The Stash

I’ve been wanting to write about “stash” for a while: those boxes, drawers, cupboards and bags full of fabrics and threads, half-finished projects, purchasing failures, patterns, kits, books and equipment that accumulate around embroidery and craft people. Stock that we so often find ourselves embarrassed by and apologising for. Creative textile people generate stash. Most of us end up with far more than we can use in lifetime (and still don’t have quite the colour or type of thing we want for the next project).

“I’ve got far too much stuff, I’m sorry!”

Stop apologising for stash. It’s a resource. It’s stock. It’s the educational toy you can play with to learn new things, try out new stitches and techniques. It’s the bits and bobs you can spare to get a child or a friend started on the hobby, or provide just the right thing for someone else’s project. It’s an emergency supply for when you can’t afford or can’t find materials to use. It’s sheer inspiration: textures, colours, weights, combinations: options that you can get to know and that will suggest uses and ideas and become part of your mental toolbox when you design. Riches to be quietly proud of, not some sort of waste that needs using up like kitchen left-overs. With a few exceptions, fabric and threads will stay good and stay usable for a long, long time. Enjoy it, look at it, play with it, learn it.

Okay, we all accumulate stuff that we now know we are not going to use: purchases that didn’t turn out to be what we hoped, unwanted gifts, things that we started and are now sick to death of, projects that Went Horribly Wrong. Pass that stuff on. Someone else might be delighted with your cast-offs. If it’s not good enough to pass on, throw it away. If it’s too valuable to give away but no use to you, sell it. Get rid of the junk and all the things that bring you down to look at them. I know it’s not always easy to part with an unopened kit, or a box of thread that you have spent good money on, especially if money is tight, but if the thing just sits there in the cupboard, glaring at you every time you open the doors, it might as well go. Keep only what might be of use, what inspires you: make your stash an exciting treasure chest, not a depressing chamber of horrors.

“It’s not quite right for that project, but I needed to use it up.”

As well as the apologies for owning a useful stock of stash, there’s this notion that we should strive to use it up swiftly and feel guilty if we don’t. “Stash-busting”, it’s called. Don’t ever feel guilty about not using stash. It can wait its turn. Feel happy if you start a project where a lot, or even all, of the materials can come from stash, that’s a part of its purpose. But I’ve seen unhappy projects where someone has forced unsuitable colours or materials together, just to ‘use up’ stash, and has spent hours working on something that isn’t quite right – they know it isn’t quite right, and it never satisfies. I have done it myself. It’s a false economy. Don’t worry about stash-busting. If something stays in the cupboard as a resource for forty years (and I have some bits that are probably older than that) so be it. Store it well, label it, take needles and pins out of fabrics to prevent rust marks. If you really can’t keep it all any longer, let some go to a new home. Don’t ‘use up’ the wrong thing and make your stitching unhappy.

“I’d love it, but I don’t have an immediate use for it, and I don’t want to add to my stash.”

This is the third one. You get offered materials by a friend or see something at a bargain price and can’t take the opportunity without a sudden rush of stash-guilt. I’m not talking about junk that you don’t want – the stash is a very good excuse to turn that down. I’m talking about good, useful stuff that will improve your stash. Never feel guilty about saying yes to that, even if you have to chuck out a bunch of less worthy things to make room for it. Your stash should become a better resource over time, more valuable and more useful. You don’t have to have an immediate purpose for everything. And do allow yourself to use up some of the treasure for experimenting, playing, trying-out. So that when you finally have the right project in mind for it you will know how to use it to best effect. In fact, when you know how to use it well, the right project might come to your mind of its own accord.

So here are three new responses for you to try:
“I’ve got a great stash here, it’s an endless source of inspiration and learning materials. Come and look!”
“I raid my stash for projects, but only if I have exactly what I need. I never worry about keeping things.”
“I’m always looking to improve my stash, and to make it more valuable to me.”

No more stash-guilt, no more apologies. Okay? Happy stitching.

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