Yarn Stash has Reached Critical Mass

Nov 2nd.  I’ve sent out all the yarn/fiber from this de-stash, and judging from emails, most have been received.  If by chance you did not get your package, please send me an email or comment here, otherwise I’ll consider this a completed project.

Thank you all for helping me de-stash my yarn and fiber in a way that also alleviated the guilt by knowing it would be put to good use.  It was hard to have so much stuff I knew I couldn’t use and harder still to find people who knew how to use it.   So thank you all!  As I continue to clean house and go through things, I may come accross another stash, and if I do, I’ll post here on my blog, in twitter, and on Ravelry.  Thank you all again and I wish you well in your creations!

 

Oct 23rd: Wave 3 shipped out today, only a couple people still haven’t responded so those will wait til after Halloween.  Thank you to everyone who has been so patient and awesome.  I think the spinners made off with some good bargains, even after shipping and box costs.  Speaking of which, that was a detail I hadn’t anticipated at the start of this, but I simply did not have enough boxes to ship out over 30 packages so I bought them.  Most people seem to understand, and I thank you.  Some of you paid a little extra for time and gas, and I thank you.  I also want to thank everyone who has helped reduce my stash and my guilt at not being able to use it all.  It feels much better to think it is going to people who will use it.   Thank you, and I wish you all the best!

Oct 22nd: Wave 2 of shipping sent out, everyone should have been emailed pics by now, and I am just waiting on replies with the OK, addresses, and shipping payments.  Again, whatever is not completed by the end of Friday the 23rd will wait until after Halloween, but I would love to wrap this up and be done.

EDIT PLEASE NOTE: Oct 21st  Still working on wave 2 of shipping estimates, and waiting for wave 3 to reply with ZIP codes before I can proceed for them.

Whatever isn’t taken care of by Friday will be pushed until after Halloween.  Sorry, but I am a mom/wife and daughter/sister first, and this project has to come after I take care of everything for family and home.  Thank you for your patience and understanding.

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Oct 20th 7:30pm my time, I sent out the first wave of packages today and if I haven’t sent you an email with a pic yet, you should get yours tomorrow (since some people have passed, it kinda changes things a little down the line).  If you have not yet replied to my email asking for an address or at least a Zip for shipping estimates, please do.  I’d like to have everything shipped and done by Friday if we can.  Thanks for your patience.

Oct 18th 1:30pm my time, If you have not yet received an email from me please leave a new comment. I just want to be sure I haven’t missed anyone.   Also, we have things sorted and I will take them to the post office tomorrow morning to get packaging and weigh them and get prices for shipping.  I will then come home and email pics to you of what I plan to send plus your shipping estimate.  You can then email me back if you want me to remove something and thus reduce shipping or save you from getting something you don’t want.

In the email I will also include my paypal info and my ebay name which you can check to see that I have 100% positive feedback in case you have concerns over the arrangements.  Like ebay, I will ship the items out as I receive payment or as we make arrangement otherwise in private email.  If I were to ship it all and wait for payment, it would cost me over $250 and I can’t afford that right now, sorry.

Does this sound ok to everyone?  I’m trying to keep it as simple and fair as I can manage.   Feel free to comment or email if you have questions or concerns.

Oct 17th 6pm my time, This project is Huge! lol Sorting and taking pictures, emails will be coming, taking longer than I thought. My apologies. I’m working on it.

Oct 16th. I’ll be sorting and taking pics to email to people for their approval today and tomorrow.  Expect emails by Sat evening.   Thank you for your patience since my first job is to be mom and wife, but I do plan to get everything mailed next early next week.

EDIT OCT 14 @7:00pm Mountain Time: Please consider this offer closed to those who have already commented and DM’d me on Twitter.  I’m afraid the person who posted on Ravelry may have misrepresented what and how much I had to share, and it has now been more than spoken for.  I’ll be going through and pairing up who wants what and will be emailing pics for approval.  Thank you all for your interest and I am sorry I cannot give more.

EDIT Oct 14 @ 10:30 Mountain Time: Please consider all yarn spoken for at this point.  Please note if you need roving or can use dyed locks that you can card yourself (I just found 3 more boxes).

OK, here’s the deal.  I love fiber and roving and yarn.  I have accumulated too much to ever use in my lifetime.  Though to be fair, much of it was gifted to me or inherited from my dear grandmas who taught me to knit and crochet and sew.  Maybe I need to seek a 12-step program… nah, I’ll just share it with other people who love fiber, too!

So, as previously announced on twitter, I plan to go through it and give it away.  Here are my terms:

If you are going to use it or resell it, please pay shipping.

If you are going to use your talents to create something to give away to those in need or a charity (or if you’d like it for yourself and really can’t afford shipping), I’ll pay shipping.  EDIT: I’ll pay shipping within the US, talk to me about international and we’ll work something out. (End Edit)

Totally on the honor system here.

I have a smoke-free but cat friendly house, however I do all I can to keep cats away from my yarn and fiber stash, and much has been in storage for a while.

Drop me a DM on Twitter or comment here if you are interested and please give me an idea of your color and fiber choices such as acrylic, blends, wools, what-have-you.

I will try to get pictures up of what’s up for grabs in the next week, so please check back, but I wanted to give people a little more info than Twitter allows.   It’ll be first come, first served, and totally up to  my discretion to limit amounts if need be (first person to DM can’t have dibs on all of it kind of thing).  I don’t want to make this complicated, but I do want the intent to be honored.

EDIT: If you are able to donate to Spirit Jump through one of their paypal widgets for the Charity SmackDown that would be a very cool thank you.

EDIT ^2: You can email me @  pauserefresh@hotmail.com if needed, and as I get the stash pics up and sorted in the next couple days, we can use email for private info.

EDIT/MORE INFO: I have been getting some questions so I hope to clarify.  I am still pulling out boxes and sorting, and hope to have pics posted by Thursday.  What I thought I’d do is send emails with pics, (like choice A, B, or C based on stated preferences), and then if that person passes on one or two, those are up for the next person, if that makes sense.  As for shipping payments, I can only figure those after it’s decided who gets what and I can weigh it.  I hope you all understand.

Also of note is that I do have a lot more dyed locks, not yet carded, than I thought and some unwashed but skirted wool.  There is more wool or roving than yarn.  I do have some handspun yarn, too.  Some of the stash has lost the labels or I’ve forgotten which exact breed of sheep it was from, but I’ll do my best on descriptions, and if needed, I can do a burn test to narrow it down.  ( I think I know my fibers pretty well, though.)

So, I’m thinking I’ll post a few pics so you can all get a better idea of what I have, email out pictures of options for people who have spoken up for them, then proceed down the line, then post pics here of what is left, if any.  We’ll get it worked out.  But first, I need to get through all the stash and I have to play mom, too, so please be patient with me.

This has become huge fast and I admit I didn’t think of all the details when I started, so just be patient with me and we’ll sort it out.

Sample pics of what I had:

Some of the Yarn

Mohair for lustre in the front, dyed corrie cross locks in back, some washed, undyed.

Roving and some handspun yarn.

Right side of the bed with roving and handspun.