Well hello there, friends!

Thank you so much for checking out my first ever blog post! I’m so excited to be sharing with you via this platform – social media is great, but with a blog I feel like I have a chance to share more of me. And isn’t that what you all want?! Maybe?

Ok, ok, jokes aside, I really am thrilled to be able to share more – patterns, product reviews, and just all around fun with yarn! But I want to know, what do you like to see most on a blog? What gets you coming back and anticipating the next blog post? Everyone is different, and I want to make sure there’s something for everyone here.

So, I’m Janine. I’m a crocheter, a Tunisian crocheter, and a really, really new knitter. I love yarn. Like, really love it. I love it so much that I have accumulated a vast amount of it (read on to find out exactly how much – but first, just for fun, make a guess!). But alas, the having is not really what brings me joy – it’s the using of the yarn that fills my heart. And, having grown up without much money, I absolutely hate wasting things or throwing things away. Even giving things away is hard for me sometimes (what if I neeeeeeeed it?). It’s not always rational, but hey, that’s me. And I’m guessing that I’m not the only one out there with a giant yarn stash (a few of you know I’m lookin’ right at you!).

Ok, so we have a lot of yarn (suddenly I’ve roped you into this… just go with it, it’s my first time here!). We look at it, we pet it, we squish it. But when that new sweater pattern comes out, or we get picked to test a pattern for someone, do we use it? Heck no. We go buy more! And I don’t know about you, but there is always guilt when I buy new yarn. Seriously! I think of all that beautiful, colourful goodness sitting there on the shelf, and then I buy the new stuff anyway. Well, I decided that in 2020, I didn’t want to feel the guilt anymore. I felt excited when I bought all the yarn that’s sitting on my shelves, so it’s high time I feel excited to use it.

Have you met Amanda of @browngyrlknits? She started this awesome initiative called StashDown2020. On her Instagram account, she’s posting tips for managing your stash and encouraging everyone to use what we have, using the hashtag #StashDown2020. She’s also got a Ravelry group – check it out HERE.

When I was putting together ideas for getting this blog thing going, I wanted to try to not buy yarn for a year – it would be so cool to document that insanity, wouldn’t it? Of course there would be exceptions, and soon I had a long list of when I could buy yarn – basically defeating the purpose of trying not to buy yarn for one year. When I stumbled across Amanda’s initiative, I saw this:

PHOTO CREDIT: AMANDA SCOTT, @BROWNGYRLKNITS

She laid it all out for us. No ifs ands or buts – these “rules” provide enough structure to feel serious, but they are also very realistic for those genuinely addicted to all that is yarn. And I feel like if I wanted to be serious about this, I needed to keep it simple.

So there we have it, friends! We’re almost through January, and I haven’t bought any yarn – yay me! Although I’ve had some FOMO with a few amazing indie dyer shop updates recently, I haven’t really felt any urges yet, so hopefully January’s $30 budget carries over into February.

So now comes the moment you’ve all been waiting for. My total yardage! This is the yardage I’m starting 2020 with: 100,666.6 yards. HOW DOES THIS EVEN HAPPEN? I know I’m not alone in breaking the 100K mark, but you guys, my mind was freakin’ blown when I tallied up my stash. This is way more than I thought possible, and suddenly the answer to the question, “Is it possible to have too much yarn?” is Sweet Jesus, yes it is!

So today I’m formally kicking off my StashDown2020, and I wanna know – are you looking forward to busting your stash too? If so, keep it tuned here for discussion, tips, tricks and of course patterns all aimed at using whatchya got. Let’s make 2020 the year of stash busting together! Oh, and if you already know of some ideas or patterns to get us started, make sure to share in the comments.

Thanks so much for joining me, friends!