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• Stash & Hoarders
• Great Yarn-Giveaway Day
• How I Store Yarn

Great Yarn-Giveaway Day

About three years ago, the Golden Thimble, my favorite yarn shop in Indianapolis, was closing. The two owners were ready to retire, and there were no buyers for the inventory. And there was lots of inventory! The business had been the major yarn supplier for the area for a couple of decades, and there was yarn stored in rafters, basements, sheds and storage buildings, as well as in every room of the home-turned-shop. Every sort of yarn was represented, and great sales were offered. I purchased lots of yarn at 50 percent discounts, and then some more at 60 percent off and made a fool of myself when 70 percent off was the going rate.

There was still more yarn in the building than you can imagine. Because the owners were generous and had a deadline for being out of the shop, they came upon a most generous solution: They had a Great Yarn-Giveaway Day! Steady customers and guild members were notified to bring their own bags and be ready to haul it away. You bet I was there! It was semi-controlled mayhem, but at the end of the day, most of the inventory was gone. I carried home five large trash bags of loot and was thoroughly ashamed of myself. I had become a yarn glutton, and this was proof that I had neither discretion nor scruples. Please note below: These are two separate sofas, each laden beyond capacity with yarn from the Golden Thimble!

I shared with friends who were unable to be there; I gave some to others for community knitting, but I still had a mountain of fiber which needed a home. Before buying the plethora of transparent plastic totes, I steeled myself to do something new: I made an inventory.