Today I exported my Ravelry stash list into an Excel file, and it’s kind of scary! I have at least 56 different yarns right now. Some are on the needles, a couple I’m probably going to try to swap or gift, but man that’s a lot of yarn. I think it’s seriously time for a yarn diet.
At first I thought, ok, I won’t buy any yarn until I use HALF of my stash. But then I thought again, and that seems kind of overly ambitious. I am powerless to the prettiness! So maybe I won’t buy anything until I use up one-third of the stash–that’s about 18 skeins or so. Then I realized, even if I knit, say, a pair of socks per month, it would take me 9 MONTHS to use up 18 skeins. what??!! No new yarn for almost one year?? ok, not a good plan.
Help! What’s a realistic goal here? I’ve never really gone on a yarn diet, and I need guidance! 
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I have a very modest yarn stash. (It probably helps that I’m not a yarn stasher, hehe. Let’s not talk about fiber, though.)
My advice: try knitting projects with the yarn that you already have, stay away from the LYS’s, andd resist the urge to buy yarn just for the sake of buying yarn. If you don’t have yarn for the project you want to knit *right now*, I say by all means, go out and purchase the yarn and cast-on when you get home. But work on the UFO’s marinating in your stash first.
My stash is pretty modest compared to some I’ve seen on Ravelry, but I’m still on a yarn diet. I try to avoid going to my LYS (unless it’s absolutely necessary) and only buy yarn if the opportunity won’t come up again in a while (ie. if I’m on vacation). I follow these rules as a rough guideline, but also have to remind myself that I can’t go too crazy buying sock yarn. Good luck!
Each clapotis in the photo is just striking! I have enjoyed and feared entering my stash into ravelry - and it’s still not done yet (that’s the scary part!). It’s given me new eyes for my stash and what I already have. While I’ve not barred myself from completely buying yarn, I’ve tried to shop from the stash first, and when I do buy yarn it’s for a specific (gift) project or reason (birthday, end of school, sale) Good luck!
Can’t help you hear, I’m such a hoarder.
I have so much sock yarn that I know I’ll never knit them all up, but dang, prettiness = must have.
I’m on a yarn diet, too! I haven’t come up with a way to get through some of it, but I am thinking the only possible exceptions to the diet are:
1) yarn to finish a project that existed before the yarn diet began or
2) yarn that is at a massive discount (because we’re all human and we can’t pass up a sale!)
I just bagged up two paper shopping bags of yarn that I know I’ll never use (random Red Heart skeins) and think I’ll give it to a senior center or something. That made me feel better about it, too.