Okay--I Hate Math

Today someone on the Cold Sheeping thread on Ravelry asked me if I had any idea what my net stash decrease has been after all this Cold Sheeping.  I know from my side tallies that I have knit up 357 balls/skeins/hanks/whatever.  That's sort of the easy part.  BUT, in the 4 years 2 months of Cold Sheeping, there have been "reward purchases" at the end of the year, a few "dang, I ran out of yarn and need more" purchases, the chemo-cap project, gifts, a few I-don't-actually-have-the-right-yarn purchases, and the infamous "I am on pain pills, in pain, feeling sorry for myself, and basically bribing myself to not murder anyone" purchase in November.  So, that isn't a net stash decrease.  I have now gone through my blog, through my Ravelry stash & stash used up tabs, and I think I can say with reasonable accuracy that the stash IN has been 212 balls, so the true NET decrease is 145 balls.  I did donate a big bag of icky acrylic yarns, but did not keep track of that, but there were at least 10 big Red Heart "Super Saver" skeins, so that would make it 155.  Not an astounding amount for 4 years, but part of me is slightly amazed that I have managed ANY net decrease because I couldn't ever manage it before.  There is NO WAY that I will try to figure up how much yarn I added to my stash in a year prior to Cold Sheeping, as I sincerely believe it would be MORE than 145 balls in a single year.  There is math that is simply too painful to do.

Comments

Gaidig said…
When I first did the calculation for my own stash, after reading your post, I came up with 16 balls net, excluding handspun. That was kind of depressing. Then I realized that I hadn't done the math right. I had simply subtracted the balls acquired from the balls I already had when I started, but the truth is that if I acquired them after I started cold sheeping, and I have also used them up, then they simply don't count them at all or I count them as both in and out, not in only. Yikes, I don't know why my math brain malfunctioned so badly. Now that I'm doing it right, the new decrease is 43. Much better. Whew.

In other words, though, my net decrease is about half of what I have knit during this time. This seems to be a fairly similar proportion to yours. However, I think that we can both take heart in the fact that, on the whole, we have gotten better at controlling our exception/reward purchases, so I think that the net stash decrease will keep getting bigger faster in the future.
March 4, 2012 at 3:08 PM
Mandy said…
Well done for achieving any decrease. I must admit that I have not been keeping track of my own stash. Much of the yarn I have had for years has been donated to a knitting group in the village where I live. They were thrilled to have been given so much. I lost count of the balls of wool, but there were around six carrier bags stuffed full.............
I still have quite a lot of yarns of different types. I just don't want to find out how much. Rather cowardly of me.
March 5, 2012 at 4:56 AM
AlisonH said…
Knitting promises to keep, nd miles to go before I sheep, and miles to go before I sheep.
March 5, 2012 at 6:40 PM
RobinH said…
Ah, but you have made progress. Progress is good. Also, I suspect that with all the goal-oriented knitting you are likely also knitting more yarn in any given year. I know that keeping track has done that for me.
March 7, 2012 at 5:35 AM
omly said…
Progress is progress, and you have absolutely had that. Keep up the good work and don't stress too much. :)
March 8, 2012 at 1:40 PM
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